The history of ESG starts in 2004 with the late Kofi Annan, then the UN Secretary General.

He was becoming increasingly concerned about the damage we business owners were doing to the environment and to social structures. He wanted to find ways to integrate what we now refer to as ‘sustainability’ into capital markets.

The first outcome of that group was a then ground-breaking study conducted by the Swiss Government and the International Finance Corporation. And it was ground-breaking in its simple title, “Who Cares Wins”.

Do pause and note that — you need to really care to make it work. And when you do you’ll see the results it brings you — you’ll see that who cares really does win.

That ground-breaking study is where the ‘ESG’ acronym was first ‘coined’.

What's Included in the ESG

ESG looks at environmental issues across the three dimensions of Environmental, Social and Governance;

• lower energy consumption
• reliance on renewable resources
• reducing carbon footprint
• employee welfare
• relationships with all stakeholders
• including these issues in a company’s accounting and financial practices

ESG represents this transition from purely profit-driven metrics to those that factor in the broader impact of a company’s actions.