Investing in environmental and business success

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations are a top priority for CFOs, CEOs, and boards of directors, and will only increase in importance. New regulations, like proposed ESG disclosure requirements as set forth by the SEC, sustainability standards, and evolving cultural norms around the globe add to the complexity by pushing leaders to take action now. Investor expectations for companies to drive ESG initiatives is driving demand for sustainability linked issuances. S&P expects sustainability-linked bonds to be the fastest growing segment of the market with continued growth of social and sustainability bonds’ diversification into new projects. Environmental considerations must be embedded in almost every business decision.

Integrating environmental and equitability factors into business decision-making is a challenge for organizational leaders, spanning a wide range of stakeholders and disciplines. You must understand and translate a company’s environmental objectives into operational plans, and then infer the growth, margin, and capital implications.

There are numerous challenges as we emerge from a global pandemic in a more volatile market than before, with significant shifts in employee and social demands, supply chain constraints and recently the conflict in Ukraine. It’s a balancing act with all the other priorities of the business.

The stakeholders involved in making and planning these investment decisions span every function of the business. Making these decisions, assessing their ripple effect across the business’ performance and operations, and planning the eventual impact requires a broad and deep command across many disciplines. It’s important to recognize how all parts of the company are interrelated, and be able to analyze the financial and ESG tradeoffs and scenario impact for various outcomes.

In short, the ESG investment decision is very well suited for Connected Planning.

True expertise on a wide range of ESG topics is scarcer than it should be, particularly given the pressing environmental and social challenges our society faces. That’s why, at Anaplan, when we looked at how our platform can be leveraged to make better ESG decisions, we first looked to the ESG experts in our world-class and extensive partner community.

In response, we have launched a new program with our partner Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to help you focus on ESG efforts called ESGplan. ESGplan is a holistic end-to-end solution embedding ESG strategy into enterprise planning, and can be tailored to industry, business, and organizational ambitions. ESGplan serves as a platform for effective strategy development and implementation and scenario-based risk management, as well as monitoring and reporting. The platform can be used as a starting point for an enterprise just beginning an ESG implementation journey or, for those well underway with their ESG plans, a way to consolidate efforts across the organization.

Three other Anaplan partners have developed or are developing ESG solutions on the Anaplan platform because they, too, saw the potential of a connected approach for shifting the thinking about environmental investment and decision-making.

Our other partners putting the spotlight on ESG:

• Deloitte Consulting
• Point B
• Spaulding Ridge

Earth Day is a fantastic reminder of how we need to make our environment a consideration in every decision we make. And the 2022 theme was fitting: Invest in our Planet. The environmental investment challenge is complex, but the solution doesn’t have to be. Join your peers and learn how our partners and customers are already using Anaplan to make better environmental investment decisions and do their part to drive us all toward a better future.