How client-focused agencies must account for ESG

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently proposed a landmark climate change rule that would require all publicly traded companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and associated business risks.

Kristen Clonan, ESG advisor and partner at Finn Partners, told Ragan that that the new rule is likely to take effect. “This will elevate climate disclosures, social issues, human rights and governance to a top agenda item for boards and executive managers,” she says, “and thus for corporate communicators as they manage public reputation.”

Before any regulations take effect, however, communicators should understand how your commitments to sustainability have an outsized influence on the work that your organization does — and the clients it takes on. This is why sustainability expert Solitaire Townsend considers communications, along with advertisers and lobbyists, to be part of the influence industry – or what she calls “the X industry.”

During a recent TED Talk, Townsend explained that, while the work communicators do as problem solvers and storytellers may not have a tangible carbon footprint of its own, the “brain print” you leave can be harnessed for good.