If a customer has asked you for sustainability information and you are trying to figure out where to start, the most important thing you can do before spending any time or money is read the request carefully. Most private companies that end up doing too much, too fast, skipped this step.

If a GP or customer has asked you for ESG reporting, you have probably already figured out what they want. The harder question is how to actually produce it — where the data comes from, who in your organization needs to be involved, and what the output should look like.

If your GP has started asking for ESG data, your board needs to know about it. Not because ESG is a governance trend worth discussing in the abstract, but because responding to a GP's ESG requirements takes time, resources, and in some cases capital investment.

If you are in a leadership or legal role at a PE-backed company, ESG requests from your GP are probably landing on your desk more often. They come as formal questionnaires, data requests tied to annual reporting cycles, or pre-deal diligence packages. Whatever the format, someone in your organization is expected to own the response.

If you supply goods or services to a pharmaceutical company, something has probably landed in your inbox recently: a sustainability questionnaire, an updated RFP with new environmental requirements, or a direct request for your carbon footprint and a science-based emissions reduction target.

You've finished your first GHG inventory, so you know your Scope 1 and 2 numbers. The next question is usually what to do about them.

Most private companies getting their first ESG request don't know which metrics to track. There are hundreds of options across dozens of frameworks, and it's easy to end up either tracking too much or not tracking the right things.

The good news is that for most private companies, the list of metrics that actually matter is shorter than you think. Here's how to figure out what belongs on yours.

If you're considering hiring an ESG consultant, or you've already decided to and you're trying to figure out what you're actually signing up for, this post is for you.

A customer sends you an RFP. In the supplier sustainability section, there's a question you weren't expecting: "Do you have a science-based target?"

You don't. But now you realize you probably need one.

You look it up. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) sounds credible and legitimate. It's something you want to be able to say yes to the next time someone asks.

Setting a science-based target is easier than most companies expect. What catches companies off guard is everything that comes after.