Sustainability Office as a Service
What is Sustainability Office as a Service (SOaaS)?
For many organisations, a full-time sustainability manager or team may not be the right fit to meet their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals or and emerging requirements. Our Sustainability Office as a Service (SOaaS) provides a dynamic, flexible solution. It offers a standalone support service that crafts and executes strategies tailored to an organisation’s needs.
Our SOaaS platform supports companies to embed sustainability considerations and allows you to:
access a team of market-leading sustainability specialists, along with our network of industry bodies, alliance partners and investor networks
access fit-for-purpose digital technologies and PwC proprietary tools, including those from partner organisations and software specific to your organisation and industry
identify cost-saving, revenue-generating, grants and other incentive schemes
actively build the knowledge base, skills and capacity of your workforce
gain insights and benchmarking from a growing range of companies
Why is it important?
Today, ESG considerations are central to every facet of an organisation’s operations. The conversation has shifted from whether your organisation should embrace sustainability to how do it effectively.
Companies that proactively address their ESG risks can transition beyond protecting value to genuine value creation by embedding sustainability into their core business strategies.
| E | Climate-related risks, including energy costs, permeate all areas of business. SOaaS empowers you to manage these risks through a commercial lens. |
| S | A company’s treatment of people—whether inside or outside the business—is a material business issue. SOaaS provides you with up-to-date insights on emerging trends and evolving regulations. |
| G | How privately-held companies oversee ESG risks and ensure appropriate action is often more directly linked to the bottom line than for publicly listed corporations, contrary to perception. |
How ESG affects privately-held businesses
Capital markets are drivers of ESG
Investors and capital markets are using ESG criteria to evaluate future earnings potential and creditworthiness.
Everyday cost of energy transition
The transition to green energy sources may see sporadic supply issues and ongoing price volatility, impacting operational costs structures.
Rapidly evolving regulations
The pace of regulation and evolving reporting standards is accelerating, impacting organisations across entire value chains and necessitating proactive compliance strategies.
Employee engagement and retention
As more employees prioritise purpose-driven work, importance is being placed on working with companies that embody strong and clear values.
Reconfiguring trade and globalisation
Increasing sovereign risks leads to increased uncertainty and volatility in international markets. This can be compounded by the exercise of trade powers which can influence global supply chains, thereby demanding greater business agility.
Secondary impacts on partnerships and suppliers
Major corporations are increasingly expecting their partners and suppliers to meet ESG standards.
Here’s how SOaaS can help
Working with us means knowing your ESG needs are being managed expertly and sensibly.
Depending on your needs, we can be a standalone function or supplement, coach and integrate with an existing team. No matter what stage of the lifecycle your business is in—start-up or mature business—we can provide valuable support, experience, insights and access to our global PwC network of genuine ESG experts.
The four modules below in our SOaaS are specifically designed to help you at any stage in your ESG process.
- ESG baselining and benchmarking:
- An assessment of your internal organisational ESG ecosystem, including benchmarking against peer organisations and relevant indices.
- Materiality assessment:
- Identification of material issues and risks, validated through stakeholder engagement, aligning findings with frameworks and your core business objectives.
- Ambition and priorities:
- Establishment of a high-level strategic vision that aligns with your organisational purpose and prioritised material ESG focus areas.
- Output:
- An assessment of your organisation’s current sustainability state, the development of an ESG strategy framework along with an indicative implementation roadmap.
- Data and performance:
- Identification of ESG data sources and analysis related to material ESG priority areas.
- Sustainability targets and measurement:
- Identification of measurable targets aligned with business purpose.
- Strategic improvement opportunities:
- Development of a pathway for enhancing operational sustainability, including timelines and milestones.
- Output:
- An ESG strategy with clear initiatives to achieve sustainability outcomes, along with metrics for performance measurement.
- Governance and operating model integration:
- Development of a new integrated functional model that encompasses process and cultural change, alongside the allocation of decision-making responsibilities and governance duties.
- Communication, culture and education:
- Formulation of a clear narrative to drive cultural transformation, coupled with initiatives for upskilling employees.
- Integration into policies, procedures and processes:
- Incorporation of the ESG strategy into the broader organisational framework and operational practices.
- Output:
- A targeted implementation plan, complete with recommendations that address a range of systems, organisational structures and cultural needs.
- Monitoring progress:
- Implementation of an internal ESG dashboard for target tracking and progress commentary.
- Reporting:
- Development of an ESG reporting framework that ensures compliance with desired standards and based on stakeholder needs.
- Subject matter expert insights and continuous improvement:
- Delivery of an annual progress report that includes insights and opportunities for enhancement, alongside verification of ESG compliance against established standards.
- Output:
- Consolidated data sets to track your ESG ambitions and targets, supplemented with guidance for reporting and ongoing insights and upskilling initiatives.
Explore related case studies
- Transportation company
- Palm oil company
- Infrastructure company
Transportation company
The client, a transportation company, wanted to improve their ESG policies and processes. Being new to this area, the client did not yet have the internal capacity to undertake any ESG or sustainability tasks effectively. We proposed our SOaaS on a retainer basis to the client, allowing them to leverage our expertise, skills and staff capacity to undertake any work on an ad-hoc basis.
The initial retainer was established for 12 months, with the objective of upskilling their internal team to handle more tasks independently in the future. As a testament to the success, the client has opted to extend our retainer for an additional 12 months, as their ESG requirements have grown increasingly complex.
Palm oil company
We conducted an initial materiality assessment review for the client to review their current processes and benchmarked them against their peers to identify areas for improvement. We developed recommendations, sustainability policies and practices for the client to implement over the next 12 to 18 months. Recognising the client’s resource limitations and lack of ESG expertise, we proposed our a SOaaS for the following financial year to help them in navigating their transformation journey and updating their internal policies.
Infrastructure company
The client was required to provide some ESG information and reporting for their customers, as they are mandated by law in their respective countries to provide data on their suppliers. The client lacked sufficient resources, both in terms of personnel and expertise, to undertake this task and analyse the required data.
We proposed our SOaaS to assist the client with this on a retainer basis for 12 months to assist with data collation, analysis and preparation for submission to their customers. We also established internal policies and processes while facilitating knowledge transfer. This empowered the client’s internal team to manage ESG tasks independently in the future.
