By Marya Skotte, Sustainability Consultant, ISOS Group

At ISOS Group, project management is at the core of our offerings. We understand the challenges faced by our clients and the limited resources they have. Our extensive experience and broad capabilities provide valuable support to our clients as they tackle their most critical sustainability projects and other initiatives.

What is Project Management in Sustainability Consulting?

Project management is fundamentally about ensuring projects are delivered on time and within the defined scope and budget. In addition to these foundational aspects of project management, ISOS Group prioritizes outstanding service, effective communication and client care. Our consultants are trained to manage projects with the goal of providing clients with a superior product, education on regulations and reporting, and the ability to expand sustainability/environmental, social and governance (ESG) programs within their organization.

Trusted Back-office Support for Clients

Many organizations have a small sustainability team — sometimes only two or three people (sometimes one person) — whose roles include sustainability/ESG reporting. That’s why we often act as trusted back-office support. In these situations, this allows our clients to focus on the sustainability project from a high level while we manage the project process, timeline, data and related stakeholder engagement. Efforts are geared toward operationalizing sustainability. With our expertise, we seamlessly integrate into our clients’ teams to support efficiently managed sustainability projects, year after year.

The Importance of Project Management in a Changing Reporting Environment

As sustainability reporting continues to become more complex, strong project management is the key to a successful project. With new and pending regulations such as the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the proposed U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s climate-related disclosures and more on the horizon, robust data tracking to support auditing efforts, nuanced stakeholder engagement and comprehensive reporting are crucial.

Streamlining Sustainability Projects with Tracking

Our experience and internally developed mechanisms for project management enable us to maintain continuity and efficiency in our work with repeat clients. We have robust recordkeeping, tracking and knowledge management systems in place; this makes it easy for the client and our consultants to assess the landscape at the beginning of each reporting cycle and not duplicate work from prior cycles.

For instance, we capture historic greenhouse gas emissions data, identify subject matter experts and the topics they contribute to, and ensure compliance with disclosure frameworks like the Global Reporting Initiative and SASB/IFRS and/or any other investor ratings and rankings surveys and specific client questionnaires. At the end of the project, the ISOS and client project team participates in an informal “lessons learned” discussion to capture the project wins along with opportunities for improvement. This ensures a seamless transition from one project to the next, saving time and resources.

Client Satisfaction at the Core

Our valuable project management skills, attention to detail and passion for seeing our clients succeed allow us to effectively support your critical sustainability projects. Whether it's streamlining information collection processes, establishing organizational foundations to build from, ensuring continuity in ESG governance programs, conducting materiality assessments or navigating evolving reporting requirements, we serve as a trusted partner. Why? Because your success is our success.

Let us help you manage your project. We keep track of the information and the entire reporting process, allowing you to focus on the things you do best! Contact ISOS Group today to discover how our project management capabilities can drive your sustainability success.