ESG / CSR
Industries
Greenly solutions
As Artificial Intelligence, or AI, continues to evolve and take over the world – many people across various fields, from marketing to even doctors looking to avoid writing monotonous emails to patients, are looking to use AI: but should ESG managers do the same?
ESG managers are professionals who are responsible for monitoring and managing the ESG factors in a business, and as these tasks can easily become numerous and complex – AI may be able to help reduce the stress that ESG managers often take on.
In this article, we’ll review what an ESG manager is, how AI could help them, and other ways to use AI to boost sustainability and productivity.
ESG managers refer to the people in a company who are responsible for overseeing all Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors across business activities.
This can include but is not limited to:
💡 ESG managers are imperative seeing as they work to ensure that companies develop a portfolio aligned with ESG principles to adhere to future environmental regulations, suppliers, stakeholders, and more.
ESG managers utilize various sustainable practices and investment strategies to greater transparency, ethical responsibility, and long-term business growth.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the roles and responsibilities of ESG managers:
👉 Overall, ESG managers are important because they help to ensure that a company’s business operations remain as sustainable and efficient as possible – while also helping to mitigate the consequences of lack of compliance or failing to recognize ESG-related risks.
There are several ways in which AI can help ESG managers, such as by helping to automate time-consuming tasks and process large volumes of data – leaving more time for ESG managers to apply a human touch to another task.
💡As ESG managers are often tasked with mundane and numerical based tasks, AI could help ESG managers by freeing up more time for them to cultivate more meaningful communication that AI simply cannot accomplish in the same capacity as a human can – such as by writing reports and improving communication between stakeholders.
Artificial intelligence offers various applications that can help reduce the workload ESG managers are faced with – such as by helping to collect data, provide analysis, and perform simpler tasks to allow ESG managers to spend more time on heavy-duty responsibilities.
Here are some ways that AI could prove useful for ESG managers:
Collecting and analyzing various data is a pivotal role for any ESG manager looking to be effective in boosting ESG tactics within an organization’s operations – meaning that it is essential for data to be accurate and detailed for effective ESG management.
👉 At the end of the day, ESG managers are only people – leaving ample room for potential human error and possibly incorrect data analysis. However, AI could help to reduce the stress of processing large volumes of data from multiple sources – and help ESG managers to more easily pinpoint discrepancies in the data that could go unnoticed without the help of AI.
Therefore, AI could prove extremely useful in helping to ensure that all the data being used for a potential reporting requirement or meeting with stakeholders is 100% accurate.
Just as writers will sometimes get stuck in the brainstorming phase of writing and could potentially utilize the help of AI to job the creative side of their mind, ESG managers may find AI useful to ask its opinion on data analytics.
Artificial Intelligence is able to forecast future trends, potential ESG risks, and provide its own analysis – all of which ESG managers can use to bounce off of their own ideas without needing to start from scratch.
💡 In this sense, AI can be viewed as a secretary to an ESG manager – helping to collect all of the facts and provide an overview in order to help the ESG manager make a more informed decision.
ESG managers are tasked with several duties, meaning there isn’t enough time in the day for them to constantly keep an eye on the data they are collecting – but AI can.
As AI is able to collect and analyze data in real-time, it could help to provide ESG managers with advantageous information to help identify and solve problems which could be hindering the company’s sustainability goals or efficiency in business operations.
For instance, AI could help to detect possible machinery that is contributing to excess carbon emissions – something that may have gone entirely unnoticed if AI hadn’t been used by the company’s ESG manager.
👉 Ultimately, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can prove itself as an indispensable tool to help ESG managers by providing advanced analytics and automation to assist with more additional, complex duties such as decision-making for the company’s finances or business operations.
There could be potential downsides to the use of AI in ESG management, since ESG managers could become overly reliant on data analysis drafted by AI and neglect overviewing the output of information.
💡 It is important to remember that in the same vein of using spellcheck to proofread a paper, human oversight is still essential – especially in something as subject to change as sustainability tactics under ESG management.
Here are the potential downsides to the use of AI in ESG management:
👉 In the end, while AI can help to complete long-term tasks, ESG managers shouldn’t undermine the value of involving human judgement – as heavily using AI could result in oversimplified solutions that require the nuanced-thinking of a human being.
Despite the potential over-dependence that could be created from the use of AI in ESG management, it’s a worthwhile tool for ESG managers to have a “sparring partner” when deciding on the best way forward for sustainability for business operations.
Here are some more ways that ESG managers could utilize AI to help boost productivity and sustainability:
The table below will further depict the pros of ESG manager using AI:
| Category | AI Application | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Biodiversity and Ecosystem Protection | Deforestation Monitoring | Uses satellite imagery to track deforestation and assess environmental impacts. |
| Biodiversity and Ecosystem Protection | Wildlife Conservation | Monitors species populations and predicts risks to biodiversity. |
| Biodiversity and Ecosystem Protection | Sustainable Land Use | Analyzes land use patterns to minimize environmental impact and promote sustainable practices. |
| Supporting Innovation and Creativity | Idea Generation | Analyzes global ESG trends to inspire innovative sustainability strategies. |
| Supporting Innovation and Creativity | Crowdsourcing Solutions | Facilitates collaboration and collects ideas from stakeholders to improve ESG performance. |
| Supporting Innovation and Creativity | AI-Assisted Decision-Making | Provides data-driven recommendations to empower ESG managers for impactful decisions. |
| Scaling ESG Programs | Global Integration | Manages ESG initiatives across locations, standardizing practices and scaling efforts. |
| Scaling ESG Programs | Localization | Tailors ESG programs to specific regional or cultural contexts for better adoption. |
| Scaling ESG Programs | Sustainability Certification | Streamlines the process of obtaining and maintaining certifications such as LEED or ISO 14001. |
Overall, ESG managers could recruit the help of AI to help them unlock new levels of sustainability – and maybe even find themselves making improved progress in reaching their company’s emissions reduction targets, boosting stakeholder engagement, and fostering new collaborations to promote the importance of sustainability in business.
If reading this article on how AI helps ESG managers has inspired you to consider your company’s own carbon footprint, Greenly can help.
At Greenly we can help you to assess your company’s carbon footprint, and then give you the tools you need to cut down on emissions. We offer a free demo for you to better understand our platform and all that it has to offer – including assistance with boosting supplier engagement, personalized assistance, and new ways to involve your employees.
Learn more about Greenly’s carbon management platform here.
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