Futerra转发了
Chief Solutionist & Co-Founder of Futerra / Chair of Solutions Union charity / TED speaker / Forbes blogger / WEF Global Future Council / UNFCCC Film & TV Committee / Award-winning book: The Solutionists. ??Autistic??
Acronyms suck. ‘ESG’ especially sucks as an acronym. So what shall we say instead? First, why do sustainability acronyms suck so much? ??Acronyms are easy to weaponise against themselves. They are unfamiliar so are devoid of meaning/clairty. That means other forces can fill them with suspicion, malicious intent and danger. Right now, ESG (and worse for DEI) are being attacked by people who don’t even know their definition. ?? Acronyms spilt us into ‘in’ groups who know it and ‘out’ groups who don’t. Sustainability is beset with this in/out group dynamics and it’s strangling us! ?? Acronyms suck for anyone who is dyslexic. So, what do we say instead? Anything already filled with positive meaning! ‘Sustainability’ itself isn’t too bad ‘Responsibility’ works ‘Ethical business’ is an old favourite ‘Caring’ is powerful! Use words your kids would understand. What do you think we should say now? #greenertogether #Greenbiz25
Resilience. And I hear you on the acronyms. I still believe ESG is the simple shorthand for examining the interconnected nature of modern issues, but it seems I'm in the minority.??♂?
I tend to talk about future proofing when talking to businesses about these topics.
This is why I will never use the term Antifa, and always say anti-facist. Acronyms are not helpful. Instead we need to be as clear as possible.
I like to call it "not being an a**hole". Excuse my French.
Cannot agree with you more!!
We need a whole new language for sustainability that encompasses active transitioning for the long term good but embraces short term needs that businesses have. Businesses need to continue bringing their investors, customers and suppliers with them on the journey. Tropes such as 'woke', 'elite', 'leftie' 'softie' are used to weaponise company sustainability policies and strategies against doing what is actually in their best interests. So business language around growth, future proofing, competitive edge, cost reduction will be more effective.
But ESG isn't just an acronym. It signalled that we abbreviated the function of sustainability to reporting. And decided that reporting equalled sustainability action. Too often people miss that while related to sustainability, ESG isn't synonymous. To me, it's not what we call it, but the mindset. But then, what we call it also signals the mindset. Maybe that's why the triple bottom line rarely shows up...
Like you, Solitaire, I've been doing this work for a long time. 40 years, in fact, and with my first of three books published in 2005. The earliest term of course was Corporate Social Responsibility; I thought that sounded like "Eat your spinach." Have been struggling to think of a better term all along. It's too bad that ESG has been weaponized because it does cover the major three issues, which are all interrelated. Perhaps we can't let the naysayers hijack the agenda?
ESG is an acronym invented in the report ‘who care wins’ in 2005, it was meant to explain how E,S and G topics can drive long term investment returns. It is invented by finance for finance. Unfortunately people used it to then tag corporate actions while it was meant to monitor the risks of E, S and G. I would argue to continue using ESG for what it is: a tool for finance to profile the risks linked to Environment, Social and Governance.
CEO, Purpose-Driven Leader, Keynote Speaker, Investor and Author. Focused on growth strategies, ESG, sustainability, social Impact and communications. Board member. Forbes 50 over 50
3 周Since 2010, I have said very simply, #ItsGoodBusiness