The ESIndex® Method resolves one of the challenges of today’s businesses. Indeed sustainability today represents the natural horizon for companies wanting to be competitive and resilient. Especially in the post-Covid world. Adopting embedded sustainability as a strategic line allows the company to better manage risks. This means minimizing the impact of negative ones and maximizing the opportunities in its operating context. Pressure due to climate change and the growing interest from investors and clients push irresistibly in such direction. As we have seen in previous articles, there are numerous and substantial benefits for a company embedding sustainability in its processes and decisions. They range from the ease of raising capital, to better economic results, to higher innovation rates and so on.
Such integration is not always easy, however, because it involves considering a wide variety of factors and balancing them carefully. For this reason, a group of entrepreneurs, managers and experts in the field created the project which led to the birth of Exsulting a few years ago. We wanted to offer to companies a specific solution for this difficulty and help them overcome it.
The result of that work is our Embedded Sustainability Index®. The ESIndex® Method provides an easy to use tool for the company, a safe guide on the path towards sustainability, a method to continuously improve its results and its market positioning.
What is the ESIndex® Method and what is it for
ESIndex® is a business intelligence tool that helps you know at a glance how profitably your company is using sustainability to manage uncertainty effectively and improve its business results.
In addition, ESIndex® is also an effective guide to design and measure the next steps on the company’s path to continuous improvement in economic, social and environmental performance. Let’s see some of its peculiar aspects.
Firstly, ESIndex® acts as a corporate risk assessment system, helping management to identify the main areas of uncertainty, giving them an appropriate weight.
Secondly, ESIndex® provides a set of “leading indicators”, i.e. indicators of the future, which indicate strengths, weaknesses and priorities for action in order to successfully move towards greater sustainability in its three dimensions. In this respect, the Index works as a “performance framework”, such as the EFQM system.
The dual nature of ESIndex® represents one of its main added values and a uniqueness in the field of sustainability ratings.
The premises and philosophy
ESIndex® was born as a tool for entrepreneurs and managers, with the awareness that such people have little time, enormous responsibilities and need a broad vision to make important decisions continuously. Their organizations operate in complex contexts, continuously variable and in which not all the factors of the “game” can be known or controlled, therefore in conditions of continuous and changing uncertainty.
Therefore it was necessary that the tool was very synthetic, clearly understandable at a glance and that the transition from the phase of evaluation of the current state to that of action to improve business results was simple and intuitive. In addition, it was desired that the implementation of the tool could be taken over by the company as part of daily process management without bringing additional workloads to staff and management.
Rooted in ISO
For these reasons, the ESIndex® application process is based on well-known and internationally proven benchmarks such as ISO standards and guidelines. The reference to the common structure of all ISO standards at each step of the Index path allows management to integrate sustainability management into the ordinary management of the company’s processes without further effort.
At the same time, the reference to the ISO 26000:2010 Guidelines and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals ensures that business management by the ESIndex® Method is aligned with the main international standards on Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility. As a consequence this also provides the best image and effective communication with stakeholders and markets.
Simple and progressive
All this while remaining a simple and progressive application tool according to the needs of the company. In fact, its 36 Factors remain the same in every phase of the process of accompanying the company, while deepening their analysis. This allows a high level of understanding and transparency of the improvement process to be maintained.
As a result, the company’s management gradually develops a great awareness of the path towards sustainability, becoming autonomous, highly motivated and results-oriented. Outcomes of the process are easily measured on the 36 KPIs made up of by ESIndex® Factors.
ESIndex® Method’s benefits
Adopting ESIndex® as a tool to leverage the benefits of corporate sustainability brings advantages to a multitude of stakeholders:
- Investors can quickly learn about the reliability of the company and the quality of their investment;
- Management can quickly define priorities for action to use sustainability to improve results;
- Management can know in depth the areas of strength and weakness of the company, for realistic and effective planning;
- Product and process designers have clear guidelines to guide their work according to the company’s sustainability objectives;
- Process managers obtain measurable KPIs to assess progress and obstacles to achieving objectives;
- Controllers and communication people quickly obtain the meaningful data needed for proper reporting;
- The company’s customers effectively orient themselves in their purchasing decisions, having a unique indicator of their supplier’s sustainability.
Further motives to choose the ESIndex® Method
ESIndex® is unique in the wide range of corporate sustainability assessment tools. This is due to its multiple nature as an assessment tool, as an indicator of priority policies and practices and as a guideline for continuous performance improvement processes.
It is commonly chosen because it:
- Is easy to understand and use;
- Integrates easily with the management systems normally used by the firm, requiring no effort to adapt or implement new procedures;
- Allows an immediate cross-sector benchmark with other firms thanks to its unique indicator number;
- Integrates major international sustainability standards (e.g. ISO 26000:2010, SDG, GRI, IR), facilitating reporting and adherence and well known formats;
- Is extremely cost-effective due to its partly web-based structure and its original algorithms that allow deep analysis quickly and effectively.
Making your business sustainable is a necessity for many people today. If you also want to improve the sustainability of your company or start this process, take advantage of our free tool!
