Words: Chloe Whelan
Sustainability is not a box-ticking exercise and yet there are regulatory boxes that must be ticked, panellists said at FP Live! on Monday.
While the impact of sustainable business on the planet is increasingly apparent, corporations are for the first time grappling with explicit regulation impacting their activities, explained Cara McFadyen, marketing director at Gallagher Specialty.
“It’s a buzzword at the moment but, really, the term ESG is 20 years old. I remember 15 years ago talking about corporate social responsibility and although there’s nuance there, it’s essentially the same thing,” McFadyen said.
“Companies have been prioritising this giving back mentality, in some shape or form, for a long time. What’s interesting now is that it’s regulated. It’s not a tick-box in terms of importance, it’s a tick-box in that we now need to do specific activities to please the regulator that we’ve never had to do before,” she said.
Ashley Stockwell, chief marketing officer at Convex, said corporations that weren’t prioritising sustainability risked reputational damage and large fines.
“I don’t think a business can be in business if it’s not looking at sustainability,” he said.
Stockwell also noted how sustainability initiatives can correlate with marketing.
“We’ve chosen to sponsor a large-scale ocean science activity called the Convex Seascape Survey. One of our co-founders invested heavily in Arctic and coral reef surveys, so it’s part of that trajectory,” he said.
“Some companies will choose sports sponsorships to boost brand recognition. Instead, we invest a lot of our marketing dollars in ocean science.”
McFadyen said such initiatives are essential as the insurance industry struggles to attract young talent.
“We are literally dying out. We need more people and particularly more young people,” she said.
“We essentially need to rebrand the insurance industry and sustainability plays a big role in that. Young people, including myself, really care about saving the planet and we need to be on board with that.”