For a company, its purpose and values are aligned with the company’s Code of Conduct and provide the building blocks of its Sustainability Strategy.
By Rusen Kumar
The ESG Strategy defines the nature, scope, and priorities of the sustainability programme. ESG stands for Environment, Social and Governance. Strategy is defined as the best way to do something. Responsible business practices play an important role in progressing the vision and mission of a business.
Strives for the Betterment
At the Corporate level, a company strives for the Betterment of its consumers, value chain partners, employees, investors, and other key stakeholders through a four-pillar approach. For example, a four-pillar approach may be – For Better Products, For Better Sourcing, For a Better Planet, and For Better Communities. Over the years, a company should be building on these pillars stronger and have bettered its approach, performance, and disclosure to engage its stakeholders through journeys and plans for the future.
An Example
For example, Tata Consumer Products, a Tata Group company, sustainability strategy called ‘For Better Living’ is inspired by the Tata core values of Integrity, Responsibility, Excellence, Pioneering, and Unity and focused on the corporate identity of ‘For Better.
Sustainability strategy
In general, the sustainability or ESG strategy incorporates metrics from business Sustainability strategy around driving Net Zero, pioneering Circular Economies, and Preserving Nature and Biodiversity.
While Companies that focus on sustainability are being strengthened and becoming an integral part of the way to do business. Businesses are cognizant of the need to embrace and articulate ESG and its elements.
More importantly, how will sustainability now transition to become a holistic framework and act as a guidance for all functions of businesses? The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a powerful framework for businesses toward ESG and Sustainability to develop an interconnected model for sustainable growth.
SDGs have immense opportunities for the participation of Indian corporate.
These SDGs are bringing private players from various sectors together to achieve the common aim of sustainable development, by exploring synergies between different stakeholders for cumulative synchronized growth.
Various business groups have committed to sustainable food and beverage production and consumption and endeavor to align their ESG strategy to the SDGs.
Social security and protection
The business is all about social security and protection aimed at the well-being of human beings and society as a whole. No doubt, the sustainable development of a business enterprise is predicated on the natural environment where it operates. Whilst embracing low-carbon practices and green operations and manufacturing sustainable products, businesses also consider green development to be an opportunity for corporate innovation and growth.
Value chain and continue to innovate
Various businesses have integrated the concept of design-driven into every link of their value chain and continue to innovate throughout the product life cycle of product design, packaging, material selection, electronic waste recycling, etc. Such innovative efforts have reduced carbon emissions and promoted the development of a circular economy for their businesses.
Bright green future
Companies are willing to work with more people to jointly protect the earth and forge ahead with a bright green future. According to the guidelines of the GRI Standards and ISO 26000 Guidance on Social Responsibility about methods for identifying and analyzing material issues, leading businesses have identified major sustainable development concerns most closely related to corporate operations in the broadly four dimensions of environmental responsibility, social responsibility, product responsibility and corporate governance.
