Читать книгу ESG Investing For Dummies - Brendan Bradley - Страница 69

Businesses don’t operate in a vacuum. In a global economy reliant on cross-border trade, convoluted supply chains, and diverse workforces, companies are constantly challenged by environmental issues as well as product safety and relationships with regulators and local communities. Therefore, managing these factors is simply part of maintaining a competitive advantage in today’s economy.

A company needs to use best management practices to avoid environmental risks and capitalize on opportunities that produce long-term shareholder value. Where companies earn excess profits by externalizing the cost of environmental and social issues upon the communities in which they operate, investors risk paying the price when this is corrected, and costs are internalized to the company’s financial statement. In recent years, shareholders have experienced considerable losses following the negative environmental impacts of oil spills, mine explosions, and unsafe products. While there isn’t just one solution to circumvent such catastrophes, identifying material environmental impacts and mechanisms to reduce these can help mitigate risks and even identify new opportunities.

The following sections discuss two working areas of a company’s impact on the environment: direct operations and supply chains.