Gustavo Meyer Suarez is founder of MS PARTNERS and a seasoned expert in product and environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance. He will bring his experience to this year’s EUROPEAN OUTDOOR SUMMIT in his presentation ‘Navigating the Future: Embracing Compliance and Residual Risk Management’.
He shared with Outdoor i what he hopes to convey when he addresses delegates, “I know that this topic can sometimes be tricky to understand in detail, and indeed those details are often rightly dealt with by functional experts within a company. However, industry leaders really do need to appreciate why ESG should be a vital, and early, component of building every business strategy.”
Specialising in sustainability within supply chains and formulating robust compliance strategies, Gustavo has a deep understanding of intricate compliance requirements, cross-stakeholder collaboration and navigating complex frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
He told us, “In my experience, every CEO, managing director and senior executive understands the concept of risk and how it applies to their business. I don’t use the word ‘risk’ to scaremonger. My aim is to highlight the importance of ESG compliance as one that every company needs to assess and manage, and decide what level of that risk they are prepared to take. After all, the only way to not have any risk is to not run a business!
“How a firm assesses risk will vary, depending on its nature. Risk may be quantified in purely shareholder-informed terms, or when considered alongside a company’s societal attitudes. Similarly, some senior executives are driven by data, while others are driven more by brand values. There’s no definitive right or wrong, and the trick is to find the right balance, but crucially, based on the correct and most up to date insights. If you are running a business, then once you know what the risks are and their potential impact, you can plan effectively.
“Every business must find its own way, but I strongly advocate that ESG considerations should be made at the beginning of that process, which is why it is essential that senior executives have a real appreciation of the topic, empowering team members who manage the issue on a day-to-day basis. If you don’t embed that culture from the start, then you create silos within an organisation, lacking an overall cohesion. In contrast, the companies that do this work well from the outset, led from the top, are able to reflect their values – and those of their consumers – so much better than their competitors.
“Risks are like brakes on a car. They’re not there to stop you, but to allow you to proceed safely, when used properly. I am really looking forward to speaking with delegates at this year’s European Outdoor Summit, to explain why bringing environmental, social, and governance compliance into the heart of their business strategy planning processes is ever more important, and how doing so will help them manage one of the big risks that every company has to address if it wants to succeed.”
