Strategic CFO 360 – Special Report: CFOs Prepare For ESG Reporting

At Ameresco, CFO Doran Hole recently released the public company’s inaugural Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance report, reflecting the renewable energy company’s ESG practices pertaining to its business and operations, employee engagement, health and safety and corporate responsibility. Like many CFOs, Hole was called to take “a leading role in all of this,” he said.

By “all of this,” the veteran sustainable energy sector CFO is referring to the exploding need for companies to communicate their ESG risks and opportunities to investors, which have elevated ESG to a level of importance not seen in a disclosure context since the early days of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance. On the horizon: the growing possibility that ESG metrics will need to be reported in the financial statement much like other written records of a company’s financial condition.

“The reason CFOs need to lead when it comes to ESG disclosure and reporting is those two words,” said Hole. “Who thinks more about these subjects all the time other than a CFO? The skill sets and capabilities to orchestrate proper analysis, disclosure and reporting of ESG metrics sits in the CFO office, just as it does with respect to [complying with] accounting standards.”

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