ESG vs. Social Impact Enterprises

Yesterday I attended a webinar by the American Sustainable Business Network, which I recently became a member of. The speakers drew a clear distinction between ESG efforts and social impact enterprises.

• Social impact enterprises are holistically about positive social and environmental impact in their business model and have their purpose fully engrained in their decision-making processes throughout their organization. Everything they do is about positive impact. It's their entire reason for existence.

• ESG (Environmental, Social, & Governance) is applicable mainly as awareness and risk management scorecard practices, especially for large businesses doing public reporting - such as publicly traded Fortune 500 companies. ESG is also a metric for outside investors to understand a company's environmental and social governance behaviors.

That differentiation resonated with me.

I am more passionate and better positioned to add value to the social impact enterprise model.

However, I still see the good in ESG efforts where large consulting firms such as Deloitte, McKinsey, BCG, Korn Ferry, and others are resourced appropriately to make an impact.