From Aspiration To Accountability: ESG For Boards

When the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in early 2020, many thought that climate agendas and other ESG concerns might be put on the back burner. In fact, the opposite occurred.

Climate action intensified, and social issues moved to the forefront with global outcries against racial injustice, a spotlight on worker safety and the experience of the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on minorities and women.

ESG issues are being advanced in many ways—through new legislation and enhanced disclosure requirements, investor ESG criteria and performance standards, ESG ratings agencies and peer comparisons, proxy advisors' guidelines, increasing stakeholder activism and litigation, and political agendas. 2020 brought intensified scrutiny and criticism from shareholders, employees, communities and other stakeholders where companies were deemed to have fallen short on their stated commitments to sustainability, diversity and other socially-responsible practices. This