What should leaders do online in the much scrutinised ESG world we live in today?
In this Episode, your host Roger Christie is joined by CEO of Artis Advisory and Co-Founder of The Alignment People, Zora Artis to help boards and executives successfully navigate their ESG journey online.
Together they explore:
- Why authentic digital participation is crucial for every business today.
- The impact of radical transparency and connectivity for ‘glass box brands’.
- How leaders can take safe but purposeful steps into the online environment focusing on the issues they’re passionate about.
- What boards and executive teams can do to ensure consistency and integrity in their words and actions on and offline.
The insights + advice.
Roger Christie: In your view, in this ESG world, what should leaders be doing online?
Zora Artis: Whatever they choose to do online, in whichever platform they’re doing it, it must align with their organisations’ purpose, values and brand. The expectations of business have completely changed in the last year or more. There has been a shift from shareholder to stakeholder capitalism. We have institutional investors and company directors much more focused on purpose and prosperity, people and planet. And that’s through the ESG lens – environmental, social, and governance. It’s very much central to the sustainability of various institutions and companies around the world – whether they’re for purpose or for profit, as well as for our society and our planet.
There’s an organisation that tracks reputation across the world called RepTrak. They found that half of our global citizens believe that it’s essential for corporations to provide both actions and words that support ethical issues. This is where ESG is a really powerful indicator of trust and willingness to buy.
In 2020, everyone was talking about ESG. Lots of words were going around about how things needed to change. And now in 2022, the global ESG score has gone down from 68.7 to 67 points. And that’s because there has been very little action taken. When there’s not enough action taken, people take notice of that and the level of trust drops. (Roger Christie chatted to RepTrak’s Senior VP APAC, Oliver Freedman in Episode 02 – take a listen here to what he has to say.)
So it’s really important, whatever anyone does in the online space, whether they’re on boards or whether they’re in the C-suite or other tiers of leadership, that they are aware of the risk of not matching the talk and the walk together. There’s big risk associated with misalignment. Leaders need to make sure they’re engaging and addressing any gaps that are potentially there. ESG is much, much more than a PR exercise.
Digital leadership in practice.
The cofounders of Canva, and in particular, Cameron Adams, are a great example of leaders living and breathing their ESG values on and offline.
Not only have they pledged to generously donate 30% of their revenue to charitable foundations, but Cameron continually leads with heart by donating his time and voice to organisations like OzHarvest to reduce food wastage and feed Australia’s hungriest.
Self-proclaimed ‘rebelutionary’ Mike Cannon-Brookes regularly takes a stand on Twitter to speak up on social issues. His latest Tweets call out companies like AGL and Accel to do better when it comes to Australia’s energy future.
Zora’s final takeaway
Zora Artis: I think it’s really important to be really clear about your purpose and your values and your brand. They’re fundamentals.
Ensure your brand platform is quite genuine. Your people and your actions are genuine proof points of what you’re doing.
And make sure you’re applying that ethical lens, you know, is this the right thing to do? If someone’s not watching, don’t just do it because you think you’re going to get brownie points, do it because it’s the right thing.
You can follow Zora Artis on LinkedIn or Twitter. Click on the links to learn more about Artis Advisory and The Alignment People.
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