ESG Reports… what?
In October 2021, I took a course on Sustainable Business Strategy from Harvard Business School Online. In it, one of the things we learned about and studied was called an ESG report, or ESG metrics.
ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance reporting. The idea is for corporations and businesses to publish a report, typically annually, and review what work they’ve done, what work they plan to do, and what other goals they have relating to sustainability, social good, and governance.
It is not intended for use by the normal consumer base and customers, it is really intended for investors. If you’re in for a really detailed background of how ESG reports and measurement came around, you can read “The Remarkable Rise Of ESG” which explains how the business world has shifted its mindset.
The reason that reporting like this has become popular for investors is that it lays out details of risk a company carries. If you’re a big investor, this type of research is paramount to decision-making in regards to if a company is not only viable but making choices that will hurt its revenue in the future.
It is all about money. But, most of us aren’t an investor like that. So why should we care?
Why should you care what an ESG report is?
Well, when it comes to a consumer perspective, if a company is willing to invest its time, resources, and institutional efforts to create a report, it is willingly being transparent.
And the companies that are willing to share details like this might surprise you.
For example, Walmart.
There are huge players who invest a lot into ESG, like BlackRock a massive investment firm, whose CEO Larry Fink, has been a proponent of ESG for years. Now, this is not to say that BlackRock is amazing - they continue to have investments in areas of controversy - but they do publish their own letters and do put pressure on other big companies to focus on ESG.
Not every major company has an ESG team or publishes a report. For example, well-known eco-friendly clothing company Patagonia does not have a formal ESG report (at least I can’t find one), but they publish SO MUCH information on their website that would typically be covered by an ESG report.
You can dig into their activism reporting in-depth on their website.
We live in a world where making sustainability choices is not always easy - and many times, you pay more to do that.
So, the continued efforts of Choosing Eco will be to help make sustainable living easier.
The next time you see an article about ESG metrics, or a company talking about their environmental, social, and governance policies, you will better understand what they mean.
A friend of mine has worked hard for years to make sustainable choices in her life. One of the bigger ones was starting a company to help others make changes.
This week her company was featured in Fast Company - particularly about a Chrome Extension they designed. I’ve updated the Companies Doing Good post with it, but you can read the article here, and you can check out the Chrome app here.
A quick note. In previous issues, I mixed discussions and topics that were broad topics about sustainability with some that were localized to the Twin Cities.
Well, lucky you, you can now differentiate!
If you go to the Choosing Eco homepage on Substack, then click on your profile in the upper right, THEN click on “Manage Your Subscription” you’ll be taken to a page where you can select which newsletters you get. It looks like this:
From there you can select if you’d like to receive the Sustainable Twin Cities local newsletter. I would love it if you’re local, please consider checking that box so you can get local updates. Thank you for your consideration!
Thank you as always for reading, and please share this with anyone who you think would be interested!
-Michael