Picture this: You are a CFO or sustainability lead wondering, ‘what do we need right now in our sustainability journey?’

A sustainability implementation plan?

An ESG due diligence framework?

Or a materiality assessment?

Wonder no further.

Here’s a guide to help you identify where you are in your sustainability journey and what to do next.

1 - Determine your industry’s priority.

Different industries have different sustainability journeys.

This is due to regulatory exposure, operational footprint, and data maturity.

For example, companies that offer services such as insurance and financial services have low physical footprint but high governance and disclosure expectations.

Sustainability for them is governance-driven, not operations-heavy.

Thus focus is on risk, disclosure, and policy.

An environmental impact assessment is rarely something they would think about in the beginning.

However, manufacturing companies e.g, agribusinesses and FMCGs have tangible production footprint, complex supply chains, and high environmental impact.

Thus, understanding their environmental impact comes before any strategic alignment.

2 - Get familiar with the order of steps in your journey

There is a right and a wrong order of what to do in your journey towards sustainability.

Continuing from the example of manufacturing companies mentioned earlier, the order which their sustainability journeys usually take is:

Manufacturing: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) → Materiality Assessment (MA) → Gap Analysis (GA) → Sustainability Implementation Plan (SIP) → Sustainability Report (SR).

Oftentimes, EIA comes first for manufacturers due to regulatory compliance and high operational footprint.

In fact in some jurisdictions, it is a legal requirement before plant setup, expansion, or new product lines.

They then use a MA to identify priority issues like energy use, waste, water, and labor practices.

Followed by a GA to benchmark current practices vs sustainability standards.

Then a SIP to develop targets and programs (eg, waste reduction, circular economy, regenerative sourcing)

Finally, they report on their sustainability journey, disclosing performance and progress to regulators, investors, and customers.

The order for other industries is as follows:

• Energy: Usually same as “Manufacturing”
• Services: MA → GA → SIP → SR → EIA (often optional)

Investment (eg., private equity, impact investors, DFIs):

• At fund-level: MA → Sustainability / Impact Strategy → Impact Measurement Framework → Portfolio-Level Disclosure / Impact Report
• At portfolio-level: ESG/ESD Due Diligence (pre-investment) → MA → GA → SIP → SR

Now that you know your industry’s priority and the right order of what to do so you don’t misstep, let me know what you will do next.

And I will help you structure your journey.