Since relaunching Aura on World Environment Day, with a specific focus on sustainable business, I’ve been conducting a lot of one-to-one webinars. The webinars are meant to help explain my proposition and how the Synergy Framework© works.

Along the way, I’ve been tweeking my slides for different audiences, (agencies, consultants, business owners, CEOs…) and taking note of things people have taken an interest in and also noted that may have been missing.

On a recent webinar where I was talking to the Head of Corporate of an agency and the person asked me about governance, as I focussed a lot on sustainability.

Sustainability is more than ‘just’ the environment

This is a misconception about sustainability, that it only focuses on environment. It’s one I try and address head on in the presentation by explaining sustainability is about people, communities, the economy and the planet. Sustainability means that there is a future because you’ve future-proofed your business/organisation having recognised that change is inevitable.

So, we were talking about that then I flicked back to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and referenced inclusion and equality. Then looked at Synergy© at the very first point, ‘Clarity’, where we would clarify the current governance of the business/organisation before we even start. Why? Because how we can make it part of the transformation if we don’t know where we are and where we are going?

Don’t leave it until the end

Governance in ESG is also something I was talking to a fellow consultant about, and how it’s often not considered until the end of the process, after a strategy and plan has been developed, often because part of the governance structure is broken in the first place and needs fixed for the strategy to work.

It comes back to purpose, the make-up and role of the Board of Directors, values being aligned, ethics and transparency. Also, if there are shareholders, structure, reporting, risk and systems are measured.

Listen and act

Good governance means listening to stakeholders. Things that matter to them and high on the corporate agenda could include benefiting customers, employees and communities, as well as shareholders.

This is why the stakeholder relations part of Synergy© is so important - you need to know them intimately in order to represent them and engage them.

Diversity and equity is also much talked about, although not always acted on, with better representation, equal compensation being top of the list. The financial benefit of creating inclusive workplaces has already been proven, so what’s stopping them?

In summary, although the ‘G’ of ‘ESG’ is at the end, don’t leave governance until the end of your process. It, like all other aspects, need to be fully integrated in order to be a) lived/practiced and b) have an impact.

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