7 Answers
Kerstin Torgler
Head of Sustainability Reporting, Zurich Insurance Company Ltd
Amir Sajjadi
ESG Reporting Manager, Syngenta Group
1. The theme of this issue is “Focus –Simplification – Dialogue”. Where do you see this triad in your business context?
Kerstin Torgler: Reporting should focus on the essentials, providing a strong foundation to discuss how to solve issues. Simply adding more reporting does not provide a solution to the challenges we are facing as a society. Reporting can help but just more reporting will not provide a solution.
Amir Sajjadi: This triad is integral to our ESG strategy. Focus allows us to prioritize our most material impacts and concentrate on what truly matters. Simplification helps us to streamline the reporting processes, making our disclosure more accessible and useful for decisions. Dialogue fosters continuous engagement with our stakeholders, ensuring their insights and perspectives are incorporated into our decisionmaking process.
2. Regarding your reporting: where do you think simplification is necessary?
Kerstin Torgler: Simplification is required on one hand to focus on the relevant KPIs, but also increasingly to provide the rationale of the development of the KPIs in a simple way.
Amir Sajjadi: Simplification is just as much about streamlining the many reports we issue as it is about improving efficiency and clarity. With the growing number of ESG frameworks and regulatory requirements, ensuring alignment while avoiding duplication is a growing challenge. To address this, we focus on three key areas:
Aligning internal processes to efficiently meet multiple reporting requirements without duplication.
Simplifying internal reporting tools, leveraging technology, and establishing well-defined ESG governance to enhance reporting accuracy and efficiency.
Developing a well-structured and easy-to-navigate report to help stakeholders find relevant information more efficiently.
3. What makes a good dialog for you?
Kerstin Torgler: Always agreeing with each other can be boring sometimes. Having different opinions and challenging the status quo makes it more interesting. Further, having a diverse team with different mindsets, opinions and strengths often results in better performance and it accelerates the creation of new solutions.
Amir Sajjadi: A good dialog is a regular and ongoing engagement rather than a one-off interaction. Clear and fact-based communication builds credibility and fosters mutual understanding and trust among stakeholders.
4. How do you manage the increasing requirements for data in parallel with your strategic focus?
Kerstin Torgler: Based on my finance background, I see the data as the basis to steer and also set the strategic agenda. Therefore, the data is a requirement to base decisions on and with the increasing needs it is important to have reliable data available.
Amir Sajjadi: A clear focus on material topics ensures that reporting remains relevant and supports strategic decision- making. We are implementing a new operating model to streamline our data collection and reporting processes and leverage technology for increased accuracy and efficiency.
5. What do you expect from the use of AI in data management and reporting?
Kerstin Torgler: I hope to see more AI solutions implemented in reporting in the future. There is still too much manual intervention in some of the reporting tasks, which could be significantly simplified. I see a high potential in AI, but so far, the concrete use cases are limited.
Amir Sajjadi: AI has the potential to transform data management and reporting by increasing efficiency and data accuracy. It can help in structuring and refining report narratives to address the needs of different audiences while ensuring consistency and alignment with the ESG frameworks.
6. What do you expect sustainability reporting to look like in the coming years?
Kerstin Torgler: I expect it to converge even more towards financial reporting requirements. Looking further ahead, we should see corporate reporting which includes financial and non-financial reporting. For example, employees are key to financial results, and how you are exposed to and deal with climate change could have an impact on your balance sheet, so all of these aspects should be addressed in the same report, rather than in different, standalone reports.
Amir Sajjadi: We see a shift from voluntary to mandatory reporting. This will likely lead to more standardized reporting and more stringent external verification.
7. When and how (printed, online) do you read the Reporting Times?
Kerstin Torgler: Mainly online to be more environmentally friendly – and I use the lunch break to see what is in it.
Amir Sajjadi: I typically read the Reporting Times online as it allows me to access it on the go and easily navigate between topics.