About
The public reading room for sustainability disclosure
The ESG Foundation publishes what organisations already disclose, and the method by which it reads them. The public layer is free, and stays free.
Who we are
The ESG Foundation is a non-profit knowledge platform for sustainability disclosure. We read what organisations publish, we make it comparable, and we put the result in public. We were established in 2020.
Why now
Disclosure is no longer optional. Sustainability reporting standards are being adopted across more than thirty jurisdictions, and carbon border measures now attach a price to what companies report. Yet even listed companies with dedicated teams struggle to produce a usable report, and most organisations are not calibrated to report at all. Meanwhile the reporting that does exist sits unread, in formats built for publication rather than comparison. The scarcity problem has been solved. The legibility problem has not.
What we do
We do three things. We curate a free public showcase of published ESG and sustainability reporting, so that examples of better practice are easy to find, industry by industry. We publish benchmarks in which every figure is traceable to the page of the document it came from, alongside the full methodology used to produce it. And we convene the people doing this work, through The ESG Podcast and the ESG Awards.
We do not issue questionnaires. We do not charge organisations to be covered. We do not rate or certify anyone. Where a company has not disclosed something, we record that it has not disclosed it.
Start with the Reports Showcase, the GCC ESG Benchmark or the methodology.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors is accountable for the Foundation's published work and for the independence of its method.
Ivano Iannelli
Chairman
Ivano Iannelli is a development economist and internationally recognised authority on climate finance, carbon markets economics and ESG governance, with more than thirty years of experience advising governments, sovereign wealth funds, multilateral institutions and publicly listed companies on the commercial and regulatory dimensions of the energy transition.
He currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of TRST01 Climate Intelligence, a DIFC based Centre of Excellence deploying native agentic AI infrastructure for Paris Agreement compliance. TRST01 is operationalising World Bank supported programmes in the DRC and Malawi, originating compliance carbon assets and ITMOs under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and developing institutional grade climate finance platforms for infrastructure scale energy transition investments across emerging markets. The platform integrates digital MRV infrastructure, regulatory compliance architecture and international climate finance mechanisms to ensure environmental integrity, corresponding adjustments under UNFCCC frameworks and investment grade commercial viability.
Previously, as Senior Advisor to the CEO of Emirates Global Aluminium, one of the world's largest industrial exporters to the EU and the United States, he led the pre IPO sustainability transformation of a sovereign linked, multi billion dollar operator. He raised EGA's Sustainalytics global ranking to second worldwide, expanding the institutional investor pool and reducing capital costs, while designing the CBAM compliance programme and a USD 250 million decarbonisation fund structured around NPV modelling of future regulatory liabilities.
As Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Carbon under the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, he built one of the GCC's primary climate advisory and project development institutions, contributing to national GHG inventories, NDC development and the structuring of the Dubai Green Fund, a sovereign investment vehicle designed to mobilise private capital into sustainable infrastructure at scale.
Earlier in his career he served as Chief of Programmes within the United Nations system, managing IFI funded programmes across post conflict environments in Africa and the Middle East and contributing to the development of CORSIA. He maintains active engagement with ICAO, IATA, the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market and World Bank led carbon pricing initiatives.
He holds a doctorate (viva pending) in environmental economics from Heriot Watt University, an MBA in aviation management from Coventry University, and executive education in AI, leadership and innovation strategy from Harvard Business School. His work is grounded in one conviction: sustainability is not a reporting function, it is the architecture of long term competitive advantage, rooted in strategy rather than marketing.
Clive Booth FRSA
Vice Chairman
Clive Booth is a marketing and communications specialist working across media, political, B2B and B2C relations. His early career was at the Financial Times, followed by award winning public relations consultancies and senior in house communications roles.
He became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in 2006 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2009. He founded The ESG Foundation in 2020 and sits on the Board of Directors as Vice Chairman.
He is a Connect to Work specialist with Essex County Council, a Trustee of the Essex Respite and Care Association, and a Non Executive Director of the Eden Foundation and Swap Space. He writes regularly on ESG reporting and governance, including for Actuarial Post, and is the author of Memory Stick.
Board of Advisors
The Board of Advisors is being formed. It advises on method, on the reading of disclosure, and on the standards the Foundation aligns to. It holds no executive authority and confers no influence over inclusion in the showcase, coverage in the benchmark, or the outcome of the awards.
Call for candidatures
Applications are open
We are seeking practitioners in sustainability reporting, assurance, law, accounting and academia who are willing to challenge a published method in public. Positions are unpaid and carry a two year term. Write to us with a short statement of interest and a summary of your reporting or assurance experience.
Special Advisers
Adviser names are published here once appointments have been confirmed in writing.
Friends of the Foundation
Friends of the Foundation are published here once each relationship has been confirmed in writing. Support does not affect inclusion in the showcase, coverage in the benchmark, or the outcome of the awards.
Governance
The ESG Foundation owns and publishes its methodology, its benchmarks and its public library. Data extraction technology is licensed to the Foundation by Anthropogenic AI on arm's length commercial terms. No company pays to be included, excluded, corrected or ranked, and no commercial relationship influences what is published.