Beyond Reporting: Isaiah Oluwasegun Owolabi

57%

of executives cite data quality as their single biggest ESG challenge

88%

rank it among their top three challenges, per Deloitte, 2024

$17.5M

SEC penalty against Invesco for ESG misstatements, 2024

10%

of global turnover, UK CMA's fine ceiling for misleading claims

chapters, four parts, from the crisis to the framework to what's next

Debut Book · 2026

Every board signs off on data nobody verified.

It started with a 47-page ESG report and a boardroom full of directors who approved it without reading past the summary. Not because they were careless, because the system never gave them a way to actually check the work.

That gap, between what a report claims and what a board can prove, is what Beyond Reporting is built to close. It names the crisis in plain terms, walks through the regulatory landscape across three jurisdictions, and hands boards a working framework, ESG-as-Code, for making compliance something you can verify in minutes, not something you take on faith.

Origin

LL.M dissertation, UEL

Framework

ESG-as-Code®

Structure

4 parts, 11 chapters

Foreword

Dr. Shanu Alabi, PhD

The problem it solves

Boards signing what they can't verify

Part One

The Crisis

Beyond Reporting
The Greenwashing Trap
The AI Illusion

Part Two

The Landscape

The Regulatory Landscape
The Multinational Challenge
Even the AI Builders Are Telling You to Be Careful

Part Three

The Framework

ESG-as-Code
The Board Director's ESG Playbook
What Companies Must Do

Part Four

The Future

The Future of ESG Compliance
ESGine: Building the Infrastructure
Conclusion: A Call to Action

The Framework

ESG-as-Code

Every other regulated data category moved to structure and machine readability years ago. Financial reporting became XBRL. Tax filings became defined schemas. ESG disclosure is still living in PDFs nobody fully reads.

ESG-as-Code treats compliance data the way software engineers treat code: defined, versioned, auditable, and verifiable clause by clause against what regulators actually require, across the SEC, the FCA, and the ISSB simultaneously.

Originated in the author's LL.M dissertation at the University of East London and built into a working platform, ESGine, this book is its most complete articulation yet.

// what the board is asked to sign off on
disclosure Scope2Emissions {
  clause: "ISSB.S2.14",
  jurisdiction: ["US", "EU", "UK"],
  value: 18420,
  unit: "tCO2e",
  verified_by: audit_engine(),
  status: PASS
}

// if a regulator asks tomorrow:
assert can_show_proof(Scope2Emissions) < 10.minutes

"Compliance verification engine: a system that not only helps companies produce ESG disclosures but also checks whether those disclosures meet the requirements of regulators, clause by clause, framework by framework, and jurisdiction by jurisdiction. Beyond Reporting names this problem clearly and honestly. It does not sugarcoat the risk that boards currently carry." Dr. Shanu Alabi, PhD, ESG Regulations Consultant, from the Foreword

The Author

Isaiah Oluwasegun Owolabi

Isaiah is the founder and CEO of ESGine, a live RegTech platform built on his ESG-as-Code framework, which converts multi-jurisdictional ESG regulation into deterministic, machine-readable compliance rules across the EU, US, and UK.

Beyond Reporting is his first book, written from years of sitting with boards and regulators and watching the gap between what ESG compliance promises and what it delivers play out in real time.

FAQ

Before you preorder

Who is this book actually for?+

Board directors who need the right questions to ask, compliance and sustainability teams who need an action plan, and regulators or investors who want a framework for what verifiable ESG data should look like. It's also written to stand as an original contribution for scholars in ESG and FinTech law.

Do I need a technical background to read it?+

No. You don't need to understand how a rule engine works to get value from it. The framework is explained in plain terms, with the technical detail held in the appendices for readers who want it.

What is ESG-as-Code, in one sentence?+

A framework that treats ESG compliance data the way software treats code, defined, versioned, and verifiable clause by clause against actual regulatory requirements, rather than buried in an unstructured PDF.

Where can I get it?+

Beyond Reporting is being published independently. Preorder details and retailer links go live below as they're confirmed.

Boards keep approving ESG reports
they cannot actually verify.

Every board signs off on data nobody verified.

ESG-as-Code

Your board will face this question. Get the answers first.

Isaiah Oluwasegun Owolabi

Before you preorder

Press or bulk orders for your board.