As the report explores, the stand-out consideration within the awkward ESG troika is governance (G). ‘E’ and ‘S’ create both risks and opportunities for organisations and those that invest in, or work for, them, while ‘G’ issues get to the heart of how opportunities are identified and risks are managed.
With organisations continuing to grapple with a myriad of wide-ranging, complex, and intertwined ESG issues, this report is timed to help them identify the key issues at play and recognise the importance of preparing new governance structures required to deal with ever-changing environmental and social trends.
Claude Brown, partner at Reed Smith and contributing author to the report, said: “Strong governance is the linchpin of an coherent and coordinated ESG strategy. It ensures that organisations’ compliance efforts and reporting systems are robust, transparent and ethical while satisfying stakeholders’ expectations for accountability. It is no longer just about generating profit for shareholders at all costs.”
“We are pleased to have worked with Eurasia Group to produce this report that we hope will help organisations identify key ESG challenges and enable them to establish robust governance structures required to deal with the shifting sands of environmental and social trends.”
“Corporate environmental and social policies are no longer ‘nice-to-have’, but are necessary to address material impacts on business,” said Shari Friedman, managing director of climate and sustainability at Eurasia Group. “This requires internal structures that change what good governance looks like.”
Reed Smith and Eurasia Group’s ‘Governance - at the heart of ESG’ report can be downloaded for free on the firm’s website.