Integrating ESG across company culture

As is ESG criteria is starting to permeate business strategy, an increasinf amount of companies are also making it a part of their corporate culture. In this post we explain how organisations are putting ESG at the heart of their business culture.

Index

The cross-sectional integration of ESG

ESG policies are already commonly accepted by mainstream businesses. In fact, equality or environmental plans are a test of cross-sectional integration. This is the case in a growing number of organisations , and they come in many types and sizes. However, there are still many companies that want to take substantial steps in this direction. So, what is happening? They do not know exactly how to do it.

Confronting this challenge means integrating ESG criteria in a natural way in the following areas:

Governance
Business operations
Strategic planning
Risk management
Compensation
Communications and disclosure

This can have benefits such as:

Long-term value creation
Contribution to improve investor relations and interests
Improved efficiency and transparency
Prevention of legal liability
Care and prevention of potential reputational damages
Employee retention and attracting new talent
Fostering creativity and innovation in dynamic and flexible work environments

How to integrate ESG

Advancing with a series of steps is key for such integration to be executed correctly. These are the most important ones:

1. Management commitment

Managers and decision-makers need to be committed to change. They need to understand the utility and function of these systems. Likewise, it is necessary to adopt them and involve them in their implementation at all levels of the organisation.

2. Education and training in environmental, corporate, and social values

Adopting this management framework involves training and education in various areas and levels. From employees to shareholders, suppliers, and partners, they should understand these policies and make their own opinion of them.

So, it is important that the objectives and actions are aligned with corporate, environmental, and social policies.

3. Employee Engagement

A crucial step is getting employees to identify with this philosophy. If they do, everything becomes simpler. Their work and daily actions will be linked to the key policies, and they will tend to promote sustainability internally and externally through their actions.

To obtain this engagement, the organisation can put into place initiatives such as:

Social responsibility
Internal wellbeing programmes
Measures to promote diversity and equal opportunities
Plans promoting a work-life balance
Campaigns promoting respecting nature and saving energy·
Incentive programmes for employees, linking their alignment with ESG objectives to in-kind and cash bonuses

4. Promoting Equal Opportunities

Transferring a culture of equal opportunity from the top down is important for the effectiveness of the integration process.

Employees as well as partners need to understand the approach. Inequalities affect diversity, creativity, and career development. Thus, Human Resources departments can use employees’ metrics and indicators to promote this equality of opportunities.

5. The Importance of Transparency

All business relationships and actions must be guided by a principle of transparency. This will make the integration process real and effective. This criterion should not only guide relations with employees, but also with suppliers, shareholders, and partners. Information should flow without obstacles. It must be shared, so everyone feels part of these corporate values and actively contributes to them.

6. Involving all departments

The success of a process like this one involves integrating sustainability in all areas of the organisation. This integration cannot take place only in the Departments of Quality or Sustainability. If this happens, the system would not be effective.

As Emma Urrutibehety, Client Account Executive at Microsoft explained in our recent event:

‘In a company you have different industries and teams like marketing and finance, and then there’s the sustainability team. But actually, sustainability should be within finance, within marketing, within sales. I think it is about a change of mentality.’

This value must be placed at the centre of decision-making and corporate governance. To this end, every organisation must decide which professional profile is best suited to manage ESG criteria.

In this sense, APlanet’s sustainability tools are essential for companies to monitor their action plans. Companies can guarantee the correct integration of ESG into their company culture and fully integrate ESG into company strategy.

The progress and involvement of all levels of the organisation is basic to integrate these ESG criteria in the corporate culture. The same happens with cross-organisational policies and the use of technologies. Choosing the right software increases the chances of success, if you would like to see examples and find out more, you can request a free demo.

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