Beyond Business: Humanizing ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance)

“ESG isn’t about ideology. It’s about economics.”–Witold Henisz

The global shout for greater social justice hasn’t landed on deaf ears inside the C-suite. Smart executives are listening, learning, and changing longstanding practices that have caused decades of harm to people.

In short, they are prioritizing the “S” in ESG – an acronym that stands for environmental, social, and corporate governance.

“The S or the social factor is really about people,” Wharton management professor Witold Henisz said. Employees, supply chain partners, customers, and the larger community are all affected by the operations of a firm, so prioritizing them depends on which group is most important.

“It’s really the salience of these different groups that’s going to drive the allocation of resources at the corporate level.”