AllianceNews | SDG Sharing Session Review

SDG Sharing Session Review: Chinese Entrepreneurs have adopted ESG part of their corporation governance strategy

On April 25th, Li Wen, the director of CASVI Sustainable Development Research Institute, and Jianning Ma, the Vistage 066 coach, held a dialogue and shared insights on topics that entrepreneurs care about, such as the relationship between CSR and ESG, ESG talent demand, and ESG action strategies for entrepreneurs.

Li Wen first introduced the development process and relevant policies of ESG in recent years to the entrepreneurial audience. In 2004, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) released "Who Cares Wins," which first proposed the concept of ESG, integrating environmental, social, and governance factors into financial analysis, asset management, and securities trading, which helps to build a stronger and more resilient investment market and benefits the sustainable development of society as a whole.

Li Wen pointed out that both CSR and ESG are concepts proposed in the process of promoting sustainable development, with CSR emphasizing the responsibility of companies to employees, consumers, communities, and the environment while creating profits and pursuing shareholder value. ESG focuses more on the responsibility of companies in production and operation for the economy, environment, and society. It can be said that the biggest difference between CSR and ESG is that ESG further quantifies a company's social responsibility, focusing on the three major issues of ESG and enabling qualitative and quantitative assessment of a company's social performance.

Jianning Ma mentioned that many CSR talents are also transitioning their job functions and professional knowledge towards ESG during the transformation from CSR to ESG. Li Wen stated that with the national promotion of ESG practices in various industries, the demand for related talents has significantly increased. For example, Hong Kong has included ESG professionals in its Talent List, providing cash subsidies and relaxing immigration requirements to attract talent.

Regarding the topic of the relationship between ESG and enterprise operations that entrepreneurs care about, Li Wen stated that with the proposal of China's common prosperity strategy and the "dual carbon" goal, the economic development model is transforming towards a new model that balances the environment and social welfare. In this context, the scale and profits of a company are no longer the only criteria for judging its development. How to integrate business strategy and ESG strategy in an organic way has become a time proposition that companies must seriously answer.

Jianning Ma then shared the changes in corporate governance from the perspective of enterprise management. In the past, most companies placed profits as the main goal in corporate governance. However, in the context of sustainable development, the healthy development of companies should pay more attention to creating social value, and only by integrating ESG into corporate operations and management can they truly achieve sustainable development.