Good morning.
We’ve just wrapped our second annual meeting of the Fortune Impact Initiative, which was created to give top corporate ESG officers a forum to share experiences and best practices. But since launch, it also has become a place to observe how the companies at the forefront of this movement are dealing with a sizable backlash, particularly in the U.S. My takeaways:
—ESG is alive and well, even if companies are talking about it less and in different ways. The notion that large companies must pay more attention to the impact of their actions on people and planet has become embedded in the strategies of the best corporations, and is increasingly expected by employees, business partners, investors and a growing group of consumers.
—Having said that, there’s widespread agreement that ESG is an awkward, polyglot acronym, and its implementation has been erratic. The backlash is forcing companies to focus their efforts more carefully on the pieces most important to their business and to clearly demonstrate the value to their business.
—Some companies are pausing action on diversity, in part because of a spate of lawsuits against corporate diversity programs in the wake of the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action in college admissions. And there has been a pronounced slowdown in new corporate commitments to climate action, in part because companies are waiting to see how the SEC’s disclosure rules will affect them.
Some other excerpts from the event:
“People don’t buy sustainable products. They buy great ones. But I don’t think any product can be considered great these days if it hasn’t considering sustainability.”
—Tim Brown, co-founder, Allbirds (which previewed its new, zero-carbon shoe at the event.)
“All of that is for nothing if we are not successful with the business first. We have to succeed as a business first, and we have to be unapologetic about that.”
—Roger Martella, chief sustainability officer, GE
“Our focus is on shared value. It's just simply recognizing that our long-term business success really depends on the extent we can address the relevant concerns to our business and on the minds of our associates, our customers, our suppliers, our communities.”
—Kathleen McLaughlin, chief sustainability officer, Walmart
More news from the Impact Initiative here. And other news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
