Mr. Sunil Jain during the India ESG Conclave 2022, Challenges, Opportunities & The Way Forward
ESG as a word has seen a five-fold increase on internet searches from 2019, even though the acronym ESG has been in existence from 2005, but it’s only now that ESG has begun to play a pivotal role in the decision making of governments, regulators, investors, lenders, and corporates.
At the India ESG Conclave 2022 held on 23rd September, Mr. Sunil Jain, Operating Partner – Energy Transition, Essar Capital addressed the audience on the broader aspects of ESG and how it plays a vital role today.
He shared that ESG covers a wide range of topics including corporate governance, labour practices, sustainable businesses and so on. Research has proved that good ESG practices leads to better financial outcomes and has become of supreme important. Essar was a Gold Sponsor for the event.
He also spoke about how all big and small enterprises will face tremendous problems if they do not start focusing on ESG now. From 2010 fortunately the responsible companies have started taking ESG as an important factor. Sustainability and ESG are extremely important in the value chain and if not used properly business will find it extremely difficult to be successful. One has to focus on ESG, not because it’s mandatory but for benefit of the entire value chain.
He also emphasised on India still lagging far behind in its ESG agenda, with a large number of corporates giving more emphasis on ‘E’ and very less importance towards ‘S’ and ‘G’. The biggest problem is with the S in ESG. Boards and corporates are not doing enough on it. S is one thing which will hit the core if not implemented.
Investments in ESG have risen exponentially growing from 61 billion dollars to 172 billion dollars, so the focus is there but it’s not enough and much more needs to be done.
Mr. Jain also stressed upon ESG being driven by employees as much as the board. So one has to evolve and look for jobs which can enhance their value in terms of ESG services.
While concluding the session, Mr. Jain suggested, ESG scores to be created for every corporate. It must reflect in the balance sheet, which should reflect as loss or profit based on one’s ESG efforts and value calculated.
He also stressed upon how important it is for each one of us to take this responsibility individually for bringing about change in ESG adoption across organisation. As we only have one planet Earth – for the people, of the people and by the people.
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