After SEBI’s new law where thousands of top listed companies by market capital have to report their ESG programmes in the annual report, the ESG reforms have picked up the momentum in the market
The existence of an organisation influences the environment, affects the social structure and drives government institutions on a large scale. Speaking at BW Facility Management Conference and Excellence Awards 2023, Labony Sanyal, Head-Corporate Admin & FM, Hero MotoCorp throws light on an issue of the pursual of the organisation’s concept of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG). She said that companies often restrict ESG to the environment and do not actually understand it completely.
Talking about her company, Sanyal added that as a manufacturing company, Hero MotoCorp does consider sustainability as a prominent subject but it has also emphasised three Ps which are People, Process and Product.
While Arun Khanna, VP Regional Lead (APAC), United Health Group said that ESG is the fundamental subject and includes complex verticles. How socially relevant and conscious a company is, now matters, added, Khanna.
Putting forward the perspective from the life insurance sector, Neelam Chhabra, AVP Facilities, Max Life Insurance called ESG as the heart and DNA of their organisation. Chhabra said, “We are trying to make it a sustainable habit, driving awareness. We have 300 offices and 100 more coming in. We are impacting lives more, that is why I and we take the ESG as an agenda and responsibility.”
Angad Rajain, Global CSO & IFM Head, Tenon Group shared that ESG is not a new concept but India adopted it more closely in late 2019. Further, he said, “We picked up the relevance of ESG in 2020. We realised that our customer base will largely define the need which we need to go to. We started working on different parameters, and we started figuring out for example how much paper waste we are generating and how much our workforce is diverse.”
When once ESG was all related to action towards good environmental health, the concept is more evolving and touch upon the issue of diversity and governance. However, the real impact will come if these organisations will take responsibility towards society not as forcibly imposed regulations.
