Environmental, Social and Governance criteria (ESG) have been steadily growing in importance to the investor community, customers, employers and corporate leadership. More now than ever, addressing ESG practices as part of business strategy is essential, not only to ensure compliance with reporting requirements and investor desire for information, but also to drive and maintain customer and employee loyalty.
Benefits arise as needed resources are preserved, workforces are stabilized, governance is strengthened, and sustainable profitability is gained. Opportunities also exist in creating new and innovative products and services to meet ESG goals, driving new profitability and competitiveness.
Companies can look proactively at ESG as a source of new opportunity for innovation in products and services and use this drive to adapt their spending and processes for more sustainability and social responsibility.
The failure to address the need for sustainability is a component of short-term thinking. This failure leads to decisions that seek to increase near-term reported profits at the expense of the long-term sustainability of those profits. Living quarter to quarter is a mistake, plus short-term thinking gets in the way of long-term value creation.
Inside this book
- The business value of ESG
- The mistake of short-term thinking
- Challenges in ESG
- Building the business case for ESG
- Key functionality and benefits of ESG technology