ESG as The Engine of Growth

By Duncan Glendinning, eolas – 8 minutes read

What Is ESG and Why Does It Matter?

Environmental, Social, and Governance—ESG—has emerged as a new framework for businesses that goes beyond looking simply at the financials in determining the long-term value or worth of an enterprise.. The environmental pillar gauges how a company both impacts and depends on natural systems, from carbon emissions and resource efficiency to biodiversity and waste. The social pillar focuses on relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and communities, exposing whether value creation is shared fairly, safely, and inclusively. The governance pillar examines decision‑making structures, incentives, and oversight, ensuring that power is exercised ethically and transparently. Each of these pillars are combined to form powerful non-financial indicators that all for a broader assessment of an organization, revealing risks and opportunities that conventional finance-only frameworks overlook—supply‑chain shocks from extreme weather, workforce disengagement, or boardroom misconduct, for example.

This matters because regulators, investors, and customers increasingly treat ESG performance as a pre‑condition for trust. Mandatory disclosure rules, investment considerations, and socially-minded consumers all converge to reward companies that manage these factors and are increasingly mistrusting of those that ignore them. In short, ESG is no longer about good‑looking sustainability reports; it is about safeguarding—and expanding—the licence to operate in a carbon‑ and justice‑constrained world.

Why ESG Can’t Stay on the Sidelines

Regulators, investors, customers, and employees now judge companies as much by how they operate as by what they sell. For business leaders this means three converging pressures. First, regulatory jeopardy is rising fast: Europe’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) was brought in, to sit alongside its already existing financial counterpart the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). And whilst there has been push-back against ESG in the US with the so-called “Trump-era backlash”, most jurisdictions are turning what was once voluntary disclosure into a legal obligation, with fines and market‑access barriers for laggards. 

Second, capital is already discriminating: Global ESG assets surpassed 30 trillion US dollars in 2022 and are on track to surpass 40 trillion US dollars by 2030, and companies with weak credentials face higher borrowing costs and shrinking investor pools. Third, talent and brand equity are fragile in an era when Gen Z employees and customers expect ethical supply chains and visible climate action; brands that stumble are punished in minutes on social media rather than in quarterly news cycles. In short, treating ESG as optional today invites financial, legal, and reputational setbacks tomorrow.

How ESG Differs from Traditional CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility has long focused on voluntary, often philanthropic gestures—planting trees, sponsoring local events, funding scholarships—that happen outside the core operating model. Environmental, Social, and Governance practice goes deeper. It embeds environmental care, social equity, and ethical governance into daily decisions, ties progress to quantitative metrics that land on the profit‑and‑loss statement, and is increasingly mandated by regulators and investors alike. Whereas CSR programmes are typically owned by communications or human‑resources teams and written up as feel‑good stories, ESG targets sit with the board and P&L leaders and reshape products, supply chains, and capital allocation. The difference is no longer semantic: CSR shows goodwill from the outside, while ESG rewires the inside of the business. It is all about perspective.

What Leaders Must Do Now

Effective action begins with a rigorous diagnosis of material risks and opportunities, mapping climate, social, and governance issues to revenue, cost, and risk drivers while applying a double‑materiality lens—the impact of the company on the environment, society, and governance (ESG) issues — and how those same ESG factors impact the company in return. From there, leaders should set science‑based targets and anchor executive pay and capital‑expenditure approvals to those objectives. Embedding ESG in every workflow means asking, at each product launch or supplier onboarding, whether the move advances stated objectives and, if not, redesigning or rejecting it. Radical transparency cements credibility: regular disclosures, third‑party assurance, and a willingness to publish shortfalls alongside successes build trust with stakeholders. Finally, no firm can decarbonise or close inequality gaps alone, so collaboration through industry coalitions and policy advocacy is essential.

Eolas re:imagine—Creativity, Inclusion, Impact Embedded

eolas, an education‑for‑all company, shows how ESG can form the backbone of strategic infrastructure rather than serve simply as external philanthropy. Its re:imagine commitment fuses creativity with measurable impact by designing and supporting learning experiences that tackle climate and equality challenges, empower through knowledge whilst pushing hard to challenge the status quo and make education accessible to all.. These three principles—purposeful creativity, inclusion by design, and lasting impact—sets a clear mandate for eolas’ core activities as well as the initiatives it supports through re:imagine.

Because the same principles now inform capital allocation, product road maps, and executive incentives, re:imagine has evolved into eolas’s governance backbone. Proposals must prove alignment with the principle to receive support; transparent communications are designed to celebrate successes as well as highlight areas for future improvement and revenue streams help finance its core activities as well as support the re:imagine initiatives that it backs.

The result is a flywheel in which imagination drives profit and purpose simultaneously, demonstrating that deep ESG integration expands opportunity while reducing risk.

Moving from Vision to Execution

Roger Martin, professor and writer reminds us that strategy is ultimately a choice about what not to do. Companies that weave ESG into routine choices consistently outperform their peers on risk‑adjusted returns. A pragmatic path starts by piloting integrated targets in the business unit most exposed to regulation or consumer scrutiny, then scaling the lessons learned. Upgrading data infrastructure to finance‑grade ESG data enables real‑time steering instead of end‑of‑year storytelling. Building a culture of constructive friction—celebrating employees who challenge decisions misaligned with ESG goals—provides the psychological safety required for progress. Tying internal capital to impact ensures that project economics reflect what is happening around us as well as within the company.. Finally, because priorities evolve, the entire framework should be reviewed and refreshed annually.

Conclusion: Opportunity in Plain Sight

Placing ESG goes far beyond altruism and drives competitive advantage for an organisation in a world where value creation and societal expectation are converging. Companies that act now secure cheaper capital, attract and retain top talent, and build resilience against regulatory, climate, and social shocks. Those that wait will find the cost of inaction stamped on their balance sheets. The choice is clear: keep ESG on the periphery as a box‑ticking afterthought, or make it the engine of sustainable growth. The leaders of the next decade are already choosing the latter.