How to make ESG real

The ‘how’ of a company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) proposition starts with recognizing what companies should be solving for: maintaining and reinforcing their social license to operate, in the face of rising externalities. Rising scrutiny of how companies address ESG means that a robust approach is more critical than ever, irrespective of whatever name one may choose to give to the attempt to address these externalities, whatever contours one may define for them at a given point, and whatever organizational or governance construct one may put in place for them. Indeed, we believe one may be agnostic to the term ESG but not to its underlying concerns.