Where possible, articulate a pattern of decision-making.

Finally, you can provide examples of prior decisions that are aligned with your commitment(s) to help create a compelling and credible narrative that conveys a pattern of acknowledging the issue and acting to do your part in addressing it. Consider highlighting and explaining initiatives, memberships, partnerships, and early or external commitments that help illustrate the maturation arc of your company's climate strategy.

Example: "In 2008, Kellogg committed to reducing our normalized energy usage, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water usage, and waste to landfill 15-20% by 2015 (from a 2005 baseline)… Through these commitments, we have already delivered Scope 1 and 2 absolute emissions reductions from manufacturing of approximately 12%."²⁶ (Kellogg's)

Position statements should provide clear guidance and direction to your company with respect to relevant environmental, social, or governance issues. A common problem with position statements we reviewed is that they were hard to locate, too long (sometimes dozens of pages), difficult to navigate, and often contained too much extraneous information.

Make sure your document is publicly accessible.

Position statements should be concise and accessible, both in terms of the language used and also in terms of locating them. Your climate change position statement should be publicly available, for instance by including it in the sustainability and/or governance section of your company's website.

Example: DuPont consolidates its position statements into a single web-page, noting "Position statements represent DuPont's informed views and opinions on industry-related issues. They cover a range of topics that reinforce our commitment to sustainable growth and are important to stakeholders."²⁷ (Dupont)

Avoid reporting on short-term performance or discussing awards or accolades.

While it is important to reference overall trends in your past performance and patterns of decision-making, we recommend that you save reporting on recent performance, achievements to date, awards and accolades, and unrelated sustainability initiatives in your annual sustainability reports or your website.

Consider briefly addressing what motivated the statement and/or the process that led to its development.

Consider including a section that outlines the motivation for this position statement and/or the process that led to its development. Provide a brief background on why and how the position statement came to be. Were there specific questions, learning outcomes, or impacts that motivated this statement? For instance, if your position statement was created in response to investor demands, you might include: "This position statement was motivated by shareholder concerns over the strategic impact and financial implications that climate change and extreme weather events may have on our future success."

Is your company in the process of developing or revising an ESG position statement? Or has your company recently developed one?

Either way, reach out to us. We would love to hear from you! community@embeddingproject.org