Adapting to a changing climate: an introduction to ESG
What is ESG
ESG stands for environmental, social and governance, a term used both in specific legal and regulatory contexts and more generally to capture a wide range of characteristics of an organisation or business. In the financial sector, ESG is often used as a general umbrella term to refer to non-financial factors against which investors may assess the behaviour of an entity they are considering investing in, as part of their analysis for identifying material risk and growth opportunities.
ESG is commonly referred to alongside the concepts of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. Collectively, these terms refer to the decisions and behaviours of an organisation in relation to social responsibility, in areas such as ethics, the environment, diversity, human rights, integrity, labour chain, climate change, philanthropy, accountability, sustainability, values, community, transparency and fair trade over the long term.
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