Key Questions
- What is ESR and CSR? Why are they important?
- What are the benefits of ESR and CSR?
- Do I need to take these into consideration when I’m first starting a company, or can I wait until later? What are the tradeoffs?
- What are exemplary startups and founders for ESR and CSR?
- What are my options for implementing an ESR or CSR approach that will actually work?
- How involved should I be as a founder? Can I delegate this to someone else?
Start Here
Jen Barnette: ESG Checklist for Startups
(8 min read.) Developing an ESG focus is a journey that can begin at any stage of a business. This roadmap is designed for early-stage companies to integrate ESG considerations thoughtfully, focusing on key areas using limited resources effectively. It involves identifying relevant ESG issues, creating an action plan to address these priorities, and empowering a task force to oversee implementation and establish metrics. Reflecting on ESG priorities and communicating progress is crucial for engaging stakeholders and adapting strategies. Proactively addressing ESG can differentiate a company in the marketplace, aligning with both internal goals and external expectations.
Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur: Business Models With a Purpose
(35 min video.) Alex and Yves emphasized three main points: challenging fundamental assumptions to shift towards sustainability and societal impact, adopting a different leadership mindset, and leveraging innovation and iteration while balancing profit with purpose. The keynote aimed to guide businesses in creating models that generate profit while positively contributing to society and the environment, encouraging leaders to rethink traditional strategies and incorporate sustainability as a core element of their operations.
Learn More
Mike Stopka: Social & Environmental Sustainability: What Startups Can Do Right Now
(53 min video.) Stopka emphasizes the importance of sustainability for organizations, outlining steps for early-stage companies to integrate it into their strategies. He defines organization-wide sustainability through ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) frameworks and UN Sustainable Development Goals. Key points include the necessity of measuring a company’s carbon footprint, setting clear sustainability goals, and engaging stakeholders. He highlights risks like climate crisis and regulatory changes, and opportunities like access to funding, cost savings, and talent acquisition. Stopka also addresses the growing investor and consumer demand for genuine sustainability efforts and transparent reporting.
Anna Alex: Let’s Scale Purpose – Why Combining Purpose With Profit Should Be the New Recipe for Impact
(5 min read.) Anna argues for combining purpose with profit as a new approach to creating large-scale impact, emphasizing that impact is the product of purpose and scale. She notes that 21% of German startups integrate environmental and social impact into their business models, illustrating how sustainability can be embedded in core strategies. Unlike traditional perceptions of purpose as an add-on, companies now integrate it into their business strategies to achieve sustained growth. Anna highlights the limitations of NGOs, noting that their size and bureaucracy often hinder their impact. Instead, she suggests businesses have the resources and power to create broader impacts, citing the example of Neste, an oil refining company that shifted to a purpose-driven model focused on renewable energy. She argues that integrating purpose into business strategies is crucial for a sustainable future, as larger businesses can achieve a more significant impact when purpose-driven.
Beth Sasfai: The Alphabet Soup of ESG: Introducing Key Frameworks
(7 min read.) The articles and covers and explains the key standards that guide companies in sustainability reporting. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) provide broad, aspirational goals for businesses to align with. The B Impact Assessment aids startups aiming for B Corp certification by assessing performance across various ESG categories. The Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB) offers industry-specific metrics for financial impacts. The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) focuses on climate-related financial risks. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) provides comprehensive reporting standards for broader stakeholder engagement. Each framework caters to different stages and focuses on business ESG integration.
Jen Barnette: What Is Esg? A Primer for Startups
(3 min read.) Jen explains the basics of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), a framework for evaluating a company’s sustainability and resilience. Environmental factors assess a company’s impact on the environment, like emissions and resource management. Social factors evaluate how a company interacts with employees and society, focusing on issues like diversity, equity, and data protection. Governance involves a company’s internal structures, ethics, and compliance. For startups, ESG offers a leadership approach that balances stakeholder interests, mitigates risks, and unlocks new opportunities by integrating sustainable practices across all aspects of business operations.
Robin Takashi Lewis: 5 Ways Esg Creates Value for Companies, Beyond Virtue Signalling
(5 min read.) In this article, Robin shares how ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) performance offers significant value beyond mere virtue signaling, directly impacting a company’s long-term success. By integrating ESG practices, companies can attract and retain top talent, as younger professionals prioritize ethical workplaces. ESG also opens investment opportunities, with sustainable funds rapidly growing. It aids in cost reduction through efficient resource management, boosts revenue by appealing to eco-conscious consumers, and minimizes regulatory risks. Ultimately, Robin explains that ESG is crucial for strategic integration into core business operations, ensuring both financial returns and positive societal impact while fulfilling fiduciary duties.
Nicole McPhail: Strategy Planning and Corporate Social Responsibility: Creating a CSR Strategy (Part 1)
(9 min video.) Nicole focuses on the research phase of developing a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. She emphasizes the need for a thorough understanding of the company’s current CSR activities, including an internal audit of existing programs and initiatives. Additionally, external research is crucial to benchmark against similar companies and explore industry best practices. Internal research is also critical, involving interviews with HR business partners to identify leaders passionate about social impact and potential champions for the new CSR program. She emphasizes the importance of aligning the CSR program with the organization’s broader business priorities, understanding key areas like attracting and retaining talent or addressing brand marketing challenges. Nicole concludes by stressing the importance of researching employee engagement through surveys, focus groups, and interviews to understand employee expectations and priorities, ultimately creating a more impactful and effective CSR program.
Nicole McPhail: How to Develop a Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy: Solving Business Problems
(9 min video.) Nicole describes how the “articulate” phase of developing a CSR strategy involves stepping back and reframing your thinking to understand the “why” behind your CSR program. This involves clearly defining your objective, aligning your program with business priorities, defining success metrics, establishing a vision for your program, and demonstrating how it solves problems for stakeholders. By understanding the business priorities and using them to shape your CSR strategy, you can gain support, effectively communicate your value, and ultimately achieve success.
Nicole McPhail: Steps in a CSR Strategy: How to Create a Compelling Case for Your Program
(15 min video.) Nicole focuses on the “Back It Up” phase of creating a CSR program, emphasizing the importance of benchmarking and building a compelling case for your initiative. She highlights three key aspects: external benchmarking to showcase industry best practices, using data to build confidence in the program’s effectiveness, and compelling storytelling to add emotional appeal. She stresses the importance of tailoring the presentation to different decision-makers based on their specific needs and interests, and provides practical advice on benchmarking sources and contextualization.
Leigh Stewart: Affecting Change From the Inside – Attracting the Environmentally Conscious Millennial
(4 min read.) Leigh describes how Amcor, a global packaging company, has successfully attracted and retained environmentally conscious millennials by integrating sustainability into its business model and employee value proposition (EVP). They have pledged to make all packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025, focused on responsible procurement and ethical practices, and implemented a global education campaign to inform employees about sustainability initiatives. Leigh states that by empowering employees to be part of the solution, Amcor demonstrates that embracing sustainability is not only a moral obligation but also a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining top talent.