After DEI, the next frontier is ESG
DEI is hiding in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and must be exposed and eliminated. DEI is on its way out, but there is a fetid, hidden cavern where it still thrives unmolested: ESG. Among other things, ESG is a system that assesses and regulates a company's "sustainability", ethics and practices.
The Environmental aspect of a company rates and evaluates their levels of pollution, energy and water usage, waste disposal, and greenhouse gas emissions to discern the alleged impact on the environment. This assumes, of course, a deleterious effect on the environment, which cannot be proved. The planet has a way of cleaning itself up.
It is within the Social aspect of ESG where the DEI may still hide. That area addresses the relationships between its employees and executives with DEI at the core. The Social aspects also include employee health and safety, customer satisfaction, and (take note) "community engagement", the latter being another way to inject DEI. You can hide an awful lot of DEI in "customer satisfaction" and "community engagement."
The Governance aspect of ESG is yet another hiding place for DEI: It monitors and rates an organization's leadership and pay, inner workings, and how shareholders are treated and managed. DEI can invade the "leadership" aspect as well.
Why ESG at all? Some investors want to know if a company is responsibly "green" and if they are good stewards and managers of the company. And some investors know that the greener and more woke a company is, the less bang for their buck they will get for that investment. Woke is not dead yet and ESG is a good cave for DEI to hide in until Trump blows over – or so they think.
The ADF, Alliance Defending Freedom knows how harmful ESG is. Here is what they think:
Activists are using ESG policies as a cudgel to try to force companies to bend to the will of their political causes. As Heritage Action explains, ESG is being used to “punish” American energy and advance a “‘woke’ cultural agenda … from the boardroom down to the factory floor. This agenda is being pushed by green activists, woke culture warriors, global elites, and the big businesses they control.
Over the past two decades, companies all over the world have started abiding by the demands imposed on them by ESG. In fact, more than 90 percent of S&P 500 companies have adopted practices or changed their business policies due to ESG, as well as about 70 percent of Russell 1000 companies. But now Americans are waking up to the danger ESG policies pose. A growing number of individuals, groups, and companies are paving an alternative path forward for business.
Shoving progressive DEI, ESG, and other woke policies down American throats is nothing new to the hard Left.
Take a moment to view this one-minute video titled "ESG hurts" by Heritage Action For America. It's an eye opener, from the "ESG hurts" website:
If a company decides not to adopt ESG policies, it risks being de-platformed. So what does adopting ESG policies actually look like?
First, if a company wants to boost its environmental score, it needs to go green. Facing pressure from investors, banks, and shareholders, companies are rushing to appear as if they’re doing their part to save the planet. This includes creating policies that appear to address climate change—prioritizing wind and solar energy, limiting waste and water usage, and combating pollution.
Second, in order to appear more socially conscious—the “S” in ESG—companies are coerced into educating their employees on critical race theory, supporting radical gender ideology, and adopting pro-abortion policies.
The hope is that if a company can prove that it emphasizes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, or that it provides travel coverage for employees to access abortions out of state, it will appear more valuable to investors, and hopefully major banking institutions will grant them bigger loans.
How a company is ESG-rated on their DEI program, for example, can determine monetary compensation of top executives. If a company shows a high Social (DEI) rating, more wokesters, minorities, and gays can be represented in the highest positions of the company even though they may not be qualified.
Vivek Ramaswamy, author of Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam and the founder of Strive, said about ESG:
“BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard are using the capital of their clients—everyday Americans—to advocate for policies most of them probably don’t agree with.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican who represents Arkansas, the home state of retail giant Walmart, has a few choice words about ESG:
Climate Action 100+ is an elite group of the most powerful ESG investors in America, including competitors BlackRock and JP Morgan. This cartel of competing investment firms actively targets less powerful companies and coerces them into lowering their carbon footprint... This may constitute what is called a “spoke and hub conspiracy.”… ESG is simply bad for working Americans. Underperforming ESG-compliant companies and under-invested fossil fuel companies alike are forced to lay off workers or scale back planned hiring because of ESG. Similarly, companies are forced to slow or freeze wage increases, hurting employed workers.
Climate Action 100+ has as part of its policy to "… seek to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion are reflected in the composition of the Steering Committee."
ESG is a major DEI hiding place. We Americans hate DEI so much that Donald Trump made it a focus for elimination. He should do the same with ESG. There is no place in a capitalist economy for climate craziness, racist DEI policies, or interference by culture into business, unless the business invites it – at their own risk. The business of business should be business. Period.
Image: Pexels // CCO public domain