Auditing for awareness

Nadene Coetzee's Story

“That first ESG engagement changes you in every aspect of your life"
“Everything you do has an impact”

Leveraging accountability for Environmental, Social  Governance (ESG) Social and Governance (ESG) impact

Nadine is an Internal Audit Specialist at Olam Food Ingredients (ofi). Leading assurance over various ESG practices, by managing both the associated risks and opportunities she witnesses first-hand the positive role ESG continues to create in both her work and day-to-day life.

Olam Food Ingredients (ofi) is a global leader in providing naturally good food and beverage ingredients. With a focus on health, well-being, and nutritional benefits, ofi collaborates closely with customers to inspire new product concepts and ensure ethical sourcing and environmental responsibility.

 

Sector: Food & Ingredients

 

Employees: 22’000

 

Geography: Headquarters in Singapore, operating globally

 

Website: www.ofi.com

Challenges
faced

In the short time that Nadene has worked at ofi she has been able to use her wealth of experience in ESG reporting.

 

To gain the resources required for any ESG initiatives and shift perceptions within ofi, she would have to demonstrate her department’s potential to be management’s eyes and ears, revealing where change is required.

 

Nadene found that within ofi there was limited ESG awareness across departments, lack of data availability, and competing priorities. Furthermore, the complexity of the regulatory landscape and the cost of implementation meant a huge education gap would need to be bridged, support offered, and collaboration encouraged.

"Our reviews might highlight some data issues…where we think we are following certain methodologies but in actual fact are not"
"The growing cost of compliance means that waiting to act, or making small changes, is no longer enough"

Acknowledging that non-financial data is often deprioritized, she would also need to gain leadership buy-in on any ESG action.


She recognized the need to imbed ESG into internal audit plans, to provide assurance over the data and ensure compliance with relevant ESG regulations.


In addition to internal and external regulatory pressure there is also investor expectation to be managed, necessitating even stronger ESG practices. Nadene knew that to push the ESG agenda forward and to maintain internal support she would require a strong, cost-effective strategy.

Actions
taken

To address a number of these challenges, Nadene and her team ran a comprehensive ESG review across the business, identifying gaps and areas for improvement to increase the robustness of ESG controls.

 

Notably, with the approval from the ofi Audit Committee, Nadene implemented ESG into internal audits which includes providing assurance over reported ESG data and ensuring compliance with relevant ESG regulations, an accomplishment she is proud of considering not all internal audit departments have this level of integration.

"You can’t fix problems you don’t know exist"
"Focus on what’s most important for your business…baby steps and don’t be discouraged"

She embedded a company-wide ESG value proposition, which enabled collaboration across departments and allowed employees to be educated about ESG, resulting in a unified approach to the topic. In addition, she worked with individual departments to improve data collection and accessibility.

To demonstrate how compliance can be affordable, her team developed a cost-effective approach to ESG implementation. By focusing on the low-hanging fruit, identifying only the standards most important to the business made the changes required appear more achievable.

 

By working hard to build capabilities within the company and raising awareness of success stories, Nadene enabled her team to gain trust and approval, helping secure future additional resources as the drive to net zero continues.

Resonance
of impact

By making ESG part of internal audit plans, Nadene has been able to highlight areas not previously identified as ESG risks, enabling ofi to implement controls to mitigate them.


Through pro-active engagement between management and her team, positive changes such as increased reporting accuracy of non-financial data has been possible.

"By playing more of a hand-holding role rather than just coming in at the end and auditing it and saying this needs improvement, the auditing team can make a large impact"
"While we’ve made significant progress in incorporating ESG into our internal audit plans and control framework, there’s always room for improvement"

By educating and empowering the workforce as well as providing the right resources, ofi is now much better equipped to navigate the evolving reporting landscape. Going beyond compliance has opened the door to wider benefits such as cost efficiencies, improved brand reputation and increased investment opportunities. Defining in simple terms what is required has produced a collaborative, cross-functional approach delivering clear and valuable insights.

 

By integrating ESG into core business strategies and demanding robust reporting of data, Nadene can continue to contribute to ofi’s progression towards its net zero goal.

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