While many corporate DEI efforts are focused on creating and sustaining a diverse group of employees and ensuring that those employees feel included and equally compensated, there is a growing demand that companies and their employees take on a more active role in fighting against institutional and structural racism.
While many companies have made great strides in reducing their carbon footprints and using carbon offsets to achieve carbon neutrality, there is a growing consensus among scientists and environmentalists, that these efforts will not be enough to avert a climate disaster in the future.
The idea of companies being transparent with their stakeholders has gained considerable traction over the past few years as customers, community leaders and regulators demand access to more information about how companies operate and what strategies they plan to employ in the future.
Many companies currently employ teams of professionals to ensure that not only are they complying with the tax laws in every jurisdiction where they operate, but that they are paying no more than is legally required of them.
77 percent of respondents cite the frequent emergence of social and political issues on which companies are pressured to take a stance as the primary driver of this challenge, and companies are bracing for a continuation of “hot button” issues in this mid-term election year, particularly at the state level.
How companies can evolve their ESG strategies to respond to these greater challenges will determine which firms are considered leaders in this field rather than followers or laggards.