John Marler’s take on ESG reporting [in 2020]
published 5.6.20
AEG is a worldwide leader in live sports and entertainment. Their sports division is the largest collection of sports franchises in the world, including the LA Kings of the NHL and the LA Galaxy of MLS. Their music division, AEG Presents, includes venues, festivals, and touring, with brands including Coachella, Electric Forest, and British Summertime. They also develop entertainment districts, like their home base at LA LIVE in Los Angeles, to The O2 in London, and the new Mercedes Platz in Berlin.
John Marler is the VP of Energy + Environnment at AEG and a reporting expert in his own right. He has produced 7 reports for AEG during his tenure at the organization.
qb. Reporting Lead Lis Best interviewed John before our ESG Reporting [in 2020] webinar. Below are a few excerpts from their exchange.
Lis: You've been reporting for seven years, and in that time you made the shift to an annual reporting cycle. Can you tell us more about how you made the case for this at a privately-held company, and how you adapted best practices for your purposes?
John: It wasn’t so much about making the case, it was more a question for me and my team about whether we thought we could actually do the report on an annual basis. I know we’re not the only company that struggles with annual reporting because I’ve seen other companies issue multi-year reports, or you go to their website and see they haven’t put out a report in a few years. It’s a hard thing to do.
I came on board in an April 2013, and at that time our prior report came out the prior November. I felt like that was too late in the year, especially for a two-year report. By the time the report comes out the numbers and the content may be almost three years old. We looked at the work load and the scheduling and decided to give a one-year report a try. It was a challenge the first year, but we released the first one-year report in June. Now, we release the report every Earth Day, in April, as we’re now more efficient.
As for best practices, we’re not a publicly-traded company so we don’t have the kinds of mandatory reporting that those companies need to adhere to. But we look at various reporting standards, like GRI, and apply what’s relevant to our company.
Lis: We've talked before about the importance of being straightforward in reporting and the need for alternate formats for reports beyond the 80-100-page-long versions that so many companies publish. Can you tell me more about your reporting philosophy?
John: To me it’s important to use the standards to make sure it’s a quality product. But, you also want to have some leeway to make it authentic, to put it into your company’s voice, and to make it something that people will like.
I think it’s important to remember that a good report will serve a lot of purposes. Obviously, you report accurate data and progress towards your goals. But, you can also inspire people with your case studies. Year after year, the feedback we get is that people love the case studies in the report. It’s not always the biggest stories, either – people love to see examples of ingenuity. I also think it’s important to be transparent and frank in the report. For example, maybe your company didn’t meet a certain target. That happens. But to me it’s important to explain why. We have a number of vendors that read our report. If we can explain a certain problem, chances are they may be able to step up and help. So, these are all examples of the different purposes the report serves.
Lis: And what is AEG’s approach to reporting?
John: Our approach to reporting is to identify the material impacts of our business on the environment and then to explain what steps we’re taking to mitigate or eliminate those impacts. For our company, our impacts fall within three areas: greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, and waste generation. We have meaningful goals for all three areas and our annual report gives us the chance to show our progress towards our goals. At AEG, sustainability looks very much like you see in our report, where we showcase some of our successful initiatives that are helping reduce our environmental impacts. We also devote energy toward communicating with our various stakeholders about sustainability, to help influence positive action outside our direct control, and to help source solutions to challenges we face in everyday operations.
Lis: How are you thinking about reporting in 2020?
John: This year, I’m pretty sure we’re not going to issue a report. I think we need several months to get through coronavirus before it even makes sense to put something out. We’re still crunching our numbers and pulling in and polishing content, but “reporting” is more than just the report. We’re continuing to engage employees and the public on sustainability during this time, just without an annual report, which is something very few people read anyway.
Lis: How are you thinking about sustainability in 2020 more broadly?
John: Hopefully, this experience with coronavirus will help everyone understand how all these issues are related. One of the themes I like is how the “flatten the curve” concept applies to controlling infections and to reducing carbon emissions. Once coronavirus is behind us, I think flatten the curve will be a helpful tool to help people get motivated to tackle climate change.
Lis: For other companies that may either just be getting started or may be thinking about hitting "pause" this year, do you have any recommendations for the kind of work that can happen behind the scenes during that lull?
John: My first suggestion is to use the time to tighten up your data and content collection practices. We’re always working on that, but now we’re having a little easier time getting peoples’ attention. Next, I think you have to adapt your program to our new reality. So, think about how your business is going to change, and how that’s going to impact your ability to keep making progress on your sustainability initiatives.
Lis: One thing you've mentioned is the importance of being creative about communications in this moment. Can you share examples of how you've done that, and are there recent examples of companies or messages that you've admired?
John: We just refreshed our annual AEGGoGreen campaign. This year we have a great new video called “Imagine”. In the video, it asks viewers to imagine a world with clean air – now we have that clean air! That was a lucky accident, but I think it’s a great teaching moment. I’m sensing some real momentum behind air pollution and carbon initiatives, because people now see how much better things could be.
I was really excited Budweiser made wind energy the centerpiece of their Super Bowl ad in 2019. There’s no more valuable ad space than that so as a sustainability professional that made me happy. I also like the Chevy Volt “Jetsons” commercial – it’s a cute spot, but conveys a lot of messages in a light-hearted but powerful way.
