Lenders and other major stakeholders are beginning to factor in sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns before making investment decisions about chicken brands.
“There is a new expectation in the marketplace that those involved in the food production system need to be thinking about sustainability. Topics like global warming and climate change have become investment decisions as well as purchasing decisions,” explained Charlie Arnot, the CEO of the Center for Food Integrity (CFI).
“While in the past, sustainability topics went through your external affairs department, today your investor relations department should be thinking about it as well.”
Besides sustainability, ESG evaluates social concerns including diversity, employee relations, consumer protection and animal welfare.
Enter ESG
“ESG is a way for the investment community and others to have some metrics to understand an organization’s commitment and performance to the attributes that they’ve identified as important to them,” Arnot said.
“It is the intersection of social ideals and business objectives in a way we’ve never seen before.”
ESG represents a shift from corporate responsibility to a business strategy based on long-term financial relevance. Socially conscious investors use these factors to screen potential capital investment projects. They believe that ESG helps them avoid companies whose practices could be risky – for example, BP’s 2010 oil spill negatively affected the company’s stock prices.
“Generally, it starts with a leadership commitment that ESG is going to be a priority for your business followed by decisions about how a company is going to demonstrate that commitment,” Arnot added.
To learn more about the importance of environmental, social and governance factors, register for How chicken brands align ESG with investors, stakeholders. This webinar, proudly sponsored by Zoetis, will be broadcast at 10:00 a.m. CDT on June 17. Free registration is now open.
The webinar is part five of the seven-part 2020 Chicken Marketing Summit Webinar Series, which focuses on retail and foodservice trends impacting the poultry supply chain before, during and after the COVID-19 global pandemic.
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