‘ESG business will be about $158 billion by next year’

A panel of experts gathered at the India PR and Corporate Communication Conference 2024 to discuss the topic ‘ESG Imperatives: Integrating Environmental, Social & Governance into PR Strategies’. Moderated by Abhishek Gulyani, CEO, Hill & Knowlton, the panel had Paroma Bhattacharya, Assistant Director, India for Children; Bhavna Imran, Communications Leader - South Asia, Corteva and Bhavya Sharma, Director Communications & ESG, Urban Company. The experts delved deep into assessing the strategies to implement the integration of ESG and PR.

Gulyani kickstarted the session by mentioning that the ESG story is gaining momentum across organisations and CEOs are increasingly compelled to tell that story. “Leaders today are struggling to understand what ESG means to their organisation and who is responsible to integrate ESG into the organisation,” he added.

Imran pointed out that if one is looking at using the resources in a correct manner, one needs to ensure giving them the right treatment with respect to the environment. “There is an IDC report of 2023 which says ESG business will be about $158 billion by next year. Another report mentioned that 66% companies who are talking about purpose are valuing transparency today. I think consumers and employees want to know the kind of value companies are driving, and also what are we taking away from the face of the earth in terms of resources,” she said.

Sharma added that the scrutiny in this space is only going to increase going forward. “We are seeing increased impact investments, more investor interest in this area, regulators are also getting more stringent about policies and introducing regulatory frameworks,” she mentioned. According to Sharma, expecting companies to sit back and not care about ESG is not something likely to happen anytime soon.

Bhattacharya shared that the reason why PR strategies are more relevant in today’s times is that there is a lot of miscommunication that happens, especially with the rise of digital media.

“What is looking right, may not be right. The facts are not coming out, there are figures which are being concealed, PR strategists are not a part of the whole building process. A lot of work needs to be done in building this strategy together,” she explained. According to Bhattacharya, it should not be looked at like a separate vertical where an ESG initiative needs to be done, instead it should be a core part of the company’s growth process.

The panellists were of the opinion that there needs to be a year-long communications plan around the same and the companies need to accept it. They suggest that there needs to be thought provoking pieces, impactful ground case studies, timely press releases, which will eventually make the entire ESG initiative very credible.