ESG reporting: frameworks, data and disclosures

Interactive tutorial

Follow the course step by step in the interactive player.

Lessons

1. 1Tour of ESG and CarbonThis lesson is for anyone who will work on sustainability reporting. You will learn where everything is in ESG and Carbon before any data has been entered: the reporting year, the twelve sections of the module, the headline carbon figures, and the panel that summarises the year.6 min
2. 2Set up the ESG configurationThis lesson is for the person who sets up ESG reporting for an entity. You will open the ESG Configuration box and fill in every setting: the regulator's designation, the boundary rule, the base year, the main reporting framework, and the financial figures that the intensity ratios are worked out from.6 min
3. 3Check which ESG rules apply to the entityThis lesson is for the person responsible for knowing the entity's ESG obligations. You will read the Applicability section, tell ComplianceOS the facts about the entity that decide which United Arab Emirates rules apply, and read the list of obligations with what to do about each.6 min
4. 4Choose the ESG frameworks that applyThis lesson is for the person who decides which standards the entity reports against. You will assign the United Arab Emirates climate law and the GRI Standards to the entity, see the tasks each one creates, and find those tasks again from inside ESG and Carbon.6 min
5. 5Start the materiality assessmentThis lesson is for the person who runs the yearly materiality assessment, which decides the ESG topics the company must report on. You will start the assessment for the year, tidy the list of topics, set up the stakeholder groups and their weights, check the thresholds and write down the method.7 min
6. 6Record the ratings and complete the assessmentThis lesson is for the person who runs the materiality assessment. You will record what two stakeholder groups and management said about each topic, read the matrix that results, set one score by hand with a reason, and mark the assessment complete so that a second person can approve it.8 min
7. 7Approve the materiality assessmentThis lesson is for the second person: someone who holds the right to approve ESG records and did not prepare the assessment. You will review the completed materiality assessment, approve it with a comment, and see what the approval changes elsewhere in ComplianceOS.6 min
8. 8Record electricity use by handThis lesson is for whoever collects the environmental data. You will record a quarter's electricity as one emission record with Manual Entry, going through every field, and see how ComplianceOS chooses the emission factor and works out the carbon figure.7 min
9. 9Record fuel and refrigerant, choosing the factor yourselfThis lesson is for whoever collects the environmental data. You will record two Scope 1 sources, diesel for the delivery vans and refrigerant gas topped up in the air conditioning, and learn what to do when ComplianceOS cannot choose the emission factor for you.7 min
10. 10Record water and waste, then filter and correctThis lesson is for whoever collects the environmental data. You will record the quarter's water and waste as Scope 3 records, see how the wording of the subcategory changes the emission factor that is chosen, filter the list by scope and by category, and correct a record you have already saved.8 min
11. 11Import emission records from a spreadsheetThis lesson is for whoever collects the environmental data and has many records to load at once. You will import the first half of the year from a spreadsheet file, read what was imported and what was refused, fix the imported records that have no emission factor, and page through a list that is longer than one screen.7 min
12. 12Upload a utility bill and let AI read itThis lesson is for whoever collects the environmental data. You will upload one electricity bill as a file, let the AI assistant read the quantity and period from it, check what it created against the bill, and complete the record.5 min
13. 13Work through the fifteen Scope 3 categoriesThis lesson is for the person who owns the carbon inventory. Scope 3, the emissions in the value chain, is divided by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol into fifteen categories. You will set the categories up for the year, let ComplianceOS estimate the ones it can from data already entered, and record a decision for three of them by hand.7 min
14. 14Set carbon reduction targetsThis lesson is for the person who records the company's climate commitments. You will set an absolute reduction target for bought energy and an intensity target for the company's own fuel, read the target cards, and change a target after it has been saved.6 min
15. 15Record and retire carbon offsetsThis lesson is for the person who keeps the company's carbon offset records. A carbon offset is a certificate for one tonne of CO2e removed or avoided by a project somewhere else. You will record two purchases with every field, read the summary tiles, and retire an offset once it has been used against the year's emissions.7 min
16. 16Where the workforce figures come fromThis lesson is for the HR team. The headcount figures in ESG reporting are not typed into ESG and Carbon; they are counted from the employee records in Workforce. You will register two employees, one of them a UAE national, and see the counts that ESG will read.6 min
17. 17Record the social figuresThis lesson is for the person who gathers the people figures for the sustainability report. You will read the figures that arrive from Workforce, type the ones that only you can supply, add a figure of your own with a link to its evidence, correct a figure, and archive and restore one.8 min
18. 18Record the governance figuresThis lesson is for the person who gathers the governance facts for the sustainability report: how the company is directed and controlled. You will read the figures that arrive from other modules, fill in the board and policy facts, and add a governance metric of your own.7 min
19. 19Attach evidence to a framework requirementThis lesson is for the person who answers for a reporting standard. An emission record carries a note and a metric carries a link, but the document itself is attached to the framework task that asks for it. You will submit a file and an explanation for the GRI energy requirement and find the sealed copy in the Evidence Vault.6 min
20. 20Verify the emission recordsThis lesson is for the second person: someone who can edit ESG records and did not enter the ones being checked. You will compare emission records with their source documents and verify them one by one, so the year's carbon figures can be disclosed as checked.7 min
21. 21Generate and edit the disclosure reportThis lesson is for the person who prepares the sustainability report. You will generate a draft report for a chosen framework, read what the AI assistant wrote from your data, correct one section by hand, redraft another with the AI assistant's help, clear any placeholders, download the draft as a PDF and send it for approval.8 min
22. 22Approve the report and record that it was issuedThis lesson is for the second person: someone who holds the right to approve ESG records and did not prepare the report. You will review the draft, approve it, download the final PDF, and mark the report as submitted once it has been issued.6 min
23. 23Use Insights to find gaps, compare with peers and plan reductionsThis lesson is for the person who steers the ESG programme through the year. You will read the risk score, follow the open framework obligations, see where the emissions come from, add a peer figure to compare against, and ask the AI assistant for a phased reduction plan.8 min
24. 24Check rating agency readiness and download the exportsThis lesson is for the person who answers ESG questionnaires from rating agencies and customers. You will check how complete the data is for four common standards, jump from a gap to the screen where it is filled, download each standard's export file, and read the dashboard with a full year of data, including the AI assistant's recommendations.7 min
25. 25Settings: who can work on ESG, and the approval rulesThis lesson is for administrators. The Access section of ESG and Carbon is the module's settings page: it shows who can view, create, edit and approve ESG records for the entity, lets you grant a person a role, and holds the rules that decide who must sign off a report, a materiality assessment and an emission record. You will read all of it and give a colleague read-only access for a limited time.8 min
26. 26What a read-only person seesThis lesson is for auditors and anyone else given read-only access to ESG and Carbon. You will walk through the module and see what you can open, filter and download, and which controls are missing because you cannot change anything.5 min
27. 27What you see without ESG accessThis lesson is for anyone who has been sent a link to ESG and Carbon and cannot open it. You will see what ComplianceOS shows a person whose role does not include ESG, and how to find out who can give you access.3 min
28. 28How ESG connects to the rest of ComplianceOSThis lesson is for everyone who has followed the course. ESG and Carbon does not stand alone. You will follow its links through the rest of ComplianceOS: the employee records behind the social figures, the deadlines in the Calendar, the framework tasks and their evidence, the notifications and the audit log, and the places where a link you might expect does not exist.9 min

How this connects to the rest of ComplianceOS

• Workforce

  Total Employees, Emirati Employees, the Emiratization ratio and the WPS compliance rate in Social are counted from the active employee records in Workforce and refreshed on each sync; a figure edited by hand is kept.

• Data Protection, AML and UBO Register

  Governance shows data breaches, processing records, request response rate, sanctions screenings and owner registration counted from those modules.

• Frameworks

  ESG frameworks are assigned in Frameworks, which creates their tasks. ESG and Carbon, Insights, lists the open tasks, and an approved materiality assessment closes each framework's materiality task.

• Evidence Vault

  The document that supports a disclosure is attached to its framework task with Submit Evidence, and a sealed copy is kept in the Evidence Vault with ESG as its source. Approved and submitted ESG reports are sealed there too.

• Calendar

  Setting up ESG and Carbon for an entity adds its deadlines to the Compliance Calendar from their next date: the annual ESG report, the quarterly carbon footprint reviews and the yearly climate disclosure. Marking the annual report as submitted closes its deadline.

• Approvals

  An emission record waiting to be verified, a completed materiality assessment and a report sent for approval appear in the approver's Approvals inbox under To decide; the preparer follows them under My requests.

• Access control

  The Access section shows who can view, create, edit and approve ESG records for the entity, grants roles, and holds the approval rules for the module.

• Notifications and Audit log

  Bill reading, Scope 3 estimates, synced figures that changed and report generation raise notifications in the bell, and every ESG action is written to the Audit log under one ESG type with the person and time.

• Audit Hub

  An audit of ESG data is set up in Audit Hub, which sends evidence requests to the people responsible. There is no ESG-specific link; the Audit Hub course covers it.