Executive pay needs a Return on Planet.
ESG metrics make up less than 5% of executive pay, and seven of nine planetary boundaries have been crossed. ROP is a metric your board designs, owns and can defend — with the tools and guides to put it on the agenda.
A planetary metric with the discipline of return on equity.
Boards understand return on equity: a ratio that can be audited, compared and tied to pay. ROP does the same for planetary impact — the pillars your strategy depends on, rolled into one score from 0 to 100.
Typical ESG pay metrics today
- Training completion rates and ratings upgrades
- Committee discretion on “progress”
- 3–5% of the bonus, paying out at 128% of target
- Environmental data with no check on the culture behind it
A Return on Planet
- Outcome indicators you can verify independently
- Threshold, target and maximum, like any financial metric
- 15–25% of STI and 10–20% of LTI
- Speak-up and anti-corruption pillars that make the data credible
Why ROP holds up in the boardroom.
Strategy first
ROP isn't a checklist handed down from outside. The board starts from its own strategy, then chooses the pillars, weights and indicators. A remuneration committee will only defend a metric it chose itself.
A credibility layer
Environmental data is only as good as the culture that produces it. Speak-up culture, anti-bribery controls and planetary culture sit alongside the five environmental pillars.
Real consequences
Targets are set so they can actually be missed. Below threshold the payout is zero, discretion only works downwards, and results are verified before anything pays out.
From first conversation to proxy disclosure.
Most boards start with the concept and evidence, test ideas in the calculator, then use the toolkit and board guide to run the discussion.
The concept
The problem with today's ESG pay metrics, the eight ROP pillars, and how the score connects to pay.
Open →UnderstandThe evidence
Anonymised examples of emissions data, monitoring results and carbon credits that nobody checked.
Open →ModelROP calculator
Set weights and scores, choose a pay structure, and see the effect on STI and LTI. Share it with a link.
Open →ImplementBoard toolkit
Readiness self-assessment, a stress test for your current metrics, an indicator library and a safeguards checklist.
Open →ImplementBoard guide
Five implementation steps, a 90-minute board session agenda, a question bank and disclosure wording.
Open →LearnIndustry examples
Illustrative configurations for technology, chemicals, banking, mining and food & agriculture.
Open →Built for the people who set and approve pay.
Board chairs
Open a strategic conversation about planetary risk that connects to the pay discussion.
Remuneration committee chairs
Replace soft ESG modifiers with a metric that stands up to proxy-adviser and investor scrutiny.
Chief sustainability officers
Put the data you already report to work in the pay envelope, weighted by what matters strategically.
General counsel & compliance
Show that speak-up and anti-bribery programmes are what make the environmental numbers credible.
The planet isn't asking for perfection.
It's asking for accountability — the same accountability boards already demand for financial performance. Start with the board guide, or talk to Speeki about an ROP workshop.