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From Voluntary to Mandatory: How ESG Regulations are Shaping the Future of Business
As ESG regulations evolve from voluntary guidelines to mandatory global standards, businesses must adapt quickly to meet the growing demands for transparency and compliance. This interview explores the shifting regulatory landscape, the critical role of innovation in meeting sustainability goals, and the operational challenges companies face in embedding ESG principles across their operations.
Sep 23, 2024
Mardi McBrien
Mardi McBrien, Chief of Strategic Affairs & Capacity Building, IFRS Foundation
  • The shift from voluntary to mandatory ESG regulations is irreversible, with global markets now demanding transparency and compliance from businesses in all sectors.

  • ESG reporting is becoming critical for corporate governance, with companies needing to prepare for increasingly strict enforcement of climate and sustainability risk disclosures.

  • Internal controls and operational support are crucial to ESG success, but often overlooked; upskilling in these areas is vital to meeting new regulatory challenges.

  • Innovation remains a key driver of success in achieving 2030 and 2050 sustainability targets, as businesses and regulators still grapple with the path to long-term sustainability.

Mardi McBrien Bio

Mardi McBrien is Chief of Strategic Affairs and Capacity Building at the IFRS Foundation. Prior to the IFRS Foundation, Mardi spent over a decade leading the global ESG standard setter, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB). Under Mardi’s leadership CDSB published the first global capital market framework for reporting investor focussed information on climate, environmental and social matters to capital markets. CDSB’s work notably underpins both the TCFD and the TNFD frameworks and became an influential foundational building block in the establishment the International Sustainability Standards Board, where Mardi also played an important leadership role in its establishment. Mardi has enjoyed a vibrant career which involved her leading high profile flagship environmental campaigns, working in public sector policy advisory roles and public private partnership management. Originally qualifying as a forester and environmental scientist in Australia (Melbourne University) and agricultural economist (UK, SOAS), Mardi is a Board Member of XBRL International, a member of the UK Government Transition Pathway Taskforce Steering Group, trustee of one of the oldest environmental NGOs in the world, the International Tree Foundation, a founding Board member of WOCAN – Women Organising for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management / W+ Standard, a school governor and a member of the ICAEW Sustainability Advisory Committee. Mardi was awarded UK environmental campaigner of the year by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation in 2013 and in 2021 and was selected as one of the ESG Foundation’s ones to watch.

Mardi McBrien