Role of GRC in achieving ESG

In a recent study, conducted by a leading research provider, 83% of consumers and 86% of employers favored enterprises supporting the best Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices. However, today they need to go beyond ESG and ensure stringent Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) to build resilience and sustainability and stay ahead of the competition.

It is important to note that GRC constitutes the Governance in ESG mandates of enterprises. The GRC process is as follows:

Learn: Enterprises must chart and demarcate responsibilities, reporting requirements, and relationships between their internal and external stakeholders. While external stakeholders include vendors, regulators, consumers, and other influencers, the internal stakeholders comprise executives and employees.

Align: This involves establishing an ESG committee with proper authoritative roles. Objectives, risks, goals, and actions for better governance are then clearly defined and allocated among corresponding members.

Perform: This stage defines actionable goals and measures to put into the operational phase. It also includes incentives for successful feats while appropriate action and response in case of failure.

Review: Periodic assessments are conducted, and based on that, necessary changes are made to the GRC goals and actions. How well has the enterprise fared so far? What kind of changes can be introduced? Are there new points of view or novel approaches that can be considered? Enterprises can continually improve their performance and operations by upgrading GRC frameworks.

Growing data security and privacy awareness are vital to the accelerated adoption of ESG infrastructure and policies. This has led to 'trust’ becoming a critical business imperative, which is seen as a bridge between GRC and ESG policies. As a result, enterprises have slowly started implementing systems that integrate business systems and compliance strategies. This is done by launching Artificial intelligence capabilities that can shape innovations with transparency, privacy, and protection.

It is also important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for every GRC or ESG demand. It takes a typically collaborative effort involving internal and external stakeholders who strictly follow policies and best practices that improve the ESG values of the enterprise. Additionally, CISOs or Chief Information Security Officers must be able to streamline privacy, GRC, ESG, and ethics into data and processes. A core reporting and monitoring platform that integrates operational systems and content/intelligence providers must be established. This will ultimately enable seamless collaboration, putting trust at the epicenter of the enterprise. Businesses need to understand that GRC will continue to be disruptive, and only those enterprises prioritizing innovation, agility, and transparency will be at the helm of progressive development and sustainability.

Being one of the leading GRC solutions companies, Cybalt understands the future of ESG lies in an organization's capability to undertake a simplified and streamlined approach towards addressing all requirements, not just related to ESG but governance, risk, and compliance as well. Our cybersecurity experts bring a risk repository engineered for a security-first approach. It automates the collection, classification, analysis, and remedial measures powered by the latest AI technologies. Assess your cyber posture to know more about strengthening your GRC models and goals. Being one of the leading GRC solutions companies, Cybalt understands the future of ESG lies in an organization's capability to undertake a simplified and streamlined approach towards addressing all requirements, not just related to ESG but governance, risk, and compliance as well. Our cybersecurity experts bring a risk repository engineered for a security-first approach. It automates the collection, classification, analysis, and remedial measures powered by the latest AI technologies. Assess your cyber posture to know more about strengthening your GRC models and goals.