2023 will be a test of corporate America — the year we find out if corporate social responsibility commitments and environmental, social, and governance principles are deeply ingrained values or in fact only hobbies to be enjoyed in economic fair weather.
With the likelihood of recession in 2023 increasing every day, corporate leaders are being tasked with navigating these turbulent times, and cost-cutting is a conventional strategy to deploy. Unfortunately, history shows that CSR, ESG, and purpose initiatives are typically first on the list to freeze or underfund during recessionary times. This test comes at a time when CEOs have made significant strides in tying ESG to profitability, with 70% of U.S.
to its investors on the importance of the S in ESG, in which it asserted that because social factors underpin the key inputs to economic growth, managing and monitoring social indicators has never been as important as it is today.The Edelman Trust Barometer shows that trust in companies is slipping; all it takes is one poor choice to flip the perception of a company to disdain.