When the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report came out the message was simple – positive change is happening, but we haven’t reversed the course of the climate crisis yet, and we need urgent efforts on all fronts.

It was an alarm, but also a message of hope. Technical limitations are fading – we’ve seen rapid investment in, innovation around, and falling costs of renewables. Now we just need the leaders of industry and holders of capital to all get on board. Which is starting to happen, and many of you – our readers – are involved in making it possible.

And yet…

“Woke E.S.G.” backlash and faulty systems for measuring our impact are stalling progress.

Recently BBMG led a workshop at NYU’s Center for Sustainable Business’ annual practice forum. In her opening remarks for the event, NYU’s Tensie Whelan emphasized that E.S.G. isn’t about box checking or merely risk mitigation, it’s core business strategy. When executed correctly, incorporating good environmental, social, and governance practices should lead to operational efficiency, innovation, employee engagement, supply-chain resilience, and improved sales, among other benefits.

But sadly that’s not how many companies conceive of E.S.G. Writing for the New York Times, our friend and collaborator Hans Taparia, Co-Founder at Desert Bloom, offered his take saying, “Rating agencies are not scoring companies on their degree of environmental or social responsibility. Instead, they are measuring how much potential harm E.S.G. factors like carbon emissions have on companies’ financial performance.” It ignores the true impact companies have on people and planet, the negative externalities.

And because E.S.G. ratings overlook so many obvious factors, it’s left the door open for greedy capitalists to write the whole thing off as woke bullshit and just continue business as usual.

But we cannot continue business as usual when “climate change is a ticking time bomb,” as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres put it.

For businesses that want to thrive by being good corporate citizens, our friends at JUST Capital have published “5 Key Insights from the American Public to Help Companies and Investors Lead Through Increasing Attacks on ESG and ‘Woke’ Companies.” Echoing the advice from Tensie and Hans, JUST advises that companies need to think about their E.S.G. impacts holistically and walk the talk.

From walking to talking, BBMG’s whole reason for being is to help organizations rethink our broken systems and tell new stories that inspire collective action. If your company is ready to raise its ambition from risk mitigation to regeneration, we want to talk!

photo of rooftop solar array courtesy Target