TITLE:
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Investing: Doing Good to Do Well
AUTHORS:
Raghu Krishnamoorthy
KEYWORDS:
ESG, ESG Investing, COVID-19 Impact
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.9 No.7,
July
20,
2021
ABSTRACT: The
COVID-19 crisis has been a litmus test for old-style shareholder capitalism. As
the world emerges from the tyranny of the virus, new standards of
organizational behaviors will be expected: one where humankind demands that organizations
fulfill a broader purpose and has at its center enhancing societal value and
contribution. The environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors of the organizations now become important yardsticks
of measuring a resilient organization, and therefore, a sustainable society.
Gone are the days when what was good for business, was good for the society. A new frame is evolving which
inverses the proposition, i.e., what is good for the society is good for business. ESG is that new frame. The
article explores this paradigm shift in thinking. It explores academic
literature on the evolution of ESG investing, illustrating its application in
one organization as a case study Unilever and then addressing important ways of
measuring ESG. The article concludes with challenges that ESG faces today and in moving forward. Overall, the objective of the
article is to provide a short synthesis of the evolution of ESG as an important
new organizational success measure demanded by the
society, particularly due to experience of the pandemic and related crises during 2020.