Are environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs mostly about environmental sustainability?

Broadening in definition rapidly, Carbon neautrality, decarbonisation, financial risk management based on climiate risk analysis , this is a new sector in development and certified B corp companies pushing hard to help us all realise our responsibilities.

ESG is an area that's pivoted out of traditional sustainability talks. It may start with the environment, but you can't have an ESG program without employee social governance aspects as well. It's a bit of a loaded question because ESG is now being reported on in companies’ 10-K reports, but that's where we were going.

I often struggle to think of sustainability without thinking about how a company can stay sustainable without considering employees. I see staffing as part of ESG.

ESG is an area that's had an increased amount of attention not only because of the environmental cost of climate change, which is a big risk to growth, but because of people as well. The social piece is becoming even more important. For example, people are discussing the ethics around leadership pay as billionaires have become even bigger billionaires during COVID. It's an ESG focus that will put controls around that.