Newsletter - February 2025

 Did you happen to think that DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) was on its way out with the incoming Trump Administration.  Surprise.  There is something else lurking in the corner.

Have you heard of ESG?  Some more wonderful letters for us to get to know.  ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance.  ESG is a quantitative, data-based approach to determine a company’s improvement in its environmental, social and corporate governance efforts over time.

Environmental, social and governance is a framework that provides a set of metrics for investors, regulators, customers and other stakeholders to use to evaluate a company’s long-term sustainability efforts, support to various communities and ability to assess risks and govern the organization transparently.  ESG frameworks are developed by third-party organizations and can apply to a specific industry or on a global scale.

Companies choose the ESG framework they believe will work best for them. Major ESG bodies include the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, the International Sustainability Standards Board and the Global Reporting Initiative.  

Environmental
The E refers to a company’s impact on the environment.  It is assumed that a company has a duty to follow sustainable practices.  Climate change, conservation and pollution are in this category. Therefore, a company could develop initiatives dealing with reducing carbon emissions, limiting waste and making renewable energy a priority.  

Social
The S refers to a company’s impact on persons inside and outside the organization.  Does a company support a diverse and welcoming workplace.   How does it treat customers and vendors?  Are interactions with local communities positive?  A positive social impact can be made by volunteering with local groups and donating funds to organizations focused on social justice.  

Governance
The G refers to how a company manages its business.  The main focus is transparency which includes publicly releasing how board members are selected, release of salary information and release of how funds are used.

 
The point of ESG is for a business to be able to provide quantifiable evidence that the business is making a positive impact on issues such as the environment, social change and health of the local community.  ESG can track a company’s improvement in its focus areas and how it compares to other industry players.  

There are ESG rating agencies which fund managers and potential investors often refer to before investing any money.  This gives investors who care, the knowledge that they are addressing urgent issues such as climate change.  

There are many companies and the population at large that are unaware of ESG.  The talk has all been about DEI.  The Alliance Defending Freedom states that activists are using ESG policies to try to force companies to bend to the will of their political causes.  Heritage Action states that ESG is being used to punish American energy and advance a “woke” cultural agenda.. from the boardroom down to the factory floor.  This agenda is being pushed by green activists, woke culture warriors, global elites and the big businesses they control.

If a company wants to improve its Environmental score, it needs to go green.  Policies are created that appear to address climate change: prioritizing wind and solar energy, limiting waste and water usage and combating pollution.  

To improve the Social score companies are coerced into educating employees on Critical Race Theory, supporting radical gender ideology and adopting pro-abortion policies. Vivek Ramaswamy, author of Woke, Inc. Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam states that “Black Rock, State Street and Vanguard are using the capital of their clients – everyday Americans – to advocate for policies most of them probably don’t agree with.”

As a person reviews all of this information about ESG a thought comes to mind.  Again, the government is trying to tell Americans how to live, what to do with their money and most of all adhere to a way of thinking about important issues established by the “ruling class.”  It has apparently been missed by the creators of all of these esoteric plans that it is not the place of “government bureaucrats” to determine how Americans live and how they manage their businesses.  That is what freedom is all about.