People now expect companies to perform as well on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues as they do financially. One leads to the other.
We help you do both – by engaging with the people who matter on the issues that matter – as a sustainable, integrated part of your business.
ESG is the investment community’s (happily neutral) term for what has also been called corporate sustainability, shared value, social responsibility, stakeholder capitalism and stewardship.
Over the past 20 years, the investment community has satisfied itself that good ESG performance correlates highly with good financial performance. Funds taking ESG performance into account have consistently earned more money, with less risk, than those that do not.[1]
As a result, investors now expect companies to be aware of their social and environmental impacts, and govern themselves so those impacts are positive. In Blackrock’s 2022 Letter to CEOs, speaking with the weight of $13 trillion, the world’s largest investment company called out ESG or ‘stakeholder capitalism’ as the single most important thing for CEOs to understand and get right. (Decarbonising the economy, it pointed out, is their biggest issue.)
ESG is a good thing. It means communities, employees, governments, investors and companies can speak with a common interest in addressing our most urgent social and environmental issues. Better ideas and solutions come from that dialogue. People want to work with organisations they can be proud of, publicly, and ESG is helping them do that.
SenateSHJ helps organisations do ESG well. The core question is: “What ESG issues should you engage in, how and with whom, to benefit that issue and your business?” We help you answer that question, engage with the right stakeholders, and measure, realise and report the benefits.
Our approach to ESG brings together our deep understanding of change, reputation, communication, research and engagement, with 25 years’ path-breaking experience in ESG.
The common ground lies in an organisation’s ‘intangible’ assets: its people, reputation, relationships and innovation capacity. They are what determine an organisation’s future. On average, they make up over 90% of the market value of listed companies.[2]
[1] Responsible Investment Association Australia, Benchmark Report 2021 p 17
[2] Ocean Tomo, Intangible Asset Market Value Study 2021
