How to Write an ESG Report: Structure, Standards and Steps

Learning how to write an ESG report is mostly a matter of sequence: choose a reporting framework, work out which issues are material to your business, gather reliable data against those issues, then structure the document so a reader can find the environmental, social and governance story quickly. Done well, an ESG report turns scattered sustainability activity into a credible account that investors, customers and regulators can trust. This guide sets out the steps and the standards that shape them.

Step 1: Choose your reporting framework

Do not invent your own structure. Report against an established framework so your disclosures are comparable and recognised. The three that matter most are:

• GRI (Global Reporting Initiative): the most widely used standards globally, built around your impacts on the economy, environment and people. Good for a broad stakeholder audience.
• SASB, now part of the ISSB: industry-specific standards focused on the sustainability issues that are financially material to a sector. Good for an investor audience.
• ISSB (IFRS S1 and S2): the newer global baseline for sustainability and climate disclosure, designed to sit alongside financial statements. It has absorbed the SASB standards and the TCFD recommendations.

Many organisations report against GRI and align with the ISSB baseline, since the two serve different but complementary audiences. For the wider context of these standards, see our guide to what ESG is and the UK ESG reporting requirements.

Step 2: Run a materiality assessment

A materiality assessment identifies which ESG topics genuinely matter for your business and your stakeholders, so you report on what is significant rather than everything. Survey and interview stakeholders, review sector standards and peers, and plot the issues by importance. The ISSB looks at issues material to enterprise value, while GRI applies "double materiality", weighing both financial impact on the company and the company's impact on the world. Decide which lens, or both, applies to you before you start writing.

Step 3: Gather and verify the data

This is where most reports succeed or fail. Collect quantitative metrics such as greenhouse gas emissions across Scope 1, 2 and 3, energy and water use, waste, workforce diversity, health and safety, and governance data. Assign a clear owner to each metric, document your methodology, and keep an audit trail so figures can be checked. Increasingly, ESG data benefits from third-party assurance, which lends the report credibility and pre-empts accusations of greenwashing.

Step 4: Structure the report

A clear ESG report usually follows this shape:

• A short statement from the CEO or board setting the tone and commitment.
• An overview of the business, its strategy and its ESG governance, including who is accountable.
• The materiality assessment and the priority topics it identified.
• Environmental performance: emissions, energy, water, waste and targets.
• Social performance: employees, diversity, health and safety, community and supply chain.
• Governance: board oversight, ethics, anti-corruption and risk management.
• A data appendix mapping your metrics to the chosen framework, with methodology notes.

Step 5: Report against targets, not just activity

Readers trust progress against measurable targets more than a list of good deeds. Set baseline years, state your goals, show performance against them honestly including where you fell short, and explain what you are doing about gaps. Candour is more credible than a flawless narrative, and it is the surest defence against greenwashing claims. For how the reporting connects to broader strategy, see how to build an ESG strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions