Sustainability today is a tremendous priority for businesses as concerns such as the climate emergency and widening global social inequality affect the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit/prosperity. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are hence no longer just good-to-know or nice-to-have but are now must-haves for enlightened Boards and management focused on sustainable business and growth.
To support their organisation’s ESG endeavours, accountants and finance professionals must be able to comprehend, manage and integrate ESG data and approaches into business strategies, governance, investment and operations for sustainable future outcomes. The key to a successful ESG and sustainability strategy is a clear definition of the organisation’s corporate purpose and the development of the requisite skills, talent, leaders and culture to achieve this enterprise transformation for long-term sustainability.
To help clarify purpose and develop ESG skills, the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) together with The Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) Malaysia will deliver a highly interactive series of seven ESG-focussed courses geared to accountants and finance professionals. These seven webinar courses will guide accountants and finance professionals to help manage and lead ESG organisational transformation and integration, through providing insights and practical guidance into sustainability, materiality assessment, enterprise risk management, human rights and environment, carbon foot printing and reporting for organisations, natural capital, and natural capital assessment.
Participants can be assured of high-quality learning led by subject matter experts from BCSD Malaysia, an independent non-profit organisation that helps companies embed sustainability into core business strategy and operations. Through education, training and capacity building, BCSD advocates for systems transformation that leads to more sustainable business practices.
Participants signing up for any or all of these courses will also be entitled to tax relief on course fees for ESG programmes of up to RM7,000 as announced in the recent Malaysian Budget 2022, which placed a tremendous emphasis on sustainability and carbon neutrality.
The seven courses will be delivered over the course of seven months from January to July 2022. Below are the highlights of the seven courses that will serve as a gateway to this emerging body of high-priority knowledge for accountants and finance professionals:
An introduction to help you understand the business case for sustainability and key sustainability topics as well as empower you to implement sustainability in your daily job.
Equips participants with a sound understanding of the materiality assessment process as a necessary foundation of sustainability reporting and a valuable enterprise strategic tool. Materiality and the materiality assessment process are considered vital for helping companies effectively identify, manage and report on significant ESG risks and opportunities concisely and succinctly, tightening the focus on what is important to the business and stakeholders and supporting decision-making.
Provides insights and tools to integrate ESG risk and opportunity management into business strategy, performance management and disclosures, building on concepts outlined by the Committee of Sponsoring Organisations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in their award-winning guidance Applying Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) to ESG-related risks.
Gain an in-depth understanding of the importance of applying human rights and environmental (HRE) concerns into business operations. Learn best practices and tools to implement these concepts in order to integrate sustainable practices into operations and supply chains, thereby developing a more resilient portfolio and managing risks related to HRE non-compliance.
Introduces climate change, carbon footprinting (greenhouse gas or GHG Accounting), carbon management and energy management, carbon reporting, and carbon reduction and presents an overview of different methodologies (e.g. the Greenhouse Gas Protocol) to identify, quantify, account, and report GHG emissions and plan actions to reduce these. The course materials are based on the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol Corporate Standard while referring to the ISO 14064: Part 1 international standard for GHG inventories. The course is suitable for anyone wishing to learn about climate risk and carbon management, as well as ways to measure, monitor, report, and reduce their impact.
Learn more about natural capital, why it is important for business and how to start integrating it into business decision-making. Participants will achieve a good understanding of the relationships between business and nature, the related business risks and opportunities, as well as familiarity with a few key practical approaches, practices, and tools.
Using the Natural Capital Protocol as a basis, this course provides practical and concrete guidance on how organisations can begin to approach a first natural capital assessment to integrate nature into decision-making. This training module has been developed in collaboration with We Value Nature and Little Blue Research Ltd.
