The evolving role of CFOs in a company’s sustainable future

Today’s corporate chief financial officers (CFOs) often encounter a variety of complex challenges that require a combination of financial acumen, strategic insight, and proficient risk management. All of this must be done amid an increasingly risky landscape characterized by sudden changes in geopolitics, supply chains, and public policies. The complex role of the CFO requires these officers to navigate intricate business landscapes and evolving financial regulations.

Further, sustainability as part of the risk and regulatory environment is a new reality for CFOs. No longer a peripheral concern, environmental, social & governance (ESG) factors are now central to corporate strategy, impacting everything from investment decisions to financial reporting. For example, more than one-third (37%) of CFOs say climate change is a serious or moderate risk for their companies, according to a survey conducted by PwC.

This shift has placed CFOs in a unique position, demanding they navigate new challenges and leverage opportunities presented by this evolving landscape.

Centering data quality amid a regulatory labyrinth

One of the most pressing concerns for CFOs today is the constantly evolving web of ESG regulations. With various frameworks and reporting requirements emerging globally, ensuring data quality and consistency is paramount, according to Brad Sparks, Executive Director of Accounting for Sustainability, a United Kingdom-based foundation that works toward creating more resilient business models and a more sustainable economy. More specifically, Sparks said that CFOs are particularly concerned with:

• • • Meeting regulatory requirements— A key challenge for CFOs lies in guaranteeing that the ESG data collected is robust and reliable enough to meet the stringent demands of regulatory bodies. This includes ensuring that the data is complete, consistent, and timely.
    • Establishing internal controls— Robust internal data control mechanisms are essential not just for accurate external reporting, but also for making informed internal reports to management to aid in decision-making.
    • Harmonizing reporting standards— For multinational companies, navigating a fragmented landscape of reporting standards across different jurisdictions and customer demands presents a significant challenge. Many CFOs are eagerly awaiting the harmonization promised by bodies like the International Sustainability Standards Board that will allow CFOs and their companies to move beyond the current alphabet soup of voluntary disclosure standards.

Building sustainability into the capital allocation & investment process

As companies commit to ambitious net-zero and other sustainability targets, effectively evaluating capital investments becomes crucial. However, aligning capital allocation with these goals presents its own set of challenges, says Sparks, which include:

• • • Bridging the knowledge gap— A significant hurdle is the lack of understanding within finance and accounting teams about the company’s sustainability goals and the potential impact of capital investments on these goals.
    • Valuing sustainability— Quantifying and incorporating sustainability-related factors into traditional financial models can be difficult. Unlike tangible financial metrics, ESG factors often involve less quantifiable elements, requiring innovative approaches to valuation. For example, factors such as tax incentives, credits, and financial assistance awards should be key inputs in the decision-making process for specific projects because those factors can affect how much a project will cost, its optimal location, and the potential return on investment.

To overcome these challenges, fostering collaboration between sustainability and finance teams is necessary so that, jointly, these teams can develop a shared understanding. Moreover, finance teams need to be educated about the company’s sustainability targets and their implications for investment decisions.

In addition, teams must collaborate to explore ways to quantify or monetize sustainability factors, even if it involves developing qualitative measures in places where traditional metrics fall short. The Stern School at New York University’s Return on Sustainability Investment methodology is an excellent starting place to demonstrate how sustainable business is good business.

Embedding sustainability into a company’s DNA

Integrating sustainability goes beyond simply checking boxes; it requires embedding ESG principles into the very fabric of an organization’s operations, strategy, and business models. To start, Sparks suggests that CFOs need to work closely with their companies’ boards of directors and audit committees, providing those groups with a clear understanding of how sustainability impacts organizations’ overall strategy and disclosure requirements. “This ensures buy-in from the top and fosters a culture of accountability,” Sparks adds.

One noteworthy development over the last 24 months is the establishment of the position of ESG or sustainability controller. These are typically new positions, responsible for ESG data management, with the individuals in these roles often coming from finance and accounting teams.

Indeed, ESG controllers assist in building sustainability into core company operations, strategy, and business models through an integrated approach that involves various financial workflows and operations. Key areas of focus include establishing a robust ESG data management system, integrating sustainability into capital allocation, and expanding the lens through which capital decisions are made to include the sustainability perspective. One example of the latter is the CFO Leadership Network’s CAPEX Essential Guide, which suggests altering capital expenditures (capex) forms to align sustainability with the company’s long-term strategic focus. This can be done, the Guide suggests, by demonstrating how potential investments improve environmental and social impacts while listing how risks can be avoided by undertaking the project.

To this end, companies can take advantage of technology, such as geospatial analytics, natural language processing, and data analytics to optimize sustainability investments and strategies to reduce their carbon footprint, identify decarbonization opportunities by location, and then map those efforts to available tax and financial assistance incentives. By leveraging data and technology, companies can gain new insights into their operations which can potentially lead to more informed action and the identification of competitive advantages and growth opportunities.

CFOs are facing significant challenges and opportunities as they navigate the complex landscape of sustainability. By understanding the key concerns and challenges, CFOs can take a proactive approach to integrating sustainability into their company’s operations, strategy, and business models, ultimately driving long-term value creation for their company, its stakeholders and the environment overall.

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For more on the challenges that CFOs face, which were discussed at the recent Thomson Reuters Institute’s 23rd Annual Law Firm COO & CFO Forum, click here.