While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed new environmental, social and governance disclosure rules have yet to be finalized, its proposed climate related disclosure rules signify a growing global effort to make corporate ESG reporting more consistent and transparent.

Irrespective of how the final SEC ESG disclosure rules shape up, corporate boards; management teams; and other internal functions such as marketing, strategy, compliance, and audit, will likely need to lean more heavily on Legal to understand the new rules – especially given that 68% of chief legal officers report being the enterprise ESG leader for their organization. Therefore, integrating Legal more solidly within the business by increasing communications and collaboration on ESG will be important.