The hot question these days is ‘Why does ESG continue to attract investors, and how does it help organizations attract more businesses? The analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence Head of ESG and Thematic Investing EMEA on the Bloomberg Terminal; states that Global ESG assets are on track to exceed $53 trillion by 2025, representing more than a third of the $140.5 trillion in projected total assets under management.
The primary idea to integrate ESG was that companies have an obligation to report information to stakeholders along with shareholders. This is because corporate activities affect many constituents, including employees, suppliers, customers, governments, and the communities and natural environment in which they operate. In the past, the demand for corporate transparency and accountability has multiplied manifold with high-profile corporate disasters.
Several pieces of evidence showed that the investors using ESG data would be able to make better investment decisions, and the widespread disclosure of such data would improve market efficiency. Some ESG metrics were financially material, explaining future stock price movements and accounting performance differences. Top 50 ESG returns are constantly outperforming the Nifty returns.
In a survey conducted by major consulting firms, 82% of the investor respondents stated the belief that strong ESG practices could lead to superior firm profitability and improved long-term investments.
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Top sectors that are aggressively venturing into ESG
Considering the Indian ESG space, pollution-intensive industries are gaining momentum with ESG as part of their portfolio. As of Nov 2020, if we see the universe of stocks in the portfolios of five available ESG funds, we get a universe of 134 stocks, which is fairly large.
In May 2021, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced new ESG reporting requirements, the BRSR, for the top 1,000 listed companies by market cap. The disclosures are voluntary for FY 2021-22 and will be mandatory from FY 2022-23.
The break-up of India's top 1,000 listed companies by market cap is as follows
How is ServiceNow helping industries with its ESG solution
Being the frontrunner in providing end-to-end enterprise service management solutions, ServiceNow has also ventured into this domain and introduced a new integrated ESG solution to help companies drive more significant environmental, social, and business impact.
Challenges
- Siloed data, tools, and teams
- Processes of varying maturity, often manual and ad hoc
- Limited and lagging visibility
- Unreliable data and tracking
- Low employee engagement
Solutions
- Integrated operations for ESG-wide planning, management, governance, and reporting
- Flexible, automated workflows from ServiceNow and partners
- Low-code development platform to innovate easily
- Integration of ESG activities into daily work
- Single data model and scalable cloud architecture
- Partners and programs to bring your strategy to life
Benefits
- Streamlined, verifiable reporting, and disclosures
- Consistent and efficient processes
- Improved speed and scale
- Easy support for expanding scope and regulations
- Ethical, transparent, and secure business practices
- Loyal employees and customers
Outcomes
- Convert your ESG vision and goals into meaningful action
- Enhance reputation and trust
- Create long-term value and impact
ServiceNow ESG solution integrates the power of the Now Platform, new and existing product offerings, and ServiceNow's partner ecosystem to help organizations plan, manage, govern and report on their ESG programs and initiatives - from enhancing diversity and inclusion to reducing carbon emission and enabling resilience.
inMorphis’ alignment with Environmental, Social, and Governance
The company's purpose is ‘to make a positive impact on our people and society, in line with the global commitment to sustainability. With one of our values as giving back to society and the environment – we are raising awareness toward a clean environment and managing 'green office' initiatives. We frequently organize and participate in environment-related events, and tie up with different NGOs and public agencies to give back to the society in the form of education, a clean environment, and sharing contributions. As part of our social responsibility – we have set up inMorphis Foundation focusing on the environment and education. We are committed to animal welfare and have recently adopted 50 Cows, renovated a 110 years old Sanskrit school, and laid the groundwork for the admission of girls to Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC).
inMorphis is closely working with Servicenow and is now the largest and the only Indian ServiceNow Elite Partner. Also, ServiceNow has recognized inMorphis as the 2022 ServiceNow APJ Emerging Service Provider Partner of the Year for achieving overall excellence in delivery and ServiceNow pipeline growth and demonstrating the ability to deliver a world-class customer experience.
inMorphis has an in-house team of specialists and consultants for ESG practice. ESG is gaining momentum and consistency. Crowned as one of the World's Top-15 Specialist ServiceNow Partners, we are confident to take up the new challenges and set up ESG practices for our partners to create a positive impact.