The importance of the ‘S’ in ESG with Dr Chris Arnold

In our recent You're Marketing gathering on the importance of the 'S' in ESG, Dr Chris Arnold, founder of My Social Impact, encouraged us all to 'Think outside the tick-box' and 'Supercharge the "S" in ESG'.

Chris said, "We often talk about a climate crisis, but I want to talk about the social crisis. If you look at the social crisis we have, slavery is massive. We're talking about well over 50 million people in this world in modern day slavery. It's one of the biggest criminal factors. We also have crises in housing, poverty, hunger and unemployment."

1. Chris advised businesses to start by defining their social purpose. And to make sure there is a strong values alignment between their brand and their stakeholders.

2. Then look at their social impact strategy, including the causes they want to support, employee engagement and well beyond. And decide how they will achieve this strategy through partnerships or campaigns.

3. Once they have an action plan, they also need a plan for measuring impact.

4. And finally they need to communicate their impacts.

In the group discussion we covered:

→  The challenges of measuring social impact (especially vs environmental impact)

→  How the SDGs can help with measuring and reporting social impact

→  Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics can be a way to make the social case an economic one

→  Stop the Traffik and how blockchain can help with supply chain tracking

→  If companies can't be 100% sure there is no slavery in their supply chains then they should not get that big!

→  Marketing's role in purpose and social wash

→  Avoiding social wash by finding out what your stakeholders truly want and need

→  A more positive way to encourage companies to do more on the 'S' is to say, 'they have made a great start and they can build on this'

→  Social and environmental actions and impacts are often linked, so we also need to make the case for both

In the session Chris mentioned our previous gathering with Sally Donohoe on closing the say-do gap with Gen Z ethical purchasing, which is available here.

Chris Arnold is a Dr of Business, author of Ethical Marketing & The New Consumer, founder of My Social Impact and was Brand Republic’s Ethical Marketing blogger for 10 years. An expert in ethical marketing and social impact, he has worked with top brands on social impact campaigns, including Diageo, Sainsbury’s, Heineken, Brewers, Hackney Council, London Community Arts and over 25 charities.

In addition to being a member of the MarketingKind community, Chris is a member of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability (ICRS), NetworkOne Sustainability Think Tank and an Investors in Community Ambassador.

You can watch Chris’s opening remarks below or listen to a longer edit of the session on our podcast here.