Kelleigh Jansen MSc Environmental management student, Graduate intern in environmental research at the ESG Foundation

Environmental, Social Impact and Governance: A Key to a Sustainable Future

By March 21, 2021No Comments

Sustainability and environmental resilience should be at the heart of corporate long-term objectives and agenda. Recognition that society and ecological systems are intrinsically linked is vital in order to transition towards circular economies, green infrastructures and develop policies that put nature at the centre. Environmental, social and governance criteria helps highlight to companies the significance and urgency needed to limit carbon footprints. Using the power and influence that corporations hold can help nurture ecological systems to ensure environmental justice for both human and non-human species is what ESG can help direct.

By acknowledging the value of the environment within corporate and governance agendas, with the help of organisations such as ESG, we can work collaboratively to ensure active contributions are made towards a sustainable and resilient future. Although we are in the age of the Anthropocene, where human impact is now seen in the geological record, humans are still fundamentally a part of nature, and not an external force that can control it.

Yet without regulating and minimising our influence on these systems,

“Ensuring businesses are aware of the Sustainable Development Goals is vital to ensure that ecological systems do not reach their tipping points.”

the environment in which society depends will inevitably fail, having huge implications for nature and society.
This is why ESG is so fundamental. It provides a platform for education and raising awareness, whilst helping corporations adapt to facilitate meaningful action that protects the environment and those key stakeholders that depend on it.

Working in an ESG-related sector can allow individuals with the knowledge on environmental impacts, management strategies and stakeholder engagement to use these skills to help corporations develop innovative solutions and communicate these effectively to stakeholders. Ensuring businesses are aware of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the way that everyone can play their part in contributing to achieving them is vital to ensure that ecological systems do not reach their tipping points.

Personally, I hope to be able to help make active changes in the way companies and business conduct actions to ensure that their impact on the environment is limited, whilst encouraging investment into wider community-based projects that help maintain biodiversity and integral ecosystem services.

It would be advantageous to help companies plan and mitigate environmental issues they might occur before it happens, putting in safeguarding measures in place. It is also crucial to ensure fallback measures are in place for when environmental degradation does occur. Learning from their mistakes and improving practices to ensure this does not happen again is key.

This requires collaboration, engagement, and communication across sectors, where ESG helps to examine and manage the relationships between stakeholders and agents to encourage efficiency. ESG as a concept, and organisations such as the ESG Foundation are needed now more than ever to help companies perform as stewards of nature, protecting both people and planet.

I urge all to consider joining or getting involved in ESG foundation to your business puts nature at the centre of operations, objectives, and sustainability agendas, before it is too late.