Study How is your ESG schedule? was developed by the UN Global Compact in Brazil, in partnership with Stilingue
ESG has been gaining more and more strength in the market and, with that in mind, the UN Global Compact in Brazil, in partnership with Stilingue and Falconi consultancy, launched the study How is your ESG agenda? ESG in Brazil.
The survey carried out with 190 organizations, from the private sector, the public sector and the third sector, pointed out that 78.4% of the participants answered that they included ESG in the elaboration of their business strategies. The research was carried out using a questionnaire and monitoring the topic on social networks with social listening.
“The practice of social listening reveals trends for taking advantage of insights in the decision-making process of the ESG journey. Through ‘social listening’ we are able to identify relevant comments and conversations in the most diverse digital environments, from social networks to forums, communities , specialized sites, among others”, explained Thiago Gonalves, currently Director of the Stilingue Business Unit at Take Blip, the company that acquired Stilingue in January 2022.
One of the points raised by the analysis was the reasons that led companies to adopt the agenda. According to the data presented, the motivations come from the concern with the environmental impacts and in building a sustainable economy.
Despite this, the greatest impact was actually perceived by 70% of the companies that implemented the agenda in reputation and image. The least mentioned factor was the consumer’s demands, which demonstrates that, in most segments that include Industry, Services and Commerce.
Although companies still see reputation and image as the main values when talking about ESG implementation, it is clear that this entire agenda is increasingly mature, especially among business leaders and investors. We have already left behind the time when a few areas of a company dealt with sustainability and we see that CEOs are increasingly engaged in the topic, which is fundamental for the advancement of the 2030 Agenda as a whole. Society is demanding it and the expectation is that these numbers and this pressure will only grow, said Carlo Pereira, CEO of the UN Global Compact in Brazil.
The CEO’s speech is reflected in companies that do not have ESG practices, since according to the survey, 67.4% of them report not having suffered negative impacts for this reason. In addition, 58% of the companies also never refused suppliers and/or partners using this type of criteria.
According to the survey, this scenario may be changing since 8.9% report having lost businesses or consumers, 4.2% lost market value and 3.7% had difficulty accessing credit lines. The most noticeable negative impact, in 13.2% of the companies, was lower employee engagement and the difficulty of attracting talent.
In general, organizations point out that in order to move forward with the ESG agenda, it is necessary to have a better structure of support areas for implementation, which was confirmed by 25.7% of respondents, greater training of professionals in this agenda (17.5% ), the increase in actions to raise awareness of ESG practices (17.5%) and greater support from leadership (15.3%).
The study “dismembered” the acronym ESG and presented the companies’ initiatives for each of the letters. In the environmental pillar, contemplated by the letter E, initiatives focus on training employees on the subject and on actions such as reduction, recycling and sustainable disposal of waste.
Despite this, the survey also showed that initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have become more relevant for companies of all segments and sizes, since 62.1% have invested in such initiatives, being the theme most worked on in Industry, Infrastructure, Commerce and Agribusiness.
The data demonstrates that, even though these are initiatives that require more resources, the theme is something that is being demanded in most businesses, whether by investors, customers, suppliers or even by the positive impact that the organization wants to promote.
In the social pillar, contemplated by the letter S, the initiatives are associated with actions with local communities, which are the focus of 68.4% of the responding companies, themes such as diversity and inclusion (68.4%) and health and well-being (67.9%).
For the governance pillar, represented by the letter G, the agenda is more strongly based on having a Code of Ethics and behavior (the focus of 85.8% of the organizations), working on culture, values and purpose (74.2%) and have Compliance Policies (66.8%).
