WA ESG Governance Roundtable 2025: From Awareness to Action

Location: QT Hotel, Perth

Naturaliste Solutions, in collaboration with the Governance Institute of Australia, was proud to host senior executives, directors, and governance professionals at the WA ESG Governance Roundtable.

Thank you to everyone who joined, contributed, and challenged the conversation. Your willingness to share your priorities and roadblocks created a rich, practical dialogue about where ESG governance is today—and where it must go next.

A special thank you to the QT Hotel for hosting us at such a dynamic venue.

“True ESG governance demands more than statements and policies—it demands structure, measurement, accountability, and courage from leaders. Those who steward ESG well will build resilience, trust and long-term value.”
– Rebecah Ettridge, Naturaliste Solutions

Key Learnings from the Roundtable

• Governance beyond policy: Organisations must ensure ESG is part of the board and executive decision cycle—embedded in risk, strategy, and incentives.

• Materiality & measurement: Clear metrics, both environmental and social, are essential. Stakeholders are asking for quantifiable outcomes, not just narrative commitments.

• Regulatory & investor pressure rising: As frameworks become more structured and regulatory regimes tighten, the cost of lagging behind escalates.

• Leadership accountability: ESG can’t rest with sustainability or CSR teams alone. Boards and executives need clarity on roles, risk oversight, and reward structures.

• Disclosure & assurance matter: Credible ESG reporting requires good data, external verification, and transparency around methodologies to defend against greenwashing or reputational risk.

Reinforcing With Broader ESG Trends

These learnings are not just what we saw in Perth — they align closely with what is happening across major ASX-listed organisations. Here are some trends from recent Australian reporting and research that support the urgency and opportunity in what was discussed at the Roundtable:

• Near-universal sustainability reporting with variation in quality. In recent surveys, roughly 97% of ASX100 companies report on sustainability performance. KPMG Assets

• Emerging mandatory standards and transition. The new Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards (ASRS) (especially ASRS S1 and S2) are pushing companies toward more formalised, consistent reporting. Many ASX100 companies are already referencing ASRS in their reports. KPMG Assets

• Frameworks & alignment: Most reporting companies align with major global reporting frameworks: high uptake of GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures), and increasing consideration of UN Sustainable Development Goals. KPMG Assets

• The ‘S’ in ESG still lags behind in depth and consistency. Research shows that while social issues are increasingly reported, many disclosures remain narrative, lacking standardised metrics, limited in value-chain scope, and often unverified. For example, a report found only ~55% of key social indicators are regularly reported by ASX100 firms across 40 criteria defined in the GRI. UNSW Sites

• Assurance and external verification increasing but still uneven. More companies are seeking external assurance of sustainability disclosures, especially climate-related metrics. However the level of assurance (limited vs reasonable) and coverage (which metrics, how often) varies significantly. KPMG Assets

• Climate risk & scenario analysis becoming more common. ASX100 companies are increasingly acknowledging climate change as a material risk and beginning to use scenario-analysis tools, set science-aligned targets, and integrate these into strategic planning. KPMG Assets

Implications & What You Can Do

Here are the implications of these trends — and what organisations might proactively do: