From silo to system

Why Product-level ESG work
now belongs to the whole organisation

For years, sustainability tasks were concentrated in a single “ESG department.” That model made sense when sustainability work revolved around corporate reporting, high-level targets, and voluntary disclosures.

But the landscape has changed. The ESG agenda has matured. Regulations are tightening, product-level data is becoming essential, and both customers and investors are demanding transparency far beyond annual reports and storytelling. As a result, the work load and responsibilities connected to a company’s environmental footprint is shifting from a specialised silo to a distributed responsibility across the entire organisation.

Maturity means moving beyond the ESG silo

In most organisations, the sustainability team consists of deeply committed employees, who try to juggle everything, but are sometimes structurally constrained/challenged. While they might have the overview and responsibility to lead the efforts, they do not necessarily have the capacity or mandate to gather:

• detailed material compositions
• supplier-specific emission factors
• transport modes per product
• production yields and process data
• packaging specifications
• end-of-life scenarios

As soon as ESG requirements reach the level of products, bill of materials, supplier inputs, and operational decisions, the work naturally sits within the teams that own those activities. The ESG team should then transform to an enabler; they become project managers and facilitators – rather than a catch-all unit.

This is a sign of maturity.

We know that implementing new ways of working can seem daunting and naturally there will be a transition period, while each department implement this new focus. And we are not here to say that it is easy or can happen over night – this is an iterative process between departments. But historically most companies have successfully managed similar transitions before; once the organisation recognises the effort as business-critical, accountability expands to every function. And this is what is needed for future success with the environmental agenda.

The Maturity Leap: Who does what?

At Målbar we know the value that can be found in this data.  The savings, the risk management, the development and focus that can be achieved based on accurate product data and collaboration between teams. We know that this organisational shift is not just about compliance; it’s about competitiveness. And it requires every department to get involved:

 

• Product & R&D
  Design choices; materials, finishes and construction methods determine most of a product’s environmental profile. Therefore the team should understand their effect and impact, and be responsible for integrating environmental performance into product development by e.g. designing with impact in mind, selecting materials on a climate-reflected level, challenge specifications, and ensure that decisions can be supported by climate/environmental argumentation and traceable data.
• Procurement & logistics
  Plays a central role in communicating efforts in the supply chain, gathering supplier data, negotiating access to verified environmental information, and incorporating sustainability into sourcing criteria, not as a “nice to have,” but as part of core risk and cost management.
• Operations & Manufacturing
  Production processes, energy use, waste, yields, and factory configurations are all core contributors to Scope 1–3 emissions that have huge effect in impact, as they are operational realities that directly drive emissions and resource use.
• Finance
  Increasingly needed to ensure ESG data is audit-ready, aligns with risk frameworks, and reflects the same level of governance as financial reporting, especially under CSRD and similar regulations.
• Sales & Customer Teams
  Sales teams need accessible, consistent data to translate product-level environmental information into value for customers, respond confidently to sustainability requirements in tenders and partnerships, develop close relations with key partners in the agenda and push for aligned understanding of impact and progress.
• ESG / Sustainability Team
  Critical as strategic directional unit working as facilitators, standard-setters, and quality guardians rather than sole owners of the agenda. Their job shifts from doing everything themselves to enabling everyone else to do their part as a natural part of their tasks; correctly and consistently.