ESG and Human Resources Management

The term ESG (Environment Social Governance) has gained a great deal of popularity. In the business sections of the daily press, one reads almost daily that ESG is increasingly a key subject for companies, both in the financial sector and in the real economy. In terms of regulations, the EU precedes the rest of the world. This is due to the comprehensive political sustainability agenda of the EU, which ultimately focuses on aligning the private sector with environmental and social sustainability goals. So far, the main focus of these regulatory initiatives has been on the concept of sustainable finance, which is based on the fundamental assumption that the appropriate alignment of private financial flows is the most efficient way to achieve politically set environmental and social goals. Correspondingly, the EU strategy for corporate social responsibility has already been promoted for years through regulatory requirements on non-financial information in corporate reporting. Increasingly, objectives other than ecological ones have come to the fore in this context. In other words: Increasingly, the discussion also centers on the “S” and the “G” in ESG.