ESG in Uncertain Times:
Balancing Impact and Competitiveness

ESG for Economic Competitiveness, in collaboration with Business for Impact at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, hosted our inaugural fall summit on Tuesday, November 29, ESG in Uncertain Times: Balancing Impact and Competitiveness.

Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves kicked the Conference off with remarks on the partnership between the public and private sectors to promote ESG initiatives and the importance of ESG for the United States economy as a global competitor:

“[O]ur national competitiveness and economic security is about more than what investments the public and private sectors are making in critical technologies.  It also about how businesses operate–how they will innovate products and processes, strengthen their business models, assess and reduce their carbon footprints, and ensure their workplaces are diverse and inclusive and their employees are engaged.” 

You can read Deputy Secretary Graves’s full remarks here.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel joined McDonough School of Business Executive in Residence and former PepsiCo executive Matt McKenna to discuss the role of media In ESG and competitiveness, focusing on the importance of diversity:

“What strikes me most about that traditional media world that [the FCC] oversees is that it really isn’t very diverse. For instance, in commercial television stations, women only own about 6% of them, and people of color only about 3%. It does not match representation in the country at large.”

The Summit concluded with a private sector panel moderated by Leslie Crutchfield, Executive Director of Business for Impact and Adjunct Professor of Corporate Social Responsibility at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business.

Joining Professor Crutchfield (from left to right above) was Katherine Hunter, Executive Director of Impact Finance & Advisory at JP Morgan Chase, Elen Callahan, Managing Director and Head of Research at the Structured Finance Association, and Esther Whieldon, Senior Writer and co-host of the S&P Global podcast ESG Insider. The panel focused on the impact of ESG on the private sector, the potential for ESG to drive economic competition in the global economy, and the importance of data.

If would like to watch the full program, click here.