The consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors has become an increasingly important part of the investment process. Many investors are now incorporating ESG data into their investment process and are taking a detailed look at this data to better understand more about the companies in which they invest.

Many companies within the direct sales industry are starting to focus on ESG as an important initiative for their companies. As an example, Herbalife recently put together a committee to focus on their internal efforts in this area.

What Exactly is an ESG Score?

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria are a set of standards for a company’s operations that socially conscious investors use to screen potential investments. Environmental criteria consider how a company performs as a steward of nature. Social criteria examine how a company manages relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and the communities where it operates. Governance deals with a company’s leadership, executive pay, audits, internal controls, and shareholder rights.

I recently had a discussion around ESG with Rory Cutaia (Verb CEO), Denise Butler (Verb Chief Resource Officer), Nancy Heinen (former Apple Executive and Verb Board Member), and Judith Hammerschmidt (former Herbalife Counsel and Verb Board Member). We discussed ESG and why it is important to Verb.

Why is ESG Important to Verb?

At Verb we remain focused on rapid growth, but we believe in building our company the right way. We believe that building and operating in an environmentally sustainable and socially conscious way will increase retention, increase performance, and help us attract top talent, all while leading to increased profitability and minimized risk, which in turn we hope will attract investors.

“Our objective remains true to our mission to build an innovative, multi-billion dollar technology company that produces an attractive return for our investors - but to make sure we do it in a transparent and sustainable way that is consistent with our collective socially and environmentally conscious philosophies. And in so doing, be an example that we hope will encourage other companies to follow suit.” – Rory Cutaia

There are more than 2,000 studies that show that companies with strong ESG practices – meaning companies that identify, address and mitigate these risks successfully – produce better corporate financial performance.

Hopefully this discussion shows you Verb’s commitment to this important initiative and how this impacts the work we do. Doing things together the right way is a key part of our identity at Verb.