In this episode of EHSDA Shorts, Kathy A. Seabrook, CEO & Founder of Global Solutions, Inc. explains what ESG (environmental, social, and governance) is and how it can be integrated with EHS (environmental, health, and safety).
This clip was taken from a webinar titled “Integrating ESG Throughout Your Organization” as part of EHS Enviro, Social, and Governance (ESG) Week. The full session is available for FREE on-demand by clicking here.
This webinar was sponsored by Dakota Software and KPA.
Transcript: (edited for clarity):
Question: What is ESG and How Can It Integrate with EHS?
Seabrook: Honestly, from an ESG environmental, social, governance perspective, we think of the environment and its biodiversity, its greenhouse gas emissions. It’s looking at water availability and water scarcity and what dependencies companies have on natural resources: lithium for lithium batteries, any kind of heavy metals, that kind of thing.
The social side, the investors have been driving. ESG, the term was coined by the investment community for the UN principles of responsible investment and that goes back many years. ESG is sustainability but it’s about impact risk management. That’s why the investors are looking at it, it’s short-term return on your investment but short-term looking at an impact risk and really looking at how well a company actually manages their impacts, manages their risk so managing their negative impacts to the environment impacts to people, and then what is the governance structure.
The social side is the side that we don’t have a lot of really good metrics, and the investors have really focused on the environment, but the social side is all about people and relationships. This is in the world, the concepts of social is about relationships a company has with not just investors but government and regulators, and their customers, and their suppliers, and their employees. You’ll hear diversity, equity, inclusion is part of that and I’m here to tell you that occupational health and safety is a part of the metrics for ESG. It’s the social side and this is the people side of the sustainability. We no longer have to vie for a seat at the proverbial table, we are actually the table in this world of ESG, and for me, this is why this is so important, we have a platform, we have the ability to contribute in ways that elevate safety and health and the environmental impacts.