Environmental, Social & Governance Briefs

Companies promoting associate board experience for their young workers can cultivate leadership skills and loyalty among early and mid-career employees. Young employees want a level of social impact engagement that they find meaningful and accessible in the workplace. Providing that opportunity helps companies solve one of their biggest challenges: attracting and retaining the workforce of the future.

Eighty percent of people who serve on nonprofit boards describe themselves as better leaders, the result of developing skills like board governance, networking, strategic planning, and communication. By supporting meaningful leadership and community engagement, companies that promote nonprofit board service help to grow employees’ value to the company.

Retail is increasingly online, but nearly 75 percent of small businesses don’t have any e-commerce presence and less than 2 percent export, making it difficult for them to thrive in local—sometimes depressed—markets. Retail Revival, a new initiative from eBay, helps small businesses in Akron, OH, Lansing, MI, and Wolverhampton, UK, take their products to the global market. Retail Revival is a community program that draws on the strengths of the company—an example other companies could follow.

Nearly a quarter of companies expect to increase their funding for the arts in the next 12 months, and only seven percent expect to decrease arts funding. Companies can use the arts to improve the economy and quality of life in communities and to foster creativity in their workforce. Partnerships with arts organizations provide interesting opportunities for companies to engage employees, promote diversity, and drive innovation.

Employees who participate in nonprofit board service change the way they work by becoming more cognizant of the value of diversity and inclusion. Having experience on boards, these employees typically listen more carefully to different views, create more inclusive teams or committees, and make more inclusive hiring decisions. Companies should promote nonprofit board service as a way to develop more inclusive leaders.

The Conference Board has developed a sustainable procurement framework to help companies assess their sustainable procurement program’s orientation toward outcomes and impact.

There has been dramatic growth in ESG (Environmental, Sustainability and Governance) investing during the past 20 years – but along with this positive trend comes an equally dramatic rise in ESG reporting requirements, and a proliferation of rating agencies and assessment tools.

Embedding sustainability into the supply chain makes good business sense. Embracing sustainable procurement practices can help companies manage business risks, achieve costs savings through material efficiency gains, enhance their brand reputation, and manage suppliers more effectively. But success requires a focus on real-world impact rather than inputs and activities.

By pledging to increase Wells Fargo’s 2019 charitable contributions to 2 percent of after-tax profits, CEO Tim Sloan has set a high bar for community giving. In 2018, the company upped its giving to $400 million, a 40 percent increase over 2017, spurred somewhat by the announced tax reform. Wells Fargo is still an outlier: the top 25 percent of companies contribute a median of $55.3 million, according to Giving in Numbers, published by CECP in association with The Conference Board.

More than 70 percent of Americans believe the arts unify our communities regardless of age, race, and ethnicity and that the arts help them understand other cultures better, indicating the importance of the sector to individuals and the companies that employ them. Overwhelmingly, people also believe that the arts are a part of a well-rounded education. Companies looking to create meaningful social impact for their communities need to be working with the arts in a variety of ways.