A Short History of ESG
Happy Birthday ESG!!! hashtag Guest blog by: : By Richard Hardyment Author of Measuring Good Business. Before joining the Institute of Business Ethics, he was Research Director at the World Benchmarking Alliance and a Director at Corporate Citizenship consultancy. Originally published on LinkedIn here. # ESG ๐พ It’s twenty years to the day since the acronym was first coined. ESG has come of age. But with a backlash underway, and scrutiny over greenwashing, is it a milestone worth celebrating? Or is it time we retired the term? In June 2004, Kofi Annan convened the UN Global Compact Summit. “Who Cares Wins” was published – coining the term ESG and spurring a revolution in finance. It transformed a tiny, socially responsible niche into an investor-friendly mainstream. From birth, ESG held two promises: “better investment markets” as well as “more sustainable societies”. Today, we’d call that double materiality. But it was the hope of better risk-adjusted returns – alongside...