Don’t miss our next Expert Connect session on August 4 about ESG management: “How To Position Your Business For Long-Term ESG Success.”
ESG – Environment, Social, and Governance – is an extremely hot topic among the financial community, business leaders, investors, governments and even the general public. For the capital-focused stakeholders, ESG metrics present a robust, non-financial way to assess risk exposure. For morality-focused stakeholders, ESG metrics help demonstrate how much a company concerns itself with being a force for net-positive change.
“Whatever the reason, ESG management, reporting and performance needs to be top of mind for businesses around the globe. But where do you start? How do prepare for elevated investor scrutiny, potential new regulation, or elevated social pressure? How do you get a handle on your carbon footprint and report it to customers? How do you ensure a strong ESG posture versus your direct competitors and peers?” asked Trevor Bronson, strategic development manager, Intelex Technologies ULC.
Trevor has broad experience as an EHS practitioner in compliance, EHS technologies, systems analyst at Tesla Motors, research firm Verdantix, Benjamin Moore. Now, at Intelex, Trevor leverages his industry experience to work as both a senior product marketing manager for EHS products and a strategic development manager helping derive and execute Intelex’s near and long-term strategic goals.
The Expert Connect session, How to Position Your Business for Long-Term ESG Success, is scheduled for Wednesday, August 4, 2021 from 10:00-10:45am EDT. You can register here: https://www.intelex.com/expert-connect. Trevor, one of the speakers for the session, recently sat down with us to discuss ESG.
Intelex: Why is the topic of interest to you and why is it important to EHSQ professionals and Expert Connect attendees?
Trevor: ESG is interesting to me because it represents an approach to business that borrows from the past, repackages for the present and may represent a real paradigm shift in the future.
Underlying concepts of ESG such as environmental sustainability or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have been around for decades, yet ESG has more momentum than any of its predecessors. I believe this is because ESG is more metrics-driven, risk-based and publicly visible – therefore much more material to a business’s viability and success. And since ESG is emerging as a very important measure of business performance and risk exposure to investors, business leaders, peer groups and the public, and since so much of the responsibility for managing ESG falls into EHSQ professionals’ laps (environmental emissions, worker safety, sustainability reporting, product safety and quality, etc.), EHSQ professionals need to be ready to respond to this new challenge quickly and effectively.
Intelex: What are the takeaways you hope to leave with attendees?
Trevor: I hope that attendees leave with an understanding of what ESG is, why ESG is and how they can position their organizations to succeed in an ESG-focused business environment. We’ll cover the overlap between ESG and EHSQ, pain points in establishing ESG programs, best practices for reporting, best practices for performance improvement, best practices for disclosures and much more.
Intelex: Please share an example of a personal or professional experience you’ve had related to EHSQ leadership or the topic of the session.
Trevor: An early project in my career was to design these little badges – like an employee ID – that had my company’s sustainability principles on them that everyone could always carry around with them while at work. The idea was to have a visible commitment and constant reminder of how to operate in a way that was ecologically friendly. It was a nice gesture, and maybe it did inspire some change, but it always felt a bit hollow. That was six years ago.
Seeing the importance of ESG today makes me realize that all of these initiatives, no matter how big or small, build on each other to drive change.
Intelex: What do you think are some of the most pressing EHSQ/Supplier Management/Risk Management/Sustainability issues facing corporate leaders and safety professionals in 2021 and beyond?
Trevor: ESG! I think the focus on ESG really has the potential to change the game for how companies think about and account for non-financial risk. Its scope is so wide but importance so obvious that I really believe contribution to ESG goals and performance targets is going to become foundational to a lot of roles over the next decade.
For more information on Expert Connect, including registration, click here.
