The Growing Importance of S&G in ESG

While environmental matters such as climate change and the green economy continue to dominate the ESG agenda, organisations are showing an increased awareness of the need to strengthen the social and governance elements of their ESG strategy. In this two part session, we will look at how, in an increasingly competitive market, strong ESG performance on social and governance matters can help companies improve employee engagement and ultimately, yield better corporate returns. It is now apparent that business performance is directly connected to employee welfare, to having a diverse and inclusive workforce in place and the transparent monitoring and reporting practices of both. Similarly, organisations are more readily looking to adopt and integrate ESG practices at board level as it is proving strategically effective in mitigating risk and providing a competitive advantage.

During this session, Mary Brassil discussed the key issues and trends around workplace relations and ESG, and provided guidance for employers on ESG employment policies and procedures. In the second part of this session, Stephen Fuller looked at the increasing importance of embedding ESG principles in the boardroom and highlighted the factors generally seen as key to “good governance” and their possible impact on corporate performance.