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Sustainability (ESG)

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Environmental, social, and corporate governance


• What is ESG? • Enacted ESG legislation • Arguments for and against ESG • Opposition to ESG • Federal ESG rules • Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's weekly ESG newsletter

See also: Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)

Sustainability, in the context of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), is a business management concept that calls on companies to identify and direct specific measures to manage risk, execute strategy, and create long-term growth in shareholder value. The measures considered in sustainability analysis, known as material factors, may encompass a broad range of topics, such as environmental concerns, social issues, and governance practices.^[1]^[2]

Background

Sustainability aims to identify and manage business risks and opportunities that could affect a company's long-term value. Sustainability analysis provides investors with added insight into a company's full risk profile. Through sustainability analysis, companies seek to interpret issues such as climate change, resource scarcity, and population growth as business risks and opportunities.^[1]

Evaluating the sustainability of a company requires an analysis of material factors—financial elements deemed fundamental to the long-term success of a company's ESG strategy.^[1] Material factors that contribute to sustainability may include "environmental issues like climate change and natural resource scarcity ... social issues like labor practices, product safety, and data security [and] governance matters that include board diversity, executive pay, and tax transparency," according to the global professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.^[2] Through sustainability analysis, companies aim to understand material factors in terms of risks and opportunities for their business model.^[3]

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Footnotes

v • e Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)

Index	Index of articles about environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)

Overviews	ESG arguments‎ • Opposition to ESG • Reform proposals related to ESG • Federal ESG rules and regulations

Legislation	State legislative approaches opposing ESG investing • State legislative approaches supporting ESG investing • Enacted state ESG legislation by trifecta status, 2020-2024

Terms	Environmental, social, and corporate governance • Socially responsible investing • Shareholder model of the corporation • Stakeholder model of the corporation (stakeholder capitalism) • Applied business ethics • Sustainability (ESG) • Materiality (ESG)

Influencers	R. Edward Freeman • BlackRock • Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) • As You Sow • Free Enterprise Project • Institutional Shareholder Services The Great Reset (World Economic Forum) • Stephen Soukup • Vivek Ramaswamy • Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative

Public pensions	State public pension plans

Newsletter	Economy and Society (weekly)

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