Non-financial risks that come
from consideration of a brand’s reputation, labor conditions, compliance with
laws, quality of products and services and more are called ESG, or
environmental, social and governance risk.
Small businesses have the same
risks as stakeholders when it comes to ESG events. These risks can be more
challenging to understand due to lack of applicable regulations.
Investors are necessary to
support small industries during adverse events.
It's important to address ESG
risks quickly; if not, they can cause a series of catastrophic consequences.
Including environmental,
social, and governance factors into a company's strategy is considered risk
management regardless of the company's size, what sector it's in or how high
its ESG score is.
Various ESG issues can
endanger a company's finances or reputation. These issues are universal to
every company.
Companies that don’t pay
attention to environmental, social and ethical concerns end up experiencing
more ESG related issues or controversies. ESG risk is just another kind of
business risk.
Companies should treat ESG
risk management the same way they would treat standard risk mitigation
practices.
Companies typically manage
some of these risks without an ESG program in place.
II- ESG risk can be mitigated by
having an effective management control framework in place
Many services are available to
help manage ESG risks. Since these efforts need not be a burden, it is good
news that these services are available.
Small companies don't have to
worry about ESG scandals as much as mid-sized companies.
Many companies have found that
implementing an ESG program gives them the opportunity to be philanthropic
while improving their business.
Companies can start managing
ESG risks with confidence after understanding this information.
Progress on the ground is just
as important as corporate ESG monitoring.
Empowering team members to
complete tasks requires detailed advice on how to accomplish their goals.
ESG reporting builds trust
instead of following compliance when you approach it through this lens.
In addition to improving
public perception, ESG reporting provides accountability both internally and
externally.
This allows for quicker
achievement of ESG goals.
III- Evaluating the effectiveness
of management control mechanisms
Sustainable development
management control consists of tools and practices that ensure a company's
economic, social and environmental performance is balanced.
This term can also be referred
to as the set of tools and practices useful for putting effective strategies
into action.
The article discusses how
different elements influence whether companies include social, economic and
environmental sustainability indicators in their performance measures.
Sustainability managers from
over 200 different industries in Australia and New Zealand participated in a
survey.
The key factors that
influenced sustainability metrics being incorporated into company performance
systems were identified through hierarchical multiple regression analysis.
These factors were the
company's industry, the size of the company and the opinion of managers on the
importance of these metrics.
Sustainability managers
consider certain performance indicators important for business performance.
If a corporation has a low
impact on the environment, they’re likely to add more of these indicators to
their performance tracking systems.
Large companies in
environmentally damaging industries use performance metrics that include social
measures, but rarely environmental ones.
Although it didn’t affect
whether a indicator was included in a company’s sustainability reports, it
obviously didn’t matter if the indicator was included in the company’s
performance management system.
In order to be more
sustainable, organizations must address the lack of consistency between their
external sustainability reports and internal sustainability practices.
This was shown by the results
to be an issue that needs to be addressed.
