Last month, I chaired Civil Society’s ESG Imperative Conference. It is always an inspiring and thought-provoking event. As always, the speakers and audience were committed to the subject matter and to ensuring that topics such as equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), the natural environment and social justice remain priorities in the charity sector.
Yet this year, there was something slightly different in the atmosphere. The event took place not long after president Trump suspended federal employees working on EDI projects. Shortly after his announcement, some of America’s (and the world’s) largest corporations followed suit.
So, are charities about to abandon their focus on ESG too? Thankfully, it seems not. To start with, by their very nature, charities are driven by a socially aware agenda. This means that issues that corporations can choose to turn a blind eye to, charities cannot (there are also some businesses that will not change their views on ESG due to a change in the political winds).
Secondly, the conversations, panel discussions and general mood at the event demonstrated that many charities are staying the course, with ESG remaining an area of focus for them.
It is a topic where charities can learn from each other and the sharing of knowledge is key. We here at Civil Society want to support charities on their ESG journey, and to this end, we have launched our ESG Imperative Project.
This brings together a range of work we are already doing supporting charities in this area – such as the conference, training, the Charity Finance responsible investment supplement, this month’s special feature on impact investment and more.
It also gives us the scope to build on this work and one thing we have heard many times from the conference and speaking to the sector is that there is a need for information and guidance on various elements of an ESG journey.
To this end, with this issue you’ll find our first ESG best practice guide – An A-Z of ESG. We will follow this up with more titles aimed at helping the sector develop its understanding and practice in all things ESG. If you would like to suggest any topics for future guides to cover, then please get in touch. And, of course, thanks to Evelyn Partners for supporting this first guide.
Please visit civilsociety.co.uk/projectESG for more info.
Tristan Blythe is editor of Charity Finance
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