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Employees driving ESG goals

Research undertaken by consulting firm Mercer suggests employee activism is likely to be the key to unlocking an organisations environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.

The study of HR Directors found that a large number of UK businesses are embracing the opportunity to integrate sustainability into their corporate activities, with this desire being influenced by the interests of various stakeholder groups. Perhaps unsurprisingly, customers were found to be the main influencer, with 93% of HR Directors saying this was the case.

However, 86% of HR Directors felt staff had an influential role to play within this area. In comparison, just 77% said shareholders were a significant influence over corporate ESG activities and only 64% felt politics was a key driver of investment in this area.

Survey data released in Aviva’s latest How We Live report also suggests employees are keen to work for organisation’s that display a strong commitment to sustainability. Indeed, almost six in ten UK workers said they would consider changing their current role for a ‘greener’ career. Additionally, more than one in seven employees would actually be prepared to take a wage cut to work for a company with strong environmental credentials.