Meet our Team Leads: Anke Massart, Head of ESG Implementation

Pantarein has been building the sustainable world of tomorrow as a consulting firm for more than 20 years. Our growing team assists various companies in their ESG trajectories. At the helm of the projects are our team leads: senior consultants with tons of experience. But who are they, and what drives them?They tell us in this mini-series ‘meet our team leads’. Here, you can get to know Anke Massart, Head of ESG Implementation.

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December 11, 2024

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This is Anke

Head of ESG Implementation
Over 15 years of experience in sustainable business development and agricultural practices
Accountmanager for Soudal, Reynaers Group and Securex, among others
Background in bio-engineering

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Your team focuses on ESG implementation. What exactly does that entail, and does the CSRD play a clear role in it?

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‘The real goal of the ESG story is for sustainability to become structurally embedded in an organization and become part of the business model. You don’t achieve that goal overnight. A company has to go through three major stages for it to happen: onboarding, changing and embedding.’

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‘Onboarding is about internal awareness: colleagues and management need to sense that their company’s processes and approach are in need of change. Several driving forces can provide that impetus; regulations, customer or consumer demands, R&D developments, you name it.’

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‘Only when you have internal support for ESG can actions and efforts follow. We work on different tracks: boosting knowledge, organizing thematic and/or engaging workshops, setting up tracks in working groups, developing action programmes, rolling out policies, and more. When a company engages us in this, our role can vary greatly. Sometimes we have to provide support on an almost daily basis for some time to get ESG on track. If there is a strong role or committed ESG steering group within a company, we can also contribute in a less intensive manner, for example by leading a monthly working group. We also help companies with ESG governance: assigning each material topic to a clear owner and project group, for example, and ensuring that each strategic topic also has a sponsor within management.’

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‘What is possible and what works varies from company to company, but the importance of strategic and frequent communication is paramount everywhere. Having a strategic plan for your sustainability communication bridges the gap between ‘change’ and ‘embedding’. A one-off action is not the same as a programme or policy. You also need to keep people engaged about everything you undertake, by sharing updates and celebrating your successes.’

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‘To find the right focus in the myriad of possible ESG actions, your double materiality analysis is a crucial handhold. And that is indeed how CSRD comes into play in ESG implementation! Take the learnings from your stakeholder journey, commit to the material themes, and embed them in all parts of your company.’

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ESG implementation often goes hand-in-hand with improved data management: Can you have one without the other?

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‘Not really. As the saying goes, ‘What gets measured, gets managed’. You can’t run a policy without proper measurement, otherwise you fall into arbitrary statements or targets. That said, you need to properly determine what data you need, and how best to measure it. So, first map out what you are already measuring today, and where the gaps are. My starting point is always the roadmap with company-specific ESG targets delivered by the team led by my colleague Liesbeth: it shows me where the strategic focus lies and what the goals are. On that basis, we determine the metrics we need to know, and what KPIs to link to them.

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‘We are also focusing heavily on data systems. I think it’s important to advise companies properly in that area. They often still work a lot in Excel: an indispensable programme in modern business, but in the case of ESG inadequate in the long run. We look at how companies can expand their existing tools by also collecting ESG data in them, or we co-investigate which specific ESG tools they can embrace. Programmes for carbon calculations have since become commonplace, and there are countless others on the market.’

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‘In all this, I always hammer home one key fact: it must remain feasible. Unnecessary measurements only add to the administrative burden, and the ESG tools that are popping up also come at a price. We keep a close eye on developments so that we can continue to take a pragmatic approach. To give you an example: the ESRS XBRL Taxonomy is a hot topic right now. Every week a new tool comes along that would facilitate the digital tagging of CSRD reports. Well, we investigate which tools are actually worthwhile.’

'Actually implementing ESG in your company happens in three major stages: onboarding, change and embedding. The importance of strategic communication, through the whole process cannot be underestimated.'

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You manage various climate-related projects with your team: you calculate a company’s carbon footprint, draw up GHG reduction plans, and so on. How does that contribute to better ESG management?

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‘To limit climate change, global emissions must be drastically reduced. Greenhouse gases are therefore central to agreements such as the Paris Agreement or the European Green Deal. And thus also for the CSRD: those reporting according to the CSRD are obliged to set a carbon target by 2030, and to prepare a climate transition plan. Greenhouse gases therefore cannot be excluded from an ESG pathway: reducing them is a priority for all companies.’

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‘Today we see that companies mainly need help in taking action after calculating their carbon footprint: drawing up science-based reduction plans or carrying out a climate resilience analysis. Making those projections, calculating which reductions can be linked to which investments, setting clear targets internally, and so on: these are the big challenges for many companies.’

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‘More and more companies are also trying to provide transparency on the product carbon footprint of their portfolio. Calculating your product's emissions over its entire life cycle is highly valuable. Once you know which factors are driving up emissions, you can specifically optimize your own processes. And it is also relevant for customers who want to reduce their scope 3 emissions – caused by their suppliers, transporters, customers, etc. – and therefore like to be involved. And so another of my favourite topics is lurking just around the corner: chain responsibility.’

Meet our Team Leads: Anke Massart, Head of ESG Implementation

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