Talking in tune with your stakeholders – the trick to improving sentiment around ESG

ESG has become a very noisy space. Pressure from investors, customers, regulators, employees and the media means that larger companies often pump out huge amounts of content on their approach to ESG, their commitments and priorities.

But how much of this is actually cutting through? Is the outside world listening to what companies are saying about ESG, and are they demonstrating this by talking about the same topics, or do they believe that companies are missing the point and focusing on the “wrong” issues? More importantly, if there is a misalignment between what companies say and what stakeholders are talking about in relation to those companies, to what extent does that affect sentiment?

These are the questions that this research, by Mettle Capital in conjunction with Dentons Global Advisors, sets out to answer.

The results suggest that companies that are highly attuned to the outside conversation on ESG have a much higher chance of being positively perceived in this regard than those that are not. Conversely, misaligned companies tend to carry negative sentiment on ESG. Companies that are not aware of the conversation “out there” may do so at their peril.

Read the full report here: DGA ESG Research Report October 2022