Who We Work With

Bringing everyone on board

We started working with Utility Warehouse in November 2020.

The task? Create an ESG strategy to meet the needs of their many stakeholders. 

The business knew it needed to clearly identify conflicting stakeholder expectations – for example, while investors were asking about net zero, diversity targets and carbon footprint, employees and vulnerable customers needed practical help during hard times. To put it another way, Utility Warehouse was coming up against bigger questions than ‘how do we report on ESG?’ – questions like ‘how will our ESG strategy make a difference to people’s lives?’

But the more stakeholders you consider and priorities you gather – the greater the potential for confusion. Or worse, fudge.

So, where to start?

Materiality assessment – what really matters?

A materiality assessment is the tool we use to identify what is most material – most important – to a business. This is detailed, in-depth work. Utility Warehouse used the process to review conflicting priorities and stakeholder expectations, as well focusing on their commercial ambitions. It was all about taking the time and care to make sure the ESG strategy could sit at the heart of the business, helping build resilience and realise long-term growth. 

Carbon assessment and ESG reporting 

Broader goals aside, Utility Warehouse still needed to get answers to the people who were asking questions. In March 2021 we started work on the carbon assessment, which together with the materiality assessment results, shaped a practical ESG strategy.  This was shortly followed by their first ESG report – they published it in May 2021. These were the critical compliance milestones that set out the business’ ESG plans and performance, and met the reporting demands of GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) and TCFD (Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures). Most importantly, they provided the information and data that investors needed to assess risk. 

Senior party engagement

With the main compliance tasks completed, Utility Warehouse got down to the more significant challenge of placing their ESG strategy at the core of the business.

This would only work if there was full support and clarity at a senior level. Buy-in is so important for an ESG strategy, and can be where things start to unravel. But fortunately, that wasn’t the case here. We worked closely with the executive team – offering them market perspective and our own blend of big-picture knowledge. This helped establish a level of respect for ESG that was necessary to drive real change from the top, and to deliver the key strategic messages that would make it the bedrock for all future business growth. 

Ongoing advisory and support

Utility Warehouse continues to bring ESG strategy to every part of the business. It’s allowed them to build better, more transparent relations with stakeholder groups, and to meet the complex expectations of investors, customers and staff. ESG is now an integral part of Utility Warehouse’s business operations and goes far beyond the requirement for reporting alone – it’s a foundation for growth and a framework for future resilience. 

Today, we continue to support Utility Warehouse with third-party advisory at executive team level, developing processes for critical data collection and disclosure, guidance with ESG reporting, insight and support for building strong investor relations and even talent acquisition. They’ve described us as ‘no-nonsense’ and ‘not afraid to give difficult messages to those who need to hear them’. We’ll take that.