Lawrence Heim joins the podcast to discuss PracticalESG, the CCRcorp-run blog working to provide ESG information in bite-sized pieces, SEC’s proposed framework and its contents, the processes of regularizing standards, and what organizations must do to ensure accurate tracking and reporting.
▶️ Practical ESG with Lawrence Heim:
Key points discussed in the episode:
✔️ Practical ESG receives tons of positive feedback and aims to cut through the fluff and marketing.
✔️ With an expert advisory board, PracticalESG has had in-depth contributions on climate issues, investor perspectives, corporate culture, and how they all relate to a successful ESG program.
✔️ Just recently, the ISSB has made public a new multi-jurisdictional working group of regulatory agencies in the accounting and securities arenas for a number of countries.
✔️ Convergence is the process of establishing standards as regulatory. When IFRS adopts a standard, it isn’t automatically established as regulatory. Countries must go through legal and administrative processes to make them enforceable. FASB is responsible for this function in US jurisdiction.
✔️ The SEC’s proposed framework has three scopes: direct emissions, third-party emissions, and supply chain emissions.
✔️ Lawrence Heim notes a potential misunderstanding in the SEC proposal: CO2 emissions reporting by companies to EPA is limited to operations that emit 25,000 tons of CO2 annually – either directly from their locations or as a result of third-party combustion of the products manufactured (such as gasoline). EPA’s CO2 emissions reporting will not ease the proposed SEC emissions calculation burden for companies that are below the EPA threshold.
✔️ Manage and track responses to information requests in your organization. With receptionists, monitor how they reply to more technical questions and equip them with the right tools and know-how.
Lawrence Heim is the Editor of CCRCorp’s ESG platform, PracticalESG.com, where he shares insights based on over 35 years of supporting companies in environmental, health & safety compliance and management. He’s led various types of non-financial audits, designed corrective action programs and helped implement sustainability programs. He spent nearly a decade in-house at a Fortune 150 manufacturer and went on to help create the Global Environmental Risk Consulting Practice at Marsh USA. Later, Lawrence founded & led the Sustainability practice at Elm Consulting Group, and most recently, he led the development of supply chain due diligence standards at the Responsible Business Alliance/Responsible Minerals Initiative. When the SEC’s conflict minerals rules were under consideration, Lawrence was the only non-financial auditor selected to give testimony to the Commission. In 2018, he published the book “Killing Sustainability.” Lawrence also sits on the board of ASSET, a non-profit anti-slavery organization.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you have a podcast (or do you want to)? Join the only network dedicated to compliance, risk management, and business ethics, the Compliance Podcast Network. For more information, contact Tom Fox at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.