5 Tips for Implementing ESG Practices into Your Business

Companies can’t solely exist for profit anymore. More and more, investors are looking at an organization’s ESG metrics — a system for measuring the sustainability of a company or their investment in environmental, social and governance — before making decisions.

Earlier this month, a group of female leaders gathered virtually to discuss the fundamentals of ESG and why these practices are so vital to a successful business and business ecosystem.

Melissa Ackerman, president of Produce Alliance (PA), Carrie Freeman, Co-CEO of SecondMuse and Julie Fasone Holder, former senior vice president of Dow Chemical and current entrepreneur/founder of JFH Insights, served as panelists while Shari Siegel, managing director and general counsel of Ranieri Partners LLC led the discussion as each walked through their personal journeys with ESG and offered advice to fellow business peers.

Here are a few takeaways from their conversation:

Make Sure You Understand the Bigger Picture

If you’re looking to address a particular social or environmental issue in your business, it helps to know more about the situation than just the challenge immediately in front of you. To do this, Freeman encourages using systems maps to encourage stakeholder engagement.

“All of our challenges related to sustainability are incredibly complex, right? We've gotten to this place because there are lots of different dimensions, organizations, players, issues, etc.,” she says. “So, the intent behind using a tool like a systems map is to get input from everyone, actual convene people around it and say, ‘look, there are multiple truths here.’ If we're trying to really understand what the barriers are to creating more sustainable systems, we must understand the big picture and then from there, understanding where the leverage points are.”

Transparency Is Key 

From her experience on the corporate side with Dow Chemical to her recent work sitting on the boards of public companies, Fasone Holder has seen the interest in ESG steadily rise.

“Disclosures are becoming more important. People are deciding whether they're going to invest in you based on your ESG strategies, so ESG is becoming an integral part of our strategy as we look at our opportunities to grow and where we can innovate,” she says.

So, how can you best communicate your goals and progress? One of the companies with which Fasone Holder works, publishes a yearly sustainability report exploring metrics such as its population diversity and greenhouse gas and emissions goals.

“A lot of it is around data and transparency with your data,” she says. “So, you’ll be able to follow us every year and make sure we are delivering on the promises that we’re making.”

Lean Into Disruptions

Sometimes a moment you never saw coming can alter your ESG journey.

When the pandemic hit and schools and businesses closed, Ackerman lost 70% of her business overnight. Thinking quickly, she launched an initiative to get produce boxes to front-line workers through the business’ foundation, taking product that was stuck in cold supply chains and trucks that were sitting idle to hospitals across the country from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to Massachusetts General Hospital.

“This really showed our ability to do this on a national scale,” she says. So, when the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program launched and requested RFPs, Produce Alliance was awarded one of the largest sums, enabling them to expand their work to 9.2 million boxes in 15 states. To make sure the food was getting to where it needed to go, Ackerman worked with individuals in every city from faith-based organizations, food banks, mutual aid societies and domestic violence shelters.

Engage Your Employees

Not only are investors interested in ESG practices, but today’s workforce is as well.

“Don’t forget that this is an incredibly important way to engage employees and make them feel great about the company they are working for,” says Fasone Holder. “They really do want to do something bigger than get a paycheck; they want to make a difference in the world. It’s a wonderful tool to recruit and retain talent.”

Have The Awkward Conversations

Wherever you are in implementing ESG practices in your own business, know that you might be met with some resistance, or at a base level, awkward conversations.

“I think sometimes [ESG initiatives] can lead to uncomfortable conversations, even in your own company and boardroom, but you just have to have them,” says Ackerman. “There are resources out there to set the meeting and the tone if you haven’t talked about it before, but you have to just get it out there.”

Freeman adds, “You just have to start. Go fast and learn. It’s here; we are all going on this journey together.”

About the Author

Mary Mack is a writer and digital content strategist. She earned her news-editorial journalism degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has a background covering arts, culture, food and entrepreneurship. She is a proud St. Louisan who enjoys cooking, reading and sharing the stories of interesting and inspiring people. Click here to connect with Mary.