Elevating ESG Standards!
The Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is gaining prominence as a foundational element for achieving sustainable development across industries. By integrating ESG considerations into corporate strategies, businesses recognize their role in fostering societal well-being and environmental responsibility. This shift underscores the growing realization that sustainability is not merely a compliance requirement but a strategic advantage that can drive long-term value creation. As organizations grapple with intricate regulatory frameworks and stakeholder expectations, they explore innovative approaches to embed ESG principles into their operations, reflecting a commitment to addressing global challenges while unlocking business opportunities.
Amanda Koefoed Simonsen, Partner and Business Strategy Lead of ESG & Corporate Sustainability, is a visionary leader. Her expertise and passion for sustainability have driven her to spearhead initiatives revolutionizing ESG from a set of guidelines into actionable strategies. Amanda’s leadership approach focuses on knowledge-sharing and collaboration, cultivating an environment where regulatory insight and strategic execution converge to create impactful solutions. Focusing on building trust and promoting education, she continually inspires her team and the broader community to prioritize sustainability as a core organizational goal to support business growth.
Copenhagen Changery stands as a leader in advancing ESG practices. The firm supports clients in aligning their business models and operations with sustainable principles, ensuring that they meet and exceed regulatory expectations. By combining innovative methodologies with a commitment to quality, Copenhagen Changery helps organizations steer the intricacies of ESG while driving meaningful outcomes. Through their work, the firm exemplifies how businesses can act as catalysts for change, contributing to a more equitable and sustainable future aligning with the EU Green New Deal and other global initiatives for a sustainable economy.
Let’s explore Amanda’s journey of advancing ESG practices:
Passion for Sustainability and Business Transformation
Amanda’s journey to becoming Partner and Business Strategy Lead of ESG & Corporate Sustainability at Copenhagen Changery has been shaped by diverse experiences across policy, assurance, and strategy. Her personal goal has always been education and a steep learning curve. Early in her career, she was involved in policy development and lobbying within the Danish Parliament, where she gained invaluable insights into regulatory frameworks. She also went to the UN that is headquartered in New Work for working with disarmament and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
From there, she transitioned into roles focusing on assurance and compliance, which deepened her respect for meticulous documentation and consistent processes.
She later served as a manager at an ESG consultancy, where she learned about the challenges of reporting and its role in building trust. This experience is relevant to her role as Partner and Business Lead, where she needs to succeed in accelerating legislation, changing business models, new assurance rules, abnormal macro-political situations, and the increasing importance of human capital, knowledge on international politics and how policy drives change in a top-down perspective.
In a fragmented world, knowledge is key. She started to build her LinkedIn profile to educate professionals on ESG and regulation on sustainable finance and reporting requirements. Suddenly (in less than one year!), she had thousands of followers. What truly motivates her is the distribution of knowledge as a driver for change!
She has a deep-seated passion for sustainability and the potential it holds for businesses, financial markets, and society. What excites her about working with ESG is that the integration of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria into business strategies, not merely to achieve compliance but to contribute to a sustainable future actively, actually works.
This drive also led her to found the ESG & Corporate Sustainability Network to create a platform for sharing insights and advancing the practice, as well as to join Copenhagen Changery, where she is dedicated to unlocking ESG potential for clients.
Client-Focused ESG Strategy Development
Balancing her roles as the Founder of the ESG & Corporate Sustainability Network and as a Partner at Copenhagen Changery requires planning and clear distinctions. At the Network, her role focuses on collaboration and knowledge-sharing, which involves organizing events, webinars, and workshops to explore and promote ESG best practices. This role is voluntary, which allows her to engage with a community of brilliant minds and continuously expand her own learning.
On the other hand, Amanda’s work at Copenhagen Changery is intensely client-focused. Her responsibilities include recruiting talent, developing robust ESG strategies, refining methodologies, and ensuring top-quality deliverables. Everything with one mission: change.
She approaches her work with the philosophy that clients’ success in their ESG goals equates to her own success; she sees the team as a collaborative unit working towards shared objectives. Delegating and empowering her team is essential to managing these two roles effectively, allowing both organizations to thrive while making meaningful contributions to the field.
Prioritizing Open Communication and Collaboration
Amanda prioritizes open communication and collaboration within the team and with clients. Her responsibilities include overseeing project quality, maintaining close client relationships, staying attuned to ESG trends, and ensuring strategies reflect the latest industry standards. She strives to provide early insights on emerging trends, regulatory shifts, and innovation within the ESG space, which she has found can be invaluable for clients.
Her leadership style emphasizes clarity and consistency, from setting goals to assessing progress. She relies on a proactive approach to stay aligned with objectives. She also actively engages with the ESG community on LinkedIn, which has been a valuable platform for broadening reach and sharing best practices.
Human-Centric Leadership and Collaboration
Her leadership approach is human-centric and grounded in collaboration and continuous learning. Amanda demonstrates transparent communication, creating an environment where team members feel empowered to contribute their ideas and innovations. In fields as intricate as sustainable finance and ESG, keeping pace with the latest advancements is crucial. She leads by example, encouraging her team to engage in ongoing education and knowledge-sharing.
By hosting webinars, publishing insights, and championing data-driven approaches, she works to drive meaningful action in sustainability. She believes the cumulative impact of educating and inspiring others will lead to broader change.
Establishing Common Goals and Flexibility
According to Amanda, successful public-private collaborations hinge on three main factors: shared objectives, clear communication, and mutual trust. It is essential to establish common goals from the outset and maintain a flexible approach to adapt to the needs of both parties. Transparency fosters trust and encourages buy-in from all stakeholders. Regular evaluation helps keep these partnerships effective and ensures they are aligned with their intended impact.
Developing Interdisciplinary Skills for ESG
Sustainability and ESG are inherently interdisciplinary, so Amanda advises developing a blend of technical and soft skills. Knowledge in environmental science, economics, and sustainable finance is key, alongside familiarity with global ESG standards like OECD guidelines and EU regulations.
Analytical skills are also invaluable, particularly in data analysis and impact measurement. Equally important are communication and stakeholder engagement skills—translating technical data into accessible narratives for various audiences is often a crucial part of the role.
Just as important, though, are the human skills. Communication and stakeholder engagement are essential because one often needs to translate complex data into stories that resonate with different audiences. The best ESG professionals are storytellers—they can convey why sustainability matters in ways that inspire action and buy-in.
Finally, remember that personal qualities are just as crucial. Bring passion for positive change, adaptability to tackle new challenges, and genuine empathy for the people and communities impacted by the work. These are not just nice-to-haves—they are the driving forces behind every meaningful impact in sustainability.
Predictive Insights for Sustainable Decision-Making
Amanda believes AI will likely play a transformative role in sustainability, especially in data management and reporting. By automating data collection, AI can streamline reporting processes and enable organizations to devote more resources to strategic planning. AI can also uncover patterns in intricate datasets, offering predictive insights that can guide more sustainable decision-making.
Additionally, real-time monitoring facilitated by AI can boost transparency and responsiveness, helping organizations stay ahead of regulatory requirements and enhancing trust with stakeholders.
Prioritizing Well-Being and Time Management
Amanda is the daughter of a bioanalyst and a craftsman. From her mother, she inherited a deep sense of empathy and a commitment to caring for others—a blend of nursing and social sensitivity that has shaped how she approaches relationships and teamwork.
Her father instilled in her the patience and dedication needed to build things that last. Together, these influences have given her both the compassion to understand people’s needs and the determination to create sustainable solutions with precision and purpose.
She has a clear philosophy on well-being: invest energy in processes and people you genuinely enjoy working with and being around. Her perspective on life shifted dramatically after an experience in New York, where she was working for an organization associated with the UN.
In a city where most roads are one-way, she found herself on one that wasn’t—and was hit by a car. She woke up in a Brooklyn hospital, realizing that it could have been her last day on earth. Since then, she has embraced a deep gratitude for everything she has, from her surroundings to the people in her life, and she has learned to build happiness rather than constantly search for it.
Maintaining balance starts with building a strong support system around you and valuing your own well-being. She is fortunate to have a dedicated partner who stands by her and a talented team that shares her commitment to their goals. Organization and time management also play essential roles, helping her handle work demands without sacrificing personal health and balance.
Ultimately, ‘her people’ are everything to her—both in and outside of work. They are social beings, nurturing the culture they create together. She believes it’s crucial for her team to feel comfortable sharing their challenges so they can manage stress, pressures, personal events, and losses together. This collective support is what fosters not just a healthy work-life balance but a genuinely balanced life.
Continuous Learning and Global Engagement
Staying ahead requires continuous learning and active engagement with global sustainability networks. Amanda prioritizes attending regulatory meetings (from, e.g., technical standard setters or disclosure providers) and sessions with companies that are industry leaders.
She utilizes her network through the ESG & Corporate Sustainability Network. This community of experts provides invaluable insights into emerging trends and innovations. Close monitoring of regulatory changes, especially within the EU, also keeps their strategies aligned with the latest developments.
Strengthening Leadership in Sustainable Finance
The recent shift in U.S. policy could bring unique challenges and opportunities for global ESG practices. A lessened focus on specific environmental regulations may impact adoption rates, but it also allows Europe and APAC to strengthen leadership in sustainable finance. Businesses may need to navigate varied regulatory landscapes, but proactive engagement in ESG can drive innovation, cost reductions, and avoidance.
Encouraging Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
At Copenhagen Changery, Amanda aims to expand the client base by supporting ambitious companies in implementing and transitioning their business models. She will focus on strengthening ESG practices and deepening expertise in areas like M&A, ESG risk-hedging, strategy, and governance. She also intends to develop a more data-driven approach to monitoring and implementing ESG strategies on clients’ sites.
Through the ESG & Corporate Sustainability Network, her goal is to encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing, creating a platform for innovation and ESG best practices. She genuinely enjoys being part of this diverse group, as their differences allow her to learn and grow.
Leaving a Lasting Impact on Sustainability
Amanda aspires to leave a legacy of meaningful, lasting impact in the field of sustainability. She aims to deeply embed ESG principles into business culture and inspire others to make sustainability a core career focus. She will help change and transition business models so businesses can build resilience into their operations to meet future expectations.
Through her work at Copenhagen Changery, she will build an engine of human intellect to encounter the world’s biggest and most challenging.
With the ESG & Corporate Sustainability Network, she aims to build a dedicated community that drives progress in ESG and sustainability, contributing to a more equitable, environmentally responsible future.
