ESG
What it is
ESG criteria serve investors, banks and large clients to judge a company: its emissions and consumption (E), its relationship with employees, suppliers and society (S), the way it is run and controlled (G). Large companies publish a report, framed in Europe by the sustainability reporting directive; smaller ones increasingly answer questionnaires from their clients and their bank, which pass on their own obligations.
The three letters, for an SME
- E, environment: energy consumption, travel, waste, purchases; what can be measured on an invoice
- S, social: working conditions, training, diversity, suppliers, and commitment towards society, including socialsponsoring
- G, governance: who decides, how the accounts are checked, anti-corruption, data protection
The link with social sponsoring
A documented social sponsoring (amount, project, result, report) is a social action the company can include in its S section, with facts: euros committed, associations equipped, websites delivered, report available. It is not the only possible action, and it is not a certification: it is one proof among others, but a proof that holds because it is dated, quantified and verifiable by a third party. An ESG questionnaire prefers a line like that to an intention.
What a questionnaire asks, in practice
- Figures: energy consumption, share of local suppliers, amount of social actions
- Written policies: data protection, anti-corruption, equality
- Proof: a report, an invoice, a certificate, a link to a visible result
- A named person in charge, to whom the next question can be asked
In Kern4Good
The end-of-cohort report gives each sponsor a reusable document: euros committed, websites delivered, associations supported, visibility obtained. It is written to be copied as is into an answer to a questionnaire or into a report. The packs are on the Companies page; the structure of the report is the one described in the social impact definition: the means, the outputs, the results, without confusing them.
Further reading
Is an SME concerned by ESG?
Not by the reporting obligation, but increasingly by the questions of its clients and its bank. One or two documented actions are enough to answer without spending weeks on it.
Is social sponsoring an environmental action?
No, it is a social action. The programme's websites are lean and fast, but that is not what counts in the E section.
Is ESG a certification?
No. Labels and ratings exist, paid and voluntary, but ESG is first a grid of questions. An SME can answer it with facts without buying a label.
What goes in the G section of a small company?
Who decides and how, the way the accounts are checked, the protection of its clients' data, the payment terms of its suppliers. Things an SME already does, without naming them.