LESS ESG FUDGE, MORE CLARITY

摘要

I RECENTLY HAD A SOMEWHAT CONFOUNDING conversation with a senior banker at a big US lender. Overseeing a group of highly polluting clients, the banker said that he was keen, nonetheless, to raise his profile as an environmental, social and governance (ESG) "expert". He said: "It is all about ESG now [at the bank]" - to the extent it might yield him a second career as a consultant on the subject, he thinks, even if he has little idea on how to go about it, as ESG is still all a bit of a "fudge". The issue here is not so much the banker's opportunistic grab in a growing space - if anything this signals that ESG is not a short-term trend. The surprising part is to discover that while sustainability grants C-suite attention and higher professional status, this bank is in doubt on how to treat some of its most environmentally and socially risky clients. It is not alone.