Raising The Bar: 5 ESG Trends To Watch In 2022 – Forbes

Raising The Bar: 5 ESG Trends To Watch In 2022 ForbesMining’s top 10 ESG trends for 2022 – MINING.COM MINING.comEconomy and Society: The Federal Reserve and ESG – Ballotpedia News Ballotpedia NewsESG Trends for 2022: Are Your Investments As Green As They Could Be? TechRoundThe 5 biggest ESG stories of 2021 – InvestorDaily InvestorDailyRaising The Bar: 5 ESG Trends To Watch In 2022 ForbesMining’s top 10 ESG trends for 2022 – MINING.COM MINING.comEconomy and Society: The Federal Reserve and ESG – Ballotpedia News Ballotpedia NewsESG Trends for 2022: Are Your Investments As Green As They Could Be? TechRoundThe 5 biggest ESG stories of 2021 – InvestorDaily InvestorDailyRaising The Bar: 5 ESG Trends To Watch In 2022 ForbesMining’s top 10 ESG trends for 2022 – MINING.COM MINING.comEconomy and Society: The Federal Reserve and ESG – Ballotpedia News Ballotpedia NewsESG Trends for 2022: Are Your Investments As Green As They Could Be? TechRoundThe 5 biggest ESG stories of 2021 – InvestorDaily InvestorDaily

Companies will find it more challenging to navigate the new normal in 2020 and 2021, but 2022 will be even more difficult as companies return to work and reframe their business strategies in order to be more responsive to unexpected world events. ESG strategies will also change as investors, activists, and other stakeholders place greater demands on ESG strategies to move forward on a range of governance, environmental, and social issues. Here are my predictions about five ESG trends that will be more important in 2022: DEI is now DEIA. Inclusion, diversity, equity, and inclusion have become a key part of nearly every company’s ESG strategy over the past year. Many companies realized they needed to pay more attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion issues with their customers, employees, and communities after George Floyd’s murder. Antiracism will be a key part of this challenge in 2022. Many corporate DEI efforts focus on creating and maintaining a diverse workforce and ensuring that employees feel valued and compensated equally. However, there is a growing demand for companies and employees to take a more active role against institutional and structural racism. Antiracism requires that you are aware of race and racism and take steps to eliminate racial inequalities in our institutions, policies and practices. Corporate stakeholders will expect companies to be more proactive in changing systems that might be biased. Carbon neutral becomes carbon net zero. Many companies have made significant progress in reducing their carbon footprints. They also use carbon offsets to achieve carbon net zero. However, scientists and environmentalists are becoming more aware that these efforts won’t be enough to prevent a climate catastrophe in the future. To reverse the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, or to reduce it to its lowest level possible, we need to make greater efforts. Companies that commit to carbon net-zero will be expected to make significant progress in carbon reductions (or eliminations), in their operations and in their supply chains, using offsets only as an option. Transparency is the first step to accountability. Companies should be transparent with their stakeholders. Customers, regulators, and community leaders have demanded more information about companies and the strategies they plan to use in the future. Companies no longer have to hide behind walls of silence. Activists of all stripes are looking for more information to hold companies accountable for their promises. Transparency is just the beginning. Accountability is the real goal. More stakeholders demand that companies show actual results and not just make promises. Companies will continue to face increased accountability demands and third-party verifiers are likely to increase in importance and number. Tax compliance is now about tax fairness. Many companies employ teams of professionals to ensure they comply with all tax laws in every country where they operate. They also ensure they pay no more than what is legally required. This approach is legal. However, activist stakeholders now demand that companies pay their fair share regardless of what the law allows. Some tax fairness advocates advocate closing all tax loopholes, while others argue for a minimum corporate tax and that the tax burden should be determined by the needs of communities. As stakeholders demand greater corporate responsibility, including tax payments and other community support, this debate will grow in strength over the next months and years. Political activity becomes more difficult. Recent surveys by The Conference Board, the National Association of Business Political Action Committees and The Conference Board found that 87 percent of corporate officials expect political activity to be at minimum as difficult in 2022. Only 42 percent see it as more difficult. Respondents cite the emergence of social or political issues on which companies are under pressure to take a position as the main driver of this challenge. Companies are anticipating that there will be more hot button issues during this mid-term election year, especially at the state level. In this election year, the Federal Elections Commission will impose restrictions on corporate political activity. Companies will be judged on how they adapt their ESG strategies to meet these greater challenges. Companies will need to keep improving and not just fulfill past promises and commits. These leaders will need to continue to improve their thinking in order for their companies to move forward in the new normal.

Read MoreRaising The Bar: 5 ESG Trends To Watch In 2022 ForbesMining’s top 10 ESG trends for 2022 – MINING.COM MINING.comEconomy and Society: The Federal Reserve and ESG – Ballotpedia News Ballotpedia NewsESG Trends for 2022: Are Your Investments As Green As They Could Be? TechRoundThe 5 biggest ESG stories of 2021 – InvestorDaily InvestorDaily