Businesses across all sectors need to adopt a ‘structured approach’ to identifying the ESG risks across their operations and supply chains, a new report from GlobalData has suggested.
GlobalData’s report, Strategic Intelligence: GlobalData’s ESG Framework (2026), explores how businesses can build resilience into their platforms and develop targeted mitigation exercises, once ESG-related risks have been identified.
Its framework assesses ESG exposure across 12 dimensions, including climate change, human rights, corporate structure, biodiversity, health and safety, and ethics, as well as exploring five associated risk categories: physical, regulatory, market, financing and reputational.
‘Effective response’
“Failure to cultivate effective responses to ESG concerns will expose companies to significant ESG risks,” commented Aoife McGurk, senior analyst, Strategic Intelligence team at GlobalData. “Every company faces a different risk profile, so a one-size-fits-all approach does not work.
“Our framework gives organisations the structure they need to identify which of the 12 ESG dimensions matter most to their business model and pinpoint exactly where their vulnerabilities lie.”
As the report notes, ESG strategies need to move beyond compliance and disclosure, and evolve in tandem with changing regulations, investor expectations and labour market pressures, as well as being cognisant of potential reputational damage.
“Companies should invest in ESG not merely because it is the right thing to do or because government policy requires it, but because it is the most sensible and effective way to mitigate myriad business risks,” McGurk added.
Risk and resilience
According to GlobalData, its framework enables companies to best identify the ESG factors most relevant to their operations and adopt practical mitigations that can best inform a risk and resilience strategy.
These might include science-based emissions reduction targets, stronger board oversight, responsible artificial intelligence practices, supply-chain due diligence, data privacy training and whistleblowing policies.
“Identifying exposure is only the first step,” added Holly Anness-Bradshaw, senior analyst, Strategic Intelligence team at GlobalData. “Companies must translate these insights into concrete mitigations if they want to build genuine resilience.”
She added that engagement with actors along the supply chain is “essential for comprehensive mitigation of ESG risks”. Read more here.
