Per this Forbes article, top performers on ESG topics are rewarded with valuation multiples 3% to 19% higher than median performers. (Both are dramatically higher than companies without an ESG program.)

Further, the article stresses that to become a top performer and enjoy the higher multiples, a company needs to capture four essential mindset shifts.

     It’s the CEO’s job. 

Leadership on ESG topics is now an expectation of CEOs; when they relegate it to a function or delegate it down, they miss the opportunity to lead, and they hamper the organization’s ability to move boldly.

Profitable is scalable. 

One of the most critical mindset shifts for leaders is to move away from the idea of ESG as altruism. If ESG is a cost center, there will always be pressure to manage it down. But when ESG shifts to be a profit pool, a scalability enabler, an innovation engine—that’s when its impact truly compounds.

If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not doing it right. 

Those with the courage to embrace the discomfort by rethinking their assumptions, tackling the intractable issues, telling their story even when it’s imperfect, and using their purpose as an edit point—those are the companies who will be well-tuned to thrive in the era of shareholder capitalism.

It’s about cooperation, not just competition. 

Pursuing ESG is in a company’s competitive self-interest, as capital and talent increasingly flow from ESG laggards to ESG leaders and scarce sustainable sources get locked up. But visionary leaders understand that the crises we face are collective; they see both the imperative and the opportunity for cooperation and consider how they can move the full industry ecosystem by convening as well as competing.

When you’re ready to commit, commercialize, get uncomfortable, and cooperate, there are four steps that will help you chart a path toward Authentic ESG. For a fuller discussion of these four steps see the article “Authentic ESG: From Compliance to Calling.”

1. Start with purpose. Purpose is your “why,” your reason for being. A clear and compelling purpose not only helps you hone in on an ESG agenda that is credible and authentic, it provides the inspiration and alignment needed to transform your organization through an ESG lens.
2. Take a stand. A robust ESG agenda will cover a range of topics across environment, social, and governance issues, but within that fulsome agenda there is merit in taking a spiky approach. What is the one thing that you want to be known for, that you want to move the needle on in an industry-shaping and society-shifting kind of way?
3. Embody the change. Create congruence between the commitments you’re making to the world and the decisions being made in your four walls, by taking a thoughtful approach to educating, inspiring, and mobilizing your organization around your ESG transformation.
4. Tell your story. In addition to a bold and clear-eyed ESG strategy, you need a compelling and distinctive ESG story—a strategic narrative from which all ESG-related communications flow, a thorough understanding of which messages matter most to which stakeholders, and resonant, breakthrough creative work. If you fail to tell your story well, you miss the opportunity to attract capital, attract talent, attract customers, build trust with partners and regulators, and inspire advocacy.

Edenark Group, with the world’s top environmental sustainability, carbon neutral and ESG planning program, is here to help you turn ESG into a competitive edge and maximize your company valuation.

The Edenark Group ISO 14001 is the world’s best environmental sustainability program.

Benefits to a company of becoming certified are many –

https://edenark.com/why-becoming-a-certified-sustainable-organization-makes-sense/

If an organization cares about the environment and the future of our children…and wishes to be a leader and voice…and wants to benefit from its efforts…the Edenark Group ISO 14001 is the best program on the planet.

https://edenark.com/presentation/

This article, titled, Leading With Purpose Is The Key to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Success, talks about how organizations need to adjust, if they wish to attract and retain talent.

Per Deborah Lovich, a managing director and senior partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG): “The ‘war for talent’ is over. Talent won.”

We know corporate leaders are saying:

• Employees are the most urgent need across sectors (attracting, retaining, engaging, activating)
• Talent has the upper hand: people can go where they want, we need to re-recruit our people

Yet, we know talent is saying:

• I want to work for an organization that shares my views
• I will charge you more to hire me if you are not certified sustainable, and +50% of us will leave you once we find a certified sustainable company…even if they pay me less
• You need to have a performing plan for carbon neutrality and a path to Net Zero
• I need to see your sustainability plan can expand into an ESG plan and your leadership needs to present the corporate purpose clearly

When we move from your employees to your clients, we know that 7 out of 10 consumers will move their business if they find a certified sustainable company.  We also know corporations are searching for vendors who are certified sustainable; as those that are already sustainable have internal requirements, including Scope 3 reporting, that will impact future vendor selection.  This is one of the reasons certified sustainable companies are growing 75% – 20x faster than their non-certified peers; and why so many companies are willing to misrepresent that they sustainable.

But that misrepresentation is, at best, a short term gain, as both talent and customers will search and find the truth.

If you want to win the war for talent and also win the war for customers, the majority of both of these groups want you to be environmentally certified sustainable.

We are very excited to have Andrew Deutsch interview our CEO, David Goodman, on his Fangledcast podcast, where they discuss how a SME (small to mid-sized enterprise) can use sustainability to differentiate.

Andrew has experience using certifications to grow brand image and sales and is able to ask target-specific questions that prompt answers that benefit SMEs.

Great podcast.

Thank you, Andrew!

We appreciate LinkedIn asking us to contribute to its post on how tenants are unable to pay rent during the virus.  We believe landlords can proactively help their tenants differentiate, recover, grow…and pay rents again.  But, it takes involvement and action.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jordyndahl_new-threat-to-new-york-city-commercial-rent-activity-6669339242612838400-4Aag/

Heritage Investment Group,  with over $1.3B under management, and named to the CNBC Financial Advisor 100 Ranking for 2020, has become a certified sustainable company under the Edenark Group ISO 14001 program.

The Edenark Group ISO 14001 environmental sustainability certification program is the world’s premier sustainability standard, used by organizations around the world, that care about all current, and future, stakeholders.

The program helps the organization define how it interacts internally, externally, and with the environment.  It incorporates energy/waste/water/materials management and reduction, employee health and performance enhancement, community involvement, procurement and suppliers, compliance and regulations, emergency/security, and stakeholder engagement.  Benefits include creating a culture of continual improvement, stakeholder engagement, lower costs, higher revenues and profits, improved employee performance, and, most importantly,…… doing something good for current and future generations.

“When an organization pursues, and attains, the Edenark Group ISO 14001 sustainability certification, they are not just doing it to see their costs go down and revenues and profits go up.  They are setting a higher bar for their organization and sending a signal to all those around them,” says David Goodman, CEO of Edenark Group.  “They are not just changing out a few light bulbs and calling it a day.  They are agreeing to adhere to the world’s Gold standard for sustainability certification and are joining an elite fraternity of over 300,000 organizations, in over 150 countries, that have committed to continually improving in every way, for the benefit of all of us today, and all of us tomorrow.”

The world’s business community is trying to become ESG compliant.  Besides the internal challenges, organizations need their vendors and supply-chain suppliers to also be ESG compliant.

If you are a small to mid-sized organization, serving larger companies, this is a way to differentiate from your competitive peers.

The Edenark Group ISO 14001 sustainability certification program includes Edenark Group being a SEC-approved member, and 3^rd Party Validator, of the world’s only securitized carbon offset market.

As such, our program satisfies UNFCCC/ISO/COP25/26.

This allows us to help your organization become:

• Certified sustainable under the world’s largest and most prestigious sustainability program
• Carbon neutral under the world’s only securitized carbon offset program
• ESG compliant under UNFCCC/ISO/COP25/26

Besides doing the right thing for the environment and providing competitive differentiation and revenue-enhancement for your company; this provides a statement to the world of your organization’s decision to lead from the front.

BlackRock is the world’s largest investment manager, with over $9 trillion under management.  Here is their position on the need for corporate sustainability:

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