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Alaya Consulting is a specialist consultancy focusing on ESG reporting, pre-assurance and sustainability training.
Alaya Consulting is a specialist consultancy focusing on ESG reporting, pre-assurance and sustainability training.
Associate consultant
Ruby Fang joined Alaya Consulting as an associate consultant in hopes to promote corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. Her main role includes day-to-day client communication, data management and preparation of reports. She graduated from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with a major in Environmental Sciences and a minor in Social Sciences. Ruby has also completed the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) accreditation training.
Associate consultant
I joined Alaya Consulting with an interest in environmental protection and sustainable development, hoping to provide better solutions for different companies, promoting sustainable development and achieving carbon neutrality. I was mainly responsible for data collection, environmental disclosure, carbon audits and assisting in the preparation of reports. I am fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. I graduated with a master’s degree in environmental engineering and management from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and a bachelor’s degree in atmospheric science from Nanjing University. I am also a yoga enthusiast.
Associate consultant
Xiaotong is responsible for handling data collection, writing ESG reports, and day-to-day client communications. She also assists with ESG disclosures and client support. She obtained her Master of Chemical Engineering in Shenzhen University, with a longterm focus on environmental pollutant assessment.
She also graduated in Bachelor of Engineering Science from Chang’an University, majoring in water pollution management.
Intern
Alisa Lam is an intern working at Alaya consulting during her gap year. She plans on studying Politics, International Relations and Global Sustainable Development at Warwick University in 2022. She has a keen interest in understanding what makes the best sustainability report, promoting corporate social responsibility and learning how to tailor sustainable strategies for different companies. She understands that implementing environmental and social policies is crucial in building a successful and resilient enterprise in today’s world. She is responsible for writing and revising reports as well as doing research for Alaya.
Management Trainee
Gabriel joined Alaya Consulting as a management trainee, responsible for conducting ESG advisory and reporting along with assisting the business development and marketing team.
He graduated from The University of Hong Kong with a bachelor’s degree of science majored in Environmental Science. Gabriel understands that working towards improving environmental and social issues is fundamental to building a sustainable and successful business. He would like to make a positive impact by joining the ESG advisory industry.
Associate consultant
Better ESG management shapes a more resilient and sustainable future.
Responsible for handling social data collection and analysis; Assist in preparing the sustainability report and daily communications with clients; Advise clients on ESG- related issues to optimize ESG disclosure and improve ESG performance.
Graduated from Uppsala University in Sweden with a master's degree in business and economics. Master thesis themed in green finance.
Associate Consultant
Eason joined Alaya Consulting as an associate consultant, responsible for preparing ESG reports. He is passionate about sustainability and eager in helping enterprises to improve their ESG performance. He graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong with a bachelor’s degree in science, major in Earth System Science and minor in Biology. Eason’s hobbies are playing table tennis and playing the guitar.
Consultant
Alva Yeung is keen in helping companies create sustainability strategies to help mitigate environment and social impact. Coming from an international relations background, she is familiar with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, UN Global Compact and other international initiatives. She is also responsible for social data analysis, facilitating stakeholder communication, ESG report writing and day-to-day client communication. Alva has completed the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) accreditation training.
Alva obtained her Master of International Relations and Public Affairs in University of Hong Kong and Bachelor Degree in City University of Hong Kong, major in Asian and International Studies.
Business Development and Marketing Manager
Sunny joined Alaya in 2020 with a goal to bolster ESG and sustainability in Hong Kong.
He works with Alaya to develop and promote its initiatives such as HERA and ESG Newswire.
He also works with existing and new partners to collaborate and host events promoting ESG strategy and disclosure.
Sunny has great plans to design and develop Alaya’s own ESG rating system in the coming future.
Born in India, bred in Hong Kong, and a bachelor’s degree from NYU, Sunny comes from a rich and diverse range of experiences.
He majored in Finance and Marketing and minored in Social Entrepreneurship.
He co-founded his own social enterprise, Grounded Upcycling, in New York that upcycles spent coffee grounds into soap and face masks.
In his free time, Sunny likes to go hiking, read, or play Squash!
Founder
Tony is the founder of Alaya Consulting Limited. With more than 16 years of experience in advising C-suite executives, both in-house and from the client side, he is particularly experienced in the development of corporate sustainability strategies, training, communication and ESG reporting approaches.
Tony works with client companies to help them improve disclosure levels and ESG ratings. Recent clients include AAC Technologies, CIMC, Panda Green Energy, Chiho Environmental Group, Integrated Waste Management, Baguio, MicroPort, Tianjin Port and others. Recent projects include organising the Hong Kong ESG Reporting Awards, contributing to the development of industry best practices.
Tony is a Chartered Company Secretary, a GRI Nominated Trainer, a carbon audit professional accredited by the Association of Energy Engineers, a Practitioner of Institute of Environmental Management Association and a certified sustainability assurance practitioner. He has also successfully completed the practitioner training of Integrated Reporting.
Prior to setting up Alaya, Tony assumed senior roles in various leading communications agencies and a Fortune top 10 financial services group. Before embarking on his career in communications, Tony spent a number of years in banking and financial journalism. He received a master’s degree in Corporate Governance from Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a bachelor’s degree in International Business from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
3 Signs You Should Use an ESG Data Management Solution
If you’re involved with the ESG disclosure process of a large company, and if your company still insists on using Excel spreadsheets for data management, then chances are you too understand how frustrating ESG data management can be.
If you’re involved with the ESG disclosure process of a large company, and if your company still insists on using Excel spreadsheets for data management, then chances are you too understand how frustrating ESG data management can be.
SYMPTOM 1: DATA COLLECTION IS TOO CHAOTIC
It’s one thing if your company only has one or two offices to report on. But it is an entirely different beast when your company has multiple offices, sites, factories, and supply chains, all feeding a range of ever-changing data to the poor guys who have to manually fit all that into spreadsheets after spreadsheets.
“But wait which version is this data from?”
“Who edited the data in the environmental section?”
”Were the changes approved?”
”We need approval from China office?!”
“What was the requirement for B2.2 again?”
If your teams spend a good chunk of time triple-checking like that to ensure data integrity, that’s valuable time lost for each individual. An ESG data solution may end up collectively saving them dozens of hours and headaches just by giving them the peace of mind that they can easily find out who is responsible for what, who did what to the data pool, and what’s missing for a specific reporting framework.
It is also wise to remember that if your teams find it exhausting to collect and manage that chaos, you can be pretty sure whoever has to audit that will hate it even more.
SYMPTOM 2: DIFFICULTY TURNING INTO ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS
What good is collecting all that data if you still don’t know what to do to improve performance? After all, one of the main goals of ESG reporting is precisely that – to increase the quality of your CSR efforts down the line. Improvement requires strategy, and if your company has any intention of tackling CSR / ESG strategically, then it pays to be able to track and monitor your performance at any given time.
Thus, making data actionable often requires the freedom to monitor performance anytime for efficient decision-making, and an ESG data solution does exactly that. This doesn’t have to be that fancy either. Sure, some high-end software solutions can probably utilise Big Data for detailed insights and megatrends, but even just some simple visualisation tools can go a long way to ease the pain point of conceptualizing (a lot of) numbers. It would also be useful to have some means of data comparison, either with past performance, or benchmarking with your peers. Both enable you to view your ESG data in context, and they’re features that you can likely find even in an affordable ESG software solution.
SYMPTOM 3: INEFFICIENT COMMUNICATION
The same benefit of real-time data access extends to the communication of your ESG performance as well. Say an important stakeholder or investor abruptly wants to know your current performance for decision making, and he does not have the leisure to wait around until your next sustainability report. What do you do? Do you immediately scramble for all involved data teams to verify data accuracy and relevance, and relive symptom 1 all over again?
Or do you just … click and send?
Many ESG software solutions are designed for disclosure purposes, often with different solutions catering to different frameworks or standards. Some may allow you to share specific components of your ESG performance in various visual formats (perhaps in pdf or excel), while others may even let you export a full data report. At the very least this means you can send easily digestible data to anyone who needs it without having to spend extra time manually cranking out pie charts. And if nobody happens to need the data urgently, these features will definitely be handy when the big report finally comes around.
WRAPPING UP
Current AND past performance? Check.
Which metrics to disclose? Check.
Visualisation tools to impress your numerically challenged boss? Check.
Customer support in case of any difficulties? Thank goodness.
Let software solutions do what they do best, so that you can focus on what matters most. But remember. While you do generally get what you pay for in terms of number of features, you’ll get a lot more bang-for-the-buck if you first understand which features you truly need. If your company is massive and dead serious about ESG performance, that shiny 6-figure-a-year top-end software with advanced data analytics could be well worth it the investment. But perhaps you’ve only just begun your ESG journey and all you need is something for more efficient and dependable reporting. Or perhaps you only need to comply with your local reporting requirements. If you manage your expectations and understand your needs, even a ‘budget’ software solution may be sufficient to solve your headaches.