Does your organization need a Chief ESG Officer. That is a question many within the inner ESG circles have been asking. And by there way, there are many ESG inner circles right now floating around the planet, which is one of the best arguments for a Chief ESG Officer. However, one could argue that is an executive’s job or a marketing director or HR. Executive Coach and podcaster Joe Sinnott of Witting Partners believes it’s about finding the right person who can put all the ESG pieces of the puzzle together.
“In terms of the ESG movement itself, what is ESG,” Sinnott said. “It doesn’t take much digging to realize it means everything.”
Host Jason Spiess cited several examples of business owners putting the ESG moniker under Marketing or HR or To Be Filled. Sinnott believes this is one reason why an ESG Officer or even a Chief ESG Officer would be needed. Or not.
“Everything touches ESG. So when you talk about different titles, what is an ESG officer?” Sinnott asks. “How is that different than a Chief Risk Officer or Chief Compliance Officer? Honestly Jason can we just have a clear definition of what ESG is versus sustainability versus risk versus compliance and all these other things that companies are already doing and in many cases already have titles for.”
Acceptance of the ESG philosophy seems to be one of the difficult steps in ESG for companies, whether it is a companies’ ESG strength or weakness. Sinnott points out that as many companies are sorting out the lunacy and linguistical logic behind ESG, financial institutions are starting to show signs that “risk” and “ESG” are part of profits.
“Even the big financial institutions when they talk about responsible investing , ESG investing, it’s first and foremost to make money, but they believe the best way to protect your investments is to acknowledge the risks that could pop up from an ESG standpoint,” Sinnott said. “Some companies will have no problem adding a new C-Suite title of ESG executive.”
He continued saying that one of the reason companies may not add an ESG C-Suite is because they are not quite ready for the new normal in energy.
“Some of those companies are not going to have success Jason, is because again, they are afraid to be blunt about what that ESG job is,” Sinnott said.
Other takeaways from the interview with the executive coach and podcaster are:
- Does your company or investors care about ESG
- Who is your target audience and public relations audience
- What role is ESG play for you
- It is a new position or an add on for an internal employee
- Do they implement, create or executive the ESG plan
Spiess talks about the outside ESG consultant coming into an organization to be the bad guy or point out the elephant in the room strategy and how we was often hired unknowingly for that role. Sinnott agrees that some companies will find success internally, while others will be better hiring outside eyes.
“Clearly having someone there (an ESG-specific person) that can observe, listen and ask questions and be completely independent and not have to worried about getting fired or just not rocking the boat, there’s tremendous value in that,” Sinnott said.
Witting Partners delivers a full range of energy-focused leadership development services to help companies overcome the unique challenges of today’s oil & gas industry so that they can successfully regain and sustain peak performance.
From one-on-one executive coaching to group training programs to powerful speaking engagements, everything Witting Partners offers reflects an unmatched blend of industry insight, technical know-how, and relevant experience that has produced consistent results from the Gulf of Mexico to Appalachia, from service company to operator, and from drilling rig to downtown boardroom.
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