“Doing well by doing good”: ESG investing is booming business
Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) information aims to be transparent on the sustainability performance of a company and is considered as relevant information by all organizational stakeholders. More specifically, investors are using this information for impact investing as it’s shown that ESG companies financially outperform the non ESG companies. Next to this ESG companies show a better impact on the global acknowledged issues such as climate change. As ESG is booming, so are the issues. Unmatured data, compliance focusses, ESG washing and superficial ESG assessments by rating agencies. These issues show plenty of room for improvements within organisations. ESG should be in the core of the strategy and vision. Translated to product design and operations. Managed with internal teams and data-systems leading to internal insights and progress reports, which should be part of recurring Board and discussions. Being in the top of their industry is no longer enough for organisations to be more attractive for investors, they need to financially outperform the market in the long-run and to create the societal value of a company.