CS Professional Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) - Principles and Practice Classes

CS Professional Paper 1 - Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG): Principles and Practice

Under the ICSI New Syllabus 2022, the old Governance, Risk Management, Compliances and Ethics paper was rebuilt around ESG. Governance and risk did not disappear - they now sit inside a wider sustainability frame, which is exactly where the Company Secretary's role is heading. This is the flagship paper of the Professional Programme, worth 100 marks in Group 1.

ESG - the new core

• ESG concepts, drivers and the global frameworks - GRI, SASB, TCFD, UN SDGs and the UNGC principles
• Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) - SEBI's mandatory framework for the top 1,000 listed companies, the NGRBC principles, and BRSR Core with reasonable assurance
• Integrated Reporting, ESG ratings and ESG assurance
• Climate risk, carbon accounting and the disclosure obligations attaching to them
• CSR under Section 135 and its relationship to the social pillar

Corporate governance

• Evolution of governance - Cadbury, Sarbanes-Oxley, G20/OECD principles, and India's path from Clause 49 to SEBI LODR 2015
• Board effectiveness - composition, independent directors, board evaluation and succession planning
• Board committees - Audit, NRC, Risk Management, CSR and Stakeholder Relationship
• Institutional investors, shareholder activism, proxy advisors and the SEBI Stewardship Code

Risk management and ethics

• Enterprise Risk Management - COSO ERM and ISO 31000, risk identification, appetite, mitigation and reporting
• Internal controls, internal financial controls and the compliance management framework
• Business ethics, whistleblower and vigil mechanisms, and the ICSI Code of Conduct for Company Secretaries