Why Companies Must Link Climate, Nature, and Social Risk

Video

Connecting Climate, Nature, and People in Corporate Sustainability

Companies are increasingly addressing social issues within sustainability strategies, but progress remains uneven. In this interview, Nikki Gwilliam-Beeharee, Head of Stakeholder Engagement and Policy at the World Benchmarking Alliance, discusses how businesses are incorporating human rights, supply chain practices, and social impact into corporate reporting.

Mar 16, 2026

Nikki Gwilliam-Beeharee, Head of Stakeholder Engagement, World Benchmarking Alliance

Tags: ESG and Climate Risk

The views and opinions expressed in this content are those of the thought leader as an individual and are not attributed to CeFPro or any other organization

Corporate sustainability reporting is expanding to include more social considerations, with many companies introducing supplier codes of conduct and beginning to assess human rights risks within their supply chains. However, the integration of climate, nature, and social impacts remains limited. According to assessments by the World Benchmarking Alliance, only a small number of leading companies currently evaluate these interconnected risks together across their operations.

Nikki Gwilliam-Beeharee explains that companies can begin addressing social risks by mapping their full value chains and prioritizing areas where impacts on people are most significant. She also emphasizes the importance of greater alignment on sustainability disclosures and decision-useful data so that investors and financial institutions can better evaluate how companies manage social and environmental risks.

Nikki Gwilliam-Beeharee Bio

Nikki leads the World Benchmarking Alliance's Stakeholder and Policy Engagement team, which focusses on activating key stakeholders in the corporate accountability process. She works with external organisations such as WBA's Allies, financial institutions and policy makers, who are using WBA’s analysis, expertise, insights and network to hold companies to account. Previously she worked as the Director of ESG Research and Engagement at Invesco, a large global asset manager. In this role, she worked closely with investors across various asset classes to integrate ESG into investment processes and to engage 1-1 and collectively with companies on sustainability topics. Nikki started her career as an ESG investment analyst and before Invesco, she headed the Research team at Vigeo Eiris, an ESG rating agency. Nikki holds an MA in Human Rights from the University of Sussex, a BA in Economics and Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester, and has attained the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investments (CISI) certificate on the ‘Introduction to Securities and Investment’.