Every now and then, I find posts on LinkedIn of very smart people which I find worth noting or redistributing. Here is an example from Paul Clements-Hunt, for me one of the real pioneers behind ESG (when it was not called that).
From the LinkedIn thread, I cannot reconstruct what Paul was responding to, but his post can stand on its own. He provides us with his definition of ESG which I find compelling:
“We have to play systemic ( capital markets/climate/ecosystems) & also empower the 2.4 billion poorest or sustainability means zero & ESG is Christmas 🤶 wrapping paper thrown away after the party. What do I mean? Strip all the BS & marketing away & ESG is simply a way of thinking. It applies in The City, Wall Street & in refugee camps on the Kenya-Ethiopian Border & all areas in between.
Means different things, different priorities but once you think about ESG in your own context it creates a useful lens & pathway to action. It’s about Culture Change. The poorest? I left the UN 🇺🇳 in 2012 to establish The Blended Capital Group & we concentrate purely on the last mile, the marginalized, the unbanked with entrepreneurial spirit wherever they are – pockets of poverty in the G7/G20, The Sahel, or in the Favellas of Brazil. There’s 2.4 billion so why not? (…) Let’s aggregate, disrupt, create a million beads of light. We don’t have to confront the current unbalanced system just bypass it with innovation & use the entrepreurial spirit of the forgotten, the appetite & aspirations are huge, to replace it. Simples – right?”
What I like is his suggestion to not confront the current system but bypass it with innovation. Kudos, Paul, completely agree.