Business has long been one of the major cornerstones of modern society. We rely on businesses for everything from our food to our most frivolous indulgences.
As a result, businesses have played an enormous role in pushing society forward. While there is still tons of research coming out of academia, business and industry play major roles in developing new technologies and innovating many modern conveniences.
This is, for the most part, great. The competition we see in the market helps push new ideas to the top and keeps industry leaders looking to the future. It’s why we have such amazing products as the smartphone and the increasingly self-driving car.
But while there are plenty of pros to this approach, there are also some major downsides.
Unregulated businesses can wreak havoc on the environment and on society. They can contribute to the increasingly pressing climate crisis and engage in unethical labour practices.
To combat this, governments and consumers are increasingly focusing on ESG compliance.
What is ESG Compliance?
ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance. These are the three factors that go into a business’s ESG compliance rating.
ESG compliance has developed as a way for consumers, governments, and other businesses to assess the ethical and social merits of a business.
Environmentally, ESG compliance measures how much a business’s operations contribute to climate change and cause harm to ecosystems.
Things like the amount of fossil fuel used to ship products, the materials used to create products, the commitment to switching to renewable energy, and the amount a business recycles all contribute to the environmental portion of a business’s ESG compliance score.
For the social element, a business is rated primarily based on its labour practices and the way they impact local and global communities.
Labour-wise, businesses can be more ESG compliant by choosing not to purchase goods from manufacturers that use sweatshops or other unethical labour. Instead, choosing to pay a bit more to ensure the outsourced labour is paid and treated fairly will boost a business’s ESG score.
Likewise, the way a business treats its own employees alters its score. Businesses that pay workers fairly, provide adequate benefits, and don’t make unreasonable work demands will have better ESG compliance ratings than those that don’t.
There’s also the impact a business has on consumers and other people outside of their operations. A business that lobbies to continue outsourcing jobs to exploitative factories, for instance, might harm the local economy by pushing the market value of that labour lower.
These kinds of indirect harms can lower a business’s ESG compliance rating. On the flip side, if a business actively contributes to charities or spends money to help their local community build a new park, they boost their ESG compliance rating.
Finally, there’s the governance aspect. This portion of ESG has to do with the leadership of the organization.
Businesses that actively monitor the gap between executive pay and the pay of other employees and ensure they scale fairly will have better ESG ratings than those that don’t.
There’s also the matter of personal corruption and ethics. If a business’s CEO engages in many unethical practices outside of the organization, the business’s ESG rating drops. This is because the profit the business makes ends up supporting this unethical person.
Why Does ESG Compliance Matter?
ESG compliance is gaining attention because supporting ethical businesses creates a more ethical world.
When consumers choose to buy from ESG compliant businesses, they are incentivizing businesses to adopt more environmentally friendly and socially ethical practices. This in turn creates a greener, more ethical future for everyone.
Governments are also increasingly pushing for ESG compliant standards. There is a good chance there will be legal minimums placed on businesses in the near future.
All of this helps make businesses more sustainable and better for the world as a whole.
