Businesses of all sizes can and should adopt environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. The benefits of doing so will impact all aspects of the organization.
Driving factors for embracing ESG include attracting top talent and investors. Orion's ESG Solutions include methodologies for including ESG into business planning and strategic roadmaps as well as communicating the initiatives both internally and externally. Weaving the initiatives throughout daily business processes ensures that employees understand the value of doing good while doing well. Additionally, publicly reporting progress and results allows potential employees and investors an inside view of the business' culture, values, and commitments.
CEOs across the globe are focusing on embedding ESG actions into their business plans and processes. Sparked by the updated Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation issued by in August 2019 by the Business Roundtable, ESG is grounded in a modern standard for corporate responsibility.
Here is an excerpt:
While each of our individual companies serves its own corporate purpose, we share a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders. We commit to:
- Delivering value to our customers. We will further the tradition of American companies leading the way in meeting or exceeding customer expectations.
- Investing in our employees. This starts with compensating them fairly and providing important benefits. It also includes supporting them through training and education that help develop new skills for a rapidly changing world. We foster diversity and inclusion, dignity and respect.
- Dealing fairly and ethically with our suppliers. We are dedicated to serving as good partners to the other companies, large and small, that help us meet our missions.
- Supporting the communities in which we work. We respect the people in our communities and protect the environment by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses.
- Generating long-term value for shareholders, who provide the capital that allows companies to invest, grow and innovate. We are committed to transparency and effective engagement with shareholders.
Each of our stakeholders is essential. We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country.
Investors are looking at business ESG behavior as well. The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), an investor initiative in partnership with UN Environmental Programme Finance Initiative and the UN Global Compact, includes a menu of possible actions that investors can take for incorporating ESG into their practices. Focused on the best long-term interests of their beneficiaries, how businesses manage and report on how they have incorporated ESGs into their daily processes has become on of the important issues when determining investment decisions.