Climate & Carbon
Greenhouse gas emissions reduction and climate transition alignment
- Scope 1+2 emissions intensity (tCO2e per unit revenue)
- SBTi target validation status
- Scope 3 coverage and reduction trajectory
- CDP Climate score
Return on Planet/The concept
The concept
ESG in pay didn't fail. It was never hard enough.
Return on Planet keeps the substance of sustainability-linked pay and adds the rigour it always lacked: outcome indicators, board-set weights, a credibility layer, and payouts that can fall to zero.
The problem
“All hat and no cattle”
That's how Columbia Law School's analysis describes the average ESG metric in executive pay. Binding ESG targets explain less than 1% of the variation in what executives actually receive, while financial metrics drive 87% of short-term pay variability.
Companies are quietly pulling back, and some have removed sustainability links from executive pay altogether. WTW reports DEI metrics cut by roughly half in a single year. Where ESG metrics survive, they pay out at 128% of target, against 109% for financial metrics. The targets aren't challenging. They're gifts.
The answer isn't less accountability for planetary impact. It's more — and harder.
The taxonomy of easy
Four patterns of weak ESG metrics.
They measure inputs, opinions, processes or intentions — never outcomes. An executive can hit every one without anything changing in the atmosphere, the watershed or the biodiversity index.
01
Training completion
“95% complete sustainability training.” It measures clicks, not impact — like setting “file your tax return” as a financial target.
02
Ratings improvement
“Move from A to AA.” ESG ratings correlate as low as 0.38 with each other; a company can score higher by writing a better report rather than emitting less.
03
Discretionary assessment
The committee judges “progress on sustainability”. The people who set the pay also decide whether the target was met — and discretionary metrics pay out more.
04
Commitment-based targets
“Publish a net-zero plan.” This treats making a promise as performance. After one cycle, the metric should be whether the promise is kept.
Strategy first
ROP begins with the board, not a template.
Most sustainability frameworks lose the boardroom because they arrive as fixed templates: here are the metrics, here are the weights, now comply. Compliance is exactly the mindset that produced today's weak metrics.
ROP starts with a question every board should already be asking: what is our strategy, and where does the planet show up in it? For an energy company, a food group or a miner, the answer is central to revenue, cost of capital and licence to operate. For a bank it runs through the lending book. For a software firm it sits in energy use and the integrity of reported data.
- Fixed: a composite 0–100 score, weighted pillars, verifiable indicators, a threshold/target/maximum payout curve, and disclosure.
- Yours: which pillars to use, their weights (0–50% each, 100% in total), the specific indicators, and the target levels.
The architecture
Eight pillars: a menu, not a mandate.
Five environmental pillars map to the planetary boundaries and to existing GRI, SASB, ISSB and TNFD disclosures. Three governance pillars form the credibility layer that determines whether the environmental numbers can be trusted.
Environmental
Nature & Biodiversity
Biodiversity impact, land use, and ecosystem preservation
- Deforestation-free sourcing percentage
- SBTN land targets
- Biodiversity impact assessment score
- Protected area adjacency risk
Water & Oceans
Water stewardship, ocean health, and freshwater system integrity
- Water intensity (m³ per unit revenue)
- Operations in high-stress basins with mitigation plans
- Effluent quality vs regulatory limits
- SBTN freshwater targets
Resource Circularity
Material efficiency, waste reduction, and circular economy practices
- Waste diversion rate
- Recycled/renewable material input percentage
- Product lifecycle assessment coverage
- Packaging circularity score
Pollution Prevention
Non-GHG emissions, chemical management, and pollution control
- NOx/SOx/PM emissions intensity
- PFAS phase-out progress
- Chemical management system certification
- Toxic release inventory trends
Trust & Speak-Up Culture
Psychological safety, whistleblower effectiveness, and organizational trust
- Reports per 100 employees (benchmark: 1.3-1.5 mature organizations)
- Anonymous reporting percentage
- Investigation closure rate and timeliness
- Retaliation claims rate
Anti-Bribery & Corruption
Anti-corruption controls, third-party due diligence, and regulatory compliance
- ISO 37001 certification status
- Third-party due diligence coverage
- FCPA/UK Bribery Act compliance record
- Gifts and hospitality policy violations
Planetary Culture
Internalized planetary values, leadership behavior, and sustainability integration
- Board-level sustainability competence assessment
- Executive sustainability KPI integration depth
- Sustainability integration in strategic planning
- Innovation pipeline with planetary benefit
Sample profile: strong on climate reporting, weak on the culture behind it.
The credibility layer
Why speak-up and anti-corruption belong in a planetary metric.
A company can publish a validated transition plan and report Scope 1–3 emissions, and all of it can still be unreliable if the culture suppresses inconvenient truths.
Psychological safety is how organisations surface the information that keeps reported numbers honest. Bribery around permits, inspections or carbon credits corrupts environmental data at the source.
Measuring environmental outputs without the integrity behind them is like auditing financial statements without examining internal controls. The numbers might be right, but you have no basis for confidence.
Planetary culture
Does the organisation believe the planet matters?
Culture is predictive; environmental metrics report the past. A company scoring well on emissions but poorly on culture is relying on a few committed individuals or a favourable regulatory moment. The remuneration committee needs to see both.
- Behaviour: do operations managers weigh water impact in sourcing decisions without being told to?
- Leadership: does the CEO discuss planetary performance on earnings calls as fluently as margins?
- Judgement: scenario-based assessments that test how people handle real trade-offs — not training attendance.
- Integration: planetary factors in capital allocation, procurement gates and risk registers, not only the sustainability report.
Compensation mechanics
No harder than what boards already do for revenue.
One number from 0 to 100, as easy to report as ROE. Each pillar is the average of three or four indicators; weights sum to 100% and are disclosed.
Payout curve
| Level | ROP score | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| Below threshold | < 30 | 0% |
| Threshold | 30 | 50% |
| Target | 60 | 100% |
| Maximum (cap) | 85+ | 200% |
Linear between points, exactly as for EBITDA or revenue targets.
Weight in the pay mix
- STI: 15–25% of the annual bonus. Today's typical 3–5% produces trivial behavioural change.
- LTI: 10–20% over three-year vesting. Rewards the trajectory, not one good year.
- Negative discretion only. Adjust down for greenwashing, incidents or ethical failures — never up.
- Verified before payout. Independently checked, as audited financials are before equity vests.
Model it
See how it works with your numbers.
Set weights for your strategy, score each pillar, and watch the result flow through to short- and long-term incentives.