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Guide

The ESG report checklist.

Everything to have in hand before you start drafting, grouped by who in your organisation actually owns it — so you can send four short lists rather than one long one.

Groups

Five

Use it

Before drafting

Send it

By owner, not whole

Covers

Evidence and method

9 min read

Reviewed September 2026

How to use this

Do not send this whole list to anyone. Send each group to the person who owns it — company secretary, facilities, finance, procurement, sustainability — with a date. A list of forty items sent to one person produces nothing; five lists of eight items sent to five people produce a disclosure.

Work through it before you start drafting. The purpose is to discover what is missing while there is still time to get it, rather than while you are writing.

1 — Governance evidence (company secretary)

Board or committee terms of referenceShowing sustainability and climate oversight explicitly, with the date the responsibility was assigned.
Minutes recording considerationDates on which the board or committee discussed sustainability matters, and what was decided. Not a standing agenda item with no substance.
Management responsibilityNamed role accountable, reporting line, and how information reaches the board.
Skills and competenciesHow the board satisfied itself that appropriate skills are available — training undertaken, advisers engaged, or committee composition.
Target-setting oversightWhere targets exist: evidence that the board approved them and reviews progress.

2 — Activity data (facilities and operations)

Electricity consumption, every site, every monthIn kilowatt-hours, per meter, for the full reporting period. Gaps identified rather than estimated silently.
Generator fuel, per generator, every monthIn litres, by fuel type. This is usually your largest source — do not accept a site-level total if per-generator is obtainable.
Other stationary fuelsGas, LPG, HFO for boilers, kilns, dryers and furnaces.
Fleet fuelFrom fuel cards or pump records, by vehicle where possible.
Refrigerant top-upsType and quantity of any refrigerant added during the period — the proxy for leakage.
Process dataWhere you have process emissions: production volumes and the inputs that drive the chemical release.

3 — Source documents (whoever holds them)

Utility billsThe actual bill for each period, not a transcription. This is the evidence behind every Scope 2 figure.
Fuel delivery notes and invoicesIdeally showing site and date of delivery.
Generator log sheetsPhotographs of the paper log are acceptable evidence and far better than nothing.
Supplier responsesFor Scope 3: what was asked, what was returned, and when.
Meter readings and reconciliationsWhere you read meters directly rather than relying on billed consumption.

4 — Method decisions to record (sustainability and finance)

Consolidation approachOperational control, financial control or equity share, and why. Applied consistently.
Reporting boundaryThe list of entities and sites inside it, and the basis for anything excluded.
Emission factors and versionsWhich factor for each activity, from which source and publication year.
Global warming potentialsWhich IPCC assessment the values came from.
Scope 3 materiality assessmentHow each of the fifteen categories was assessed, which were judged material, and the basis for excluding the rest.
Estimates and their methodsEvery figure that was estimated rather than measured, and how.
Restatement policyWhat you will do when a factor is revised. Decided in advance.

5 — Narrative sections and who writes them

Governance descriptionCompany secretary. Describes what actually happened, so it is written from the minutes.
Risks and opportunitiesRisk function with sustainability input. Must connect to the enterprise risk register rather than sit beside it.
Effects on business model and strategyStrategy or finance. The section investors read most closely.
Climate resilience and scenario analysisWhoever ran it. Method disclosed, and it should have informed a decision.
Targets and progressSustainability, approved by the board. Base year, boundary, scope coverage and milestones stated.
Basis of preparationFinance. This is the section an assurance provider reads first and the one most often missing.

Pre-submission checks

Questions

What if we cannot get some of this?

Record the gap, the reason and what you are doing about it. Every first cycle has gaps. A disclosed gap with a remediation plan is a legitimate disclosure; a silently missing item is not, and it is the first thing a reviewer notices.

How far back should the source documents go?

The full reporting period, plus the comparative period once you have one. Retention should match your financial records policy — assurance providers may test several years back.

Can we use this checklist if we are not filing yet?

It is arguably more useful then. Running it a year early tells you exactly what you are not currently collecting, which is the entire point of a dry run.

Check this yourself

A summary of a regulation is not the regulation. These are the primary documents this page is based on.

File with confidence, before the deadline files you.

Companies that start now collect a full clean year before they ever have to file. Companies that start late reconstruct one — and that is the expensive part.

Check your deadline

Four questions, and you get the year you first file, the framework, and what to collect first.

Read the requirement

Plain-language explainers of the FRC and SEC rules, ISSB S1 & S2, and what each asks you to disclose.

Compare the cost

What a consultant-led reporting cycle costs against an annual licence, in Naira.