The start of a new year is a key time when many businesses set goals for the year, and you may be looking to re-evaluate your ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) practices as you look ahead.
So, here’s our guide to understanding ESG goals for your business, and how Window Films can help you to achieve them.
ESG practices have come to prominence as a way for organisations to measure their impact on society.
Increasingly, business success is not just measured on financial reporting but on the company’s contributions to the environment and the community, and the ESG framework provides a way to assess this.
So, what exactly is ESG, and how can your business best use this framework?
What is ESG?
Before we can dive into understanding ESG goals for your business, we first need to understand ESG.
Environmental, Social and Governance are the three criteria which make up the ESG framework, by which stakeholders can assess how organisations manage opportunities and risks related to ESG factors.
The ESG factors are standards which measure a business’s impact on society and the environment, as well as how transparent and accountable it is in terms of company leadership, practices and shareholder rights.
Let’s take a look at each of the ESG factors.
Environmental
Stakeholders use this ESG factor to determine how the company is protecting the environment and what steps they’re taking to reduce their ecological footprint.
Examples of business practices under the Environmental factor of ESG include:
- Lowering carbon emissions by reducing the business’s energy usage, and implementing more energy-efficient practices
- Developing more ecologically sound products and services
- Reducing waste produced by the business.
Social
The Social factor of ESG assesses how the business impacts society, including their treatment of both employees and people outside of the business itself.
Business practices which help businesses show responsibility within the social factor include:
- Ensuring that their products and services are safe for all
- Keeping premises safe for all staff and customers
- Investing in suppliers who are fair e.g. avoiding modern slavery, and being aware of labour rights
- Bringing equality to the workplace with robust diversity and inclusivity policies.
Governance
The Governance element of ESG helps stakeholders to assess how ethically an organisation is behaving and how transparent they are about their activities.
Examples of measures businesses can take to demonstrate the Governance criterion of ESG include:
- Implementing ethical business practices at every level
- Giving accurate reports on financial performance and business operations
- Ensuring diversity in leadership and being public about executive pay levels.
Why you should set ESG goals
Hopefully you’re now well on the way to understanding ESG goals for your business, but you might be wondering why you should set them, and whether they’re really that important.
The best way to look at it is that your business’s goals themselves might not be the most important thing, but having them in place and assessing your progress towards them is the way to ensure your business’s commitment in these three key areas.
And as well as demonstrating to the outside world that you’re getting ESG right, there are some more quantifiable benefits too.
Benefitting the environment
It may seem obvious, but by prioritising measures which lessen your business’s environmental impact, you’re going to reduce your carbon footprint and make a difference to the ecological state of the world.
Benefitting your finances
Another big upside of improving energy efficiency in your business as part of ESG is that the amount you spend on energy bills is likely to decrease.
Even simple switches like using energy efficient lightbulbs in your premises will not only help your carbon footprint but make your bills more palatable too.
Providing a competitive advantage
Understanding ESG goals for your business will enable you to create and publish a transparent plan for ESG which sets you apart from other businesses who are on the back foot with this.
Having clear ESG goals can really benefit a business’s reputation, which will not only attract customers but could help you gain financial input too; investors are known to take ESG factors into account when considering where to invest.
How can Window Films improve your ESG plan?
At Sureguard Window Films® we’re proud to partner with businesses who are implementing their ESG goals.
Our Window Films can assist in achieving your business’s ESG in multiple areas.
1. Environmental impact
The installation of Window Film at your business premises can help to regulate the building’s temperature, reducing the need for heating in the winter and air conditioning in the cooler months.
Our Energy Saving Window Film keeps your premises warmer in the cooler months, and cooler when the sun is out, which is a great way to help you achieve ESG goals relating to reducing your carbon footprint through energy savings.
We’ve written more fully about our Energy Saving Window Film here – and for those who might be concerned about installing a Window Film because of their plastic content, you can read all about the green credentials of our Window Films here.
2. Social impact
Your ESG plan will include measures that your business can take to ensure that all your staff and the surrounding community are kept safe.
We wrote last year about how Window Films are especially beneficial to those with visual impairment, ensuring that large panes of glass are more visible and allowing exits to be found more easily in emergencies.
Installing a Window Film will not only help your business’s environmental impact, but also make your property more accessible for those who are partially sighted and benefitting the community.
Now that we’ve focused on understanding ESG goals for your business…
…it’s time to put some into action.
The start of a new year is a great time to sit down and reassess your ESG goals, or perhaps write them for the first time.
Why not plan for the installation of a Window Film to help your business demonstrate your commitment to the environment and to the community?
At Sureguard Window Films® we provide Window Films to a huge range of specifications, whether you need something crystal-clear, frosted, tinted, bomb-proof, reflective… the list goes on, and we’d love to talk to you about what’s best for your premises.
Get in contact today and ask us about understanding ESG goals for your business, and how Window Films can help.
