Governance and Sustainability

Overview

In an increasingly complex environment, balanced governance and sustainability strategies, practices, and disclosures are core to how companies manage risk, build credibility, and support long-term value creation. We partner with boards and senior leadership teams to help navigate evolving expectations in a more fragmented and less predictable stakeholder landscape.

Our Approach

We help organizations anticipate governance and sustainability risks, understand stakeholder expectations, and make practical choices aligned with their business strategy, operating environment, and long-term objectives. We assess vulnerabilities before threats manifest, evaluate the perspectives of investors, customers, activists, employees, regulators, and other stakeholders, and help clients tailor their governance and sustainability practices, oversight, and disclosures to account for those realities while staying true to their strategic priorities. Our work can be focused on a specific issue or structured as a broader, multi-year program with clear metrics and goals.

Strategic

Connected to broader business objectives and tailored to the client, industry, and level of urgency.

Stakeholder-informed

Grounded in the perspectives and expectations of investors, employees, customers, regulators, proxy advisors, activists, pro-ESG and anti-ESG advocates, suppliers, and other key stakeholders, with a clear view of voting, engagement, disclosure, and market dynamics.

Cross-functional

Partner across legal, finance, investor relations, communications, total rewards, people, sustainability, and procurement teams.

We understand that each of our clients’ situations is unique. As such, each of our partnerships begins with a shared vision and ambition to help organizations to:

make more deliberate and effective decisions on governance and sustainability priorities;
foster an empowered management team and a strategic board;
create more resilient business models;
forge stronger relationships with key stakeholders;
develop more effective engagement and disclosure strategies; and
build a stronger, more successful governance and sustainability model, backed by the confidence of its stakeholders.

Who We Work With

Boards, board committees, and independent directors
CEOs and C-Suite members
Corporate secretaries and general counsels
CFOs and investor relations leaders
Corporate communications teams
CHROs and heads of total rewards
Chief sustainability officers and cross-functional sustainability teams
Global heads of business navigating complex cross-border challenges

In addition to public company boards and management teams, we partner with other types of organizations, including pre-IPO and privately-held companies, institutional investors, and NGOs.

We partner with multidisciplinary teams within Teneo to align strategy, disclosure, engagement, and implementation.

Our Core Advisory Services

Governance & Board Advisory

We help companies understand investor expectations, make well-grounded governance decisions, and prepare for the moments that shape shareholder support.

Governance framework benchmarking, development, and assessment
Board advisory, board effectiveness, and committee support
Contested meetings, activism defense and preparedness, and response support
Shareholder engagement programs and governance roadshows
Executive compensation advisory and say-on-pay readiness
Proxy disclosures and governance framing

Sustainability Advisory

We support organizations in navigating complex sustainability demands while defining practical priorities, strengthening internal alignment, and improving decision-making, anchored in long-term value creation and financial materiality.