I'm a bit late to the party on this article, Matthew. Great personas and the over-hype from each has contributed to this pendulum swing we're all feeling from green-washing to -hushing. It feels like I'm constantly trying to point out the difference between CSR/Impact Investing/Social Enterprise's focus on "sustainable values" and the risk/opportunity lenses of ESG's focus on"sustaining value creation" for a business (in this VUCA world). Yeah, it's a weak pun, but it has started a lot of heads nodding. ESG is no savior, it's just a set of new lenses/tools that can help one class of stakeholder (investors) make smarter choices based on a range of nonfinancial indicators. Look forward to meeting you later this week.
Like where you are headed here. How you can help is to begin moving away from the acronym.
ESG lumps disparate priorities together, each important but not necessarily served by being linked. Grouping “E,” “S,” and “G” into a single bucket oversimplifies complex, often divergent issues. Climate risk and diversity equity are not governed or measured the same way. Treating them as a singular initiative invites vague strategies and siloed execution. The term itself is part of the reason we encounter these personas.
Yep, I don't disagree with you. Still, I don't see companies or board leaders connecting the individual pillars as much as they could. The example I always use is decarbonization in a supply chain. If a candy company is focused on that, but not child labor or climate risk (or supplier reliability and cost, too!), they are seeing things in a silo.
I come across that siloed thinking often and haven't found a better way to articulate it, but would love to!
I've been trying to rid innovation of Excel addicts for nearly 25 years! Sometimes an order of magnitude calc will suffice. Maybe even often. Eye on the prize - Create the most value doing the thing I do with the least amount of risk to being able to continue doing the thing I do. That's the core of my ESG mindset. It's one, or three, of many lenses for innovation.
I'm a bit late to the party on this article, Matthew. Great personas and the over-hype from each has contributed to this pendulum swing we're all feeling from green-washing to -hushing. It feels like I'm constantly trying to point out the difference between CSR/Impact Investing/Social Enterprise's focus on "sustainable values" and the risk/opportunity lenses of ESG's focus on"sustaining value creation" for a business (in this VUCA world). Yeah, it's a weak pun, but it has started a lot of heads nodding. ESG is no savior, it's just a set of new lenses/tools that can help one class of stakeholder (investors) make smarter choices based on a range of nonfinancial indicators. Look forward to meeting you later this week.
My book, "ESG Mindset," opens with "This book will not save the world" for this exact reason!
Looking forward to our chat!
Like where you are headed here. How you can help is to begin moving away from the acronym.
ESG lumps disparate priorities together, each important but not necessarily served by being linked. Grouping “E,” “S,” and “G” into a single bucket oversimplifies complex, often divergent issues. Climate risk and diversity equity are not governed or measured the same way. Treating them as a singular initiative invites vague strategies and siloed execution. The term itself is part of the reason we encounter these personas.
Yep, I don't disagree with you. Still, I don't see companies or board leaders connecting the individual pillars as much as they could. The example I always use is decarbonization in a supply chain. If a candy company is focused on that, but not child labor or climate risk (or supplier reliability and cost, too!), they are seeing things in a silo.
I come across that siloed thinking often and haven't found a better way to articulate it, but would love to!
I've been trying to rid innovation of Excel addicts for nearly 25 years! Sometimes an order of magnitude calc will suffice. Maybe even often. Eye on the prize - Create the most value doing the thing I do with the least amount of risk to being able to continue doing the thing I do. That's the core of my ESG mindset. It's one, or three, of many lenses for innovation.
I love it! Thanks for sharing, JoAnn!