Leadership
Jim Allenby on Finding ESG Value Beyond Compliance
Box ticking still matters, but the real return comes from capital, people and confident conversations with investors, starting with awareness and a clear roadmap.
The Parvate Way - On Purpose Podcast Episode #2
Video from Parvate ESG.
Generated from the canonical interview transcript and validated against source data by Guests on Air.
How can a business find value in ESG beyond compliance?
Treat compliance as the starting point, not the goal. Jim Allenby suggests building awareness of what ESG covers, setting a baseline of current metrics and a roadmap for improvement, then using the work to win access to capital, keep a safe workplace that attracts good staff, and answer investors and lenders with confidence when they ask about ESG.
Many boards first meet ESG as a list of boxes to tick. Jim Allenby, a former professional cricketer who now works with leaders from Perth, argues that the boxes matter but are only the start. On the On Purpose Podcast from Parvate ESG, he explained how organisations can find real value beyond compliance without being frozen by fear of the unknown.
Allenby joined host John and his colleague Paul Gaudoin to describe what they call the Parvate way. For him it means helping businesses meet the ESG criteria they are judged on while improving performance, rather than tying them up in paperwork. Both men come from a high performance sport background, and that focus on steady improvement shapes how they work.
The conversation was aimed at finance leaders and boards, especially in Western Australia, who keep hearing one question: what is your organisation doing about ESG? Allenby's answer is practical. Build awareness first, set a baseline, map a route for improvement, and treat the value to staff, investors and lenders as the real reason to do the work.
Key takeaways
- Compliance and box ticking still matter; the aim is to add value on top of them, not to dismiss them.
- Most ESG work starts with awareness: what ESG covers and why investors, banks and staff keep asking about it.
- A baseline assessment and a roadmap built on current metrics give an organisation a clear course for steady improvement.
- Value beyond compliance shows up in access to capital, safer workplaces and attracting and keeping the best staff.
1. Compliance is the floor, not the ceiling
Allenby is careful not to talk down the compliance side of ESG. He told the podcast there is nothing wrong with it, and that box ticking is very important, as it is in many industries. The trouble starts when an organisation stops there and treats ESG as a reporting chore rather than a chance to run the business better.
That idea sits behind the approach he called the Parvate way. Around 2020, he said, the firm moved with more speed into ESG and saw a lot of compliance work that felt like box ticking. Its response was to help businesses meet the criteria they are measured on while increasing performance, instead of tying them up with compliance.
Paul Gaudoin added that a new topic often brings an element of fear, because people do not know what it involves. Their answer is a step by step approach in which an organisation does not fail; it simply starts and develops along the way. Allenby noted that many boards are surprised to learn they are already doing much of the work quite well.
2. Where the value beyond compliance shows up
Asked by the host, who works with finance leaders, what a CFO could tell a board about value beyond compliance, Allenby pointed first to capital. If ticking certain boxes lets a company access funding from banks or investors, that matters for the future of the business and for keeping its people employed. Lenders now ask about ESG when firms apply for loans.
He also pointed to the workplace itself. A workplace that is safe both physically and mentally, he said, helps a company attract and retain the most desirable staff, and that affects business performance directly. The panel noted that in Western Australia, with many jobs open and few people to fill them, how a firm looks after its staff has become a pressing question.
The third benefit is being able to hold the conversation. Allenby described a literacy course run with mining executives, chairs, CEOs, managing directors and boards so they could answer when investors ask what they are doing about ESG. In Perth, the team has also worked with a worldwide accounting firm, a large legal practice and several banks to prepare their leaders for the same question.
3. Start with awareness, then build the roadmap
The most common question Allenby hears is the simplest one: what is ESG, and how do we do it right? Much of the work since 2020 has gone into building that awareness, explaining what ESG captures and why people keep asking about it. Only once that basic understanding is in place does a detailed plan make sense for a board or leadership team.
From there the work becomes practical. He described ESG roadmaps that begin with an audit, a baseline or an initial assessment of current ESG metrics, then set a course for future improvement based on those numbers. Net Zero is one example, where leaders first need to understand what it means and what scope one, two and three emissions cover.
The discussion closed on supply chains and modern slavery, which are more complicated than many people expect. As the panel put it, you do not know what you do not know, and seeing the metrics shows how an organisation should behave. Where your lithium, diesel or water comes from, and who accounts for its emissions, is now part of doing business.
