Questions about ESG and sustainability reporting

ESG stands for environmental, social and governance. It is a way of describing how a company affects the environment and the people around it, and how well it is run. Investors, lenders, regulators and customers use ESG information to judge a company's risks and long-term prospects alongside its financial results.

For an African company, ESG has moved from a voluntary topic to a legal one. Standard-setters across the continent are adopting IFRS S1 and S2, which turn part of ESG, especially climate, into a formal disclosure. See ESG reporting requirements in Africa for the rules in each country.

The three pillars are environmental, social and governance. Environmental covers a company's emissions, energy, water and waste. Social covers how it treats employees, customers, suppliers and communities. Governance covers how the board oversees the company, its controls and its ethics.

For many African companies, the environmental pillar starts with energy: the electricity bought from the grid and the diesel burned in generators. That is usually the first data an ESG report needs, and the data Emvert is built to collect.

A greenhouse gas is a gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and warms the planet. The main ones are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, along with fluorinated gases used in refrigeration and industry.

Companies report their greenhouse gas emissions in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, which converts each gas into the amount of carbon dioxide that would cause the same warming. Burning diesel, petrol and natural gas is the most common source for African businesses.

Net zero means cutting a company's greenhouse gas emissions as far as possible and balancing whatever remains by removing the same amount from the atmosphere. A net zero target is only credible if the company first measures its emissions accurately.

That is why measurement comes first. A company cannot set or track a target for emissions it has never counted.

Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, describes the good a company chooses to do, such as community projects and donations. ESG describes how a company's environmental, social and governance risks affect its business, and it is measured, reported and increasingly required by regulators.

In short, CSR is usually voluntary and presented as goodwill, while ESG reporting is evidence-based and, under IFRS S1 and S2, becoming mandatory for many African companies.

Materiality decides which information belongs in a report. Under IFRS S1 and S2, information is material if leaving it out could reasonably influence the decisions of investors and lenders, so the test is how a sustainability matter affects the company's prospects.

The GRI Standards use a different test, impact materiality, which asks how the company affects the economy, environment and people. A company can apply both, and many do when they report to a wide range of stakeholders.

A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas emissions caused by a company, measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. For most African companies, the largest parts are fuel burned in generators and vehicles, and electricity bought from the grid.

You can estimate yours for free with the carbon footprint calculator.

Scope 1 covers fuel you burn yourself, such as diesel in your generators. Scope 2 covers electricity you buy from the grid. Scope 3 covers everything else your business causes along its value chain, from purchased goods to the use of what you sell.

See carbon accounting for how Emvert calculates each scope.

IFRS S1 and S2 are the sustainability disclosure standards issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board. IFRS S1 sets the general requirements and IFRS S2 sets the climate requirements, including greenhouse gas emissions.

Read IFRS S1 and S2 in Africa for what they require and which countries have adopted them.

The GRI Standards are a widely used set of sustainability reporting standards from the Global Reporting Initiative. They focus on a company's impacts on the economy, environment and people, and can be used alongside IFRS S1 and S2.

Emvert produces GRI outputs from the same data as its IFRS S1 and S2 reports. See ESG reporting.

In everyday use, yes: both describe a company disclosing its environmental, social and governance risks and performance. What matters is the standard, and in most African countries the required standard is IFRS S1 and S2.

See ESG reporting requirements in Africa for more on the difference.

It depends on where you operate. Reporting is already mandatory in Tanzania and Zambia and phasing in in Rwanda, and becomes mandatory in Kenya and Ghana from 2027 and in Uganda and Nigeria from 2028. Zimbabwe makes reporting mandatory for its largest companies from 2028, and Ethiopia has approved its own roadmap.

The compliance hub sets out each country's rules with links to the official sources.

The first companies required to report are usually listed companies, public interest entities and regulated financial institutions such as banks and insurers. Large unlisted companies normally follow a year or two later, and smaller companies come last.

Being unlisted does not mean you are out of scope. Check which category your national roadmap puts you in.

The dates in African roadmaps apply to reporting periods beginning on or after the date set. If your financial year starts on 1 July, your first mandatory year is the first one that starts on or after your country's date.

For example, a Kenyan public interest entity with a June year end starts its first mandatory year on 1 July 2027, because its 2026–27 year began before 1 January 2027.

Roadmaps are revised from time to time, so confirm the current position with your standard-setter before you plan your first report. We track changes and update our guidance when the official documents change.

The safest plan does not depend on the exact date. Collecting a clean year of energy and fuel data is useful whenever your first report falls due.

No. IFRS S2 lets a company leave out Scope 3 emissions in its first annual reporting period, and some countries allow longer. Tanzania, for example, phases Scope 3 in from 2028, with all categories required by 2029.

Use the first year to work out which Scope 3 categories are material to your business, because supplier data takes time to collect.

Not usually. Many companies publish a voluntary sustainability report written to their own format. An IFRS S1 and S2 disclosure follows specific requirements, is written for investors and lenders, and sits alongside your financial statements.

The two can draw on the same data, so the work you put into one makes the other easier.

Start with what you have. Most companies begin with utility bills, fuel receipts and a spreadsheet, and Emvert flags readings that look wrong before they reach a total.

Figures imported from spreadsheets stay marked as spreadsheet-sourced, so you can see which ones still need a source document. The first-year reliefs give you room to improve the data before comparatives are required.

Yes. Your assurance provider can be given an auditor role, which lets them read figures, calculations and evidence without changing anything.

Every figure links to its source document and records who entered, reviewed and approved it, which is what an assurer checks first.

Emission factors in Emvert are versioned. When a factor is revised, earlier years keep the version they used, and you decide whether to restate them. Every change is logged with who made it and when.

That record lets you explain any restatement to your board, your assurer or a regulator.

Emvert is an annual licence priced on the number of users and the modules you need, with onboarding for your first reporting cycle included. Every demo ends with a written quote in your local currency.

Book a demo to get a quote for your company.

No. We bill in your local currency, so your cost does not change with the exchange rate.

Your data is yours. You can export your full dataset, including your figures, calculations and evidence documents, at any time, including when your contract ends.

How your data is held while you are a customer is set out on the security page.

Emvert supports companies across Africa, including Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, and continuously integrates the emission factors relevant to each country. Nigerian companies are served by emvert.com.ng.

If your country is not listed, book a demo and tell us where you operate.

Because most foreign platforms were built for companies outside Africa. They use grid factors from other regions, rarely treat diesel generators as a standard input, report to foreign regulators and invoice in dollars or euros.

Emvert uses each African country's own grid factors, counts grid and generator separately, reports in the IFRS S1 and S2 structure adopted by African standard-setters, and prices in your currency.

A consultant brings judgement, such as on materiality, scenario analysis and the board's first decisions. Emvert handles the work that repeats every year: collecting data, calculating emissions and keeping evidence.

The two work well together, and a consultant can work inside Emvert alongside your team.

No. Emvert prepares the report and the evidence behind it, and your company publishes or submits it as your regulator requires.

No. Assurance has to be independent of the company being assured. Emvert gives your assurer read-only access to the figures, calculations and evidence they need to do their work.