Integrate2033 has created a working group (the IWG) to aggregate, synthesize and recommend the set of CFO best practices for ESG focused risk assessment, decisioning and integrated reporting. Our objective is to help CFOs transform the role of finance within organizations and integrate the C-Suite through the lens of ESG. Over the next 4 months the IWG will complete an RFP so that technology and service providers will understand the integrated requirements and create an open process that links technologies to a core set of solutions. To learn more about the IWG and the RFP please click on the link. 

We are at a tipping point in human history where leaders are beginning to understand that business should and can be a force for good. Yes, we face many challenges related to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) climate change, depletion of natural resources, and destabilizing social inequities, and the socio-economic implications are globally serious. Yet, we now know that Business is in the unique position to solve these problems through creative, co-collaborative innovation. Many leaders today see the necessity of tackling these issues head-on in order to create a globally regenerative economic future. And, we see the ‘office of the CFO’ as central to making this shift happen by understanding submerged risk, creating balanced, multi-stakeholder business models and decisioning systems, and by presenting integrated, comprehensive reporting to the world. In essence, a new, comprehensive anticipatory governance model, for which the CFO is ultimately responsible.

It is with this mindset that Integrate2033 created the Integrate Working Group (IWG); a 17 person, 2 year long task-force designed to aggregate, synthesize and recommend the set of CFO best practices for ESG focused risk assessment, decisioning and integrated reporting. Our objective is to help CFOs transform the role of finance within organizations and integrate the C-Suite through the lens of ESG risk, investment, innovation, and reporting. The work of the IWG is to coalesce integrated decisioning frameworks, evaluate best-in-class corporate governance models, and assess integrated and comprehensive reporting solutions.

At Integrate 2020 on November 10, 2020 the IWG will present the initial synopsis of our findings including creating a comprehensive RFP process that ESG oriented technology solutions providers will be asked to bid on in early 2021. Further, three IWG members will lead Integrate 2020’s Demo Day, held on Wednesday, November 11, 2020, where ESG centric technology solutions providers and consultancies will present their offerings to all Integrate 2020 attendees. IWG members will moderate Q&A for the demo sessions.

Structure of the RFP Framework

Context:  There are a cacophony of tools, frameworks, solutions and groups addressing ESG issues, including, but not limited to the myriad of people and organizations working on the 17 SDGs. So many that CFOs find themselves inside a maze of information and data so interdependent and complicated that it is extremely difficult to know what to do or which way to turn for best practices and guidance. 

Purpose:  The purpose and mission of the IWG is to be a catalyst to synthesize and codify these new approaches and to equip CFO’s as to how best to operate under these new conditions. The IWG will not to recreate existing ‘ESG related solutions’, but rather to synthesize existing bodies of ESG work in decision and reporting systems, address missing elements, mitigate the current myriad of incomplete and inconsistent ESG rating protocols, with the primary mission to define a new ‘governance’ model that CFOs can use for internal decision making, scenario planning, risk assessment and integrated external reporting.

Process:  The IWG brings together renowned industry experts in the areas of finance, accounting, legal, academia, and governance, in order to establish the credibility necessary to set forth recommendations for CFOs. The IWG is designed to synthesize existing bodies of work, academic and commercial, that identify and integrate the myriad of inconsistent solutions and frameworks in the market. The IWG will not develop new frameworks. 

Goal:  To empower CFO’s and Finance Professionals to adopt and report to a new corporate governance model that includes ESG that can be used for internal decision making, scenario planning, risk assessment and integrated external reporting. 

The Approach to Design the RFP:  The IWG is divided into three groups: A) Internal Decision Making Systems and Approaches, B) Integrated External Reporting, and C) Technology Systems and Solutions. The first few months were spent assessing the current state of the market in terms of what presently exists. The next few months was assessing the common needs, across industries, and then looking at the gaps that exist. The final step is to bring those two processes together and create a comprehensive RFP in early 2021.

Integrated Structure:  We are synthesizing existing models to place in a repository for CFOs and other C-Suite executives. With our goal of creating a regenerative future, our structural approach is to use the framework [see diagram] that integrates ESG and Planet, People, Prosperity, then framing the six capitals as structural beams that become the lattice that supports ESG related investment and innovation. Furthermore, the SDGs map perfectly with E-S-G and so it all comes together within a common understanding that can then be expanded to any industry sector or group.

Timing:

• This RFP Framework will be available on October 10, 2020.

• The Draft RFP structure will be available on November 11, 2020.

• Solution Provider Demo Day on November 11, 2020 at the Integrate 2020 conference.

  • Demo current capabilities

  • How will you solve current gaps

  • Q&A with the IWG

• The Final RFP will be ready to go by Jan 29, 2021

• Responses due to the IWG on or before March 26, 2021.

• IWG commentary and questions delivered back to Solution Providers by May 28, 2021.

• Final responses due to the IWG by July 30, 2021.

• RFP awarded to numerous Solutions and Service Providers on September 24, 2021.

• Presentation at INTEGRATE2021 in November 2021.

Inputs:

• Align with common ESG frameworks and initiatives.

• Alleviate the need for internal teams to keep up with, and stay current on, emerging frameworks and/or new methodologies.

• Streamlining processes and improving efficiency.

• Integrate with systematic approaches being developed by organizations such as the AICPA, GRI, IMA, SASB, A4S, etc.

• Ability to price externalities, such as carbon, into internal decisioning models.

• Influence strategy, policy and business planning through and ESG lens.

• Methods to increase the understanding of risk, including sub-merged risk.

• Be able to engage across multiple stakeholder groups.

• Understanding of multi-stakeholder business models and decision making.

• Understand the link between financial and non-financial performance.

• Robust processes and methods to levels of ‘assurance.’

• Open-source development, with very little proprietary systems level code.

Outputs:

• Integration into the financial statements:

  • Income Statement

  • Balance Sheet

  • Cash Flow

• Multi-Capitals Reporting.

• Integrated Report - Investor Relations/Quarterly Analyst calls.

• Human Resources - Employee Engagement Ratios.

• Creation of scorecards and dashboards.

• Report against business specific ESG metrics: aggregate and granular.

• Align with common ESG frameworks and other voluntary initiatives.

• Benchmark comparisons with others in like industries

IT and Data:

• An integrated data model and schema.

• Ability to leverage Blockchain technology.

• Integrate data from existing systems.

• Allow for data file uploads and manual data entry capabilities.

• Data exporting.

• Systems level security, including GDPR compliance.

• Leverage good technology standards practices in development, integrations, security protocols, architecture, and delivery.

• Allow roles based, application defined access to different user levels. 

• Well-defined security practices.

• Adaptable UX/CX/UI that can be used on desktop and mobile devices.

• Cloud-based system that is performant and capable at scale. 

• High-grade backup and disaster recovery system and processes.

• World-class customer support mechanisms.