ESG and Socially Responsible Investing

“It is a myth to think that socially responsible investing comes at a cost – that you will make less money – in fact, the opposite is often the case.” Market Business News

When someone is looking to invest in your business it is becoming increasingly prevalent that they will be looking at your ESG (Environmental Social and Governance), the three key factors for assessing the sustainability and ethical impact of an investment in a business or company.

Socially responsible investors look at company ESG criteria to evaluate the behaviour of the company sometimes as much as the forecast financial returns from the business.

Market Business News adds that, “The number of investment funds that incorporate ESG factors has been growing rapidly since the beginning of this decade, and is expected to continue rising significantly over the decade to come.”

“Going above and beyond what is expected of business to meet long term social and environmental issues might be what progressive business leadership looks like in today’s world. “Creating solutions that have market returns that investors demand, that create an economy that is cleaner, and an employer workforce that is diverse – these are also good for the financial bottom line,” said Mark Peterson, president of Los Angeles Clean Tech Incubator, a partnership of municipal, non-profit and private partnerships. Peterson noted that the 33 companies being incubated have created 1,700 jobs and he said that the group is looking into way to reward inclusive, green economy impacts because companies that incorporate those ideals perform better.” Diana Rojas

So where should we begin our ESG journey? The answer may lie in collaboration..

“Long-term partnerships are driving significant impacts across industries, regions and continents. However, to meet the required goals and achieve the impacts, long-term visions are also needed. In a keynote on the end of partnerships and the dawn of coalitions, Ronald den Elzen, president and CEO, Heineken USA, said companies need to drive global agendas through local solutions. And they needed to be prepared to work to long time horizons to bring about radical change, and work within coalitions – like The Recycling Partnership, where even Heineken arch-competitors (Pepsi and Coca-Cola) are collaborating to help improve recycling infrastructure in the US.

“Having a time horizon of 10-20 years will drive ideas that are much, much, much bigger. Because we can solve anything so long as we have the time and the money,” he said. “We fight every single day for every inch of market share… But we have one planet. We should not fight for the planet. We, together in coalitions, have to work to make it better.”” The Sixth Annual Responsible Business Summit, New York 2018 – Ethical Corporation

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