Three ways to better coordinate and communicate ESG efforts

Is your organization engaged in initiatives related to ESG? The answer is most likely yes, but you may not know these activities by this acronym. You may not know they exist at all.

ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance, and refers to initiatives that organizations undertake within these three pillars as a part of their corporate social responsibility efforts. Most providers and payers embrace these efforts as good for their mission and good for business, but there is room for improvement at many organizations in how these activities are organized, publicized and documented. Here are three ways you can enable your ESG program and inform your organization’s mission and success:

It’s not uncommon that ESG efforts are fragmented—and even duplicated—across departments because leaders aren’t aware of other activities across an organization. We recommend that organizations create visibility into all of these activities together under one department and leader, preferably at a high level like the C-suite. This leader can take an inventory of all activities happening across the organization and set objectives and priorities and crowdsource resources and expertise to create programs that are more effective and cost-efficient. A better-organized ESG enterprise helps confirm you’re spending money wisely and telling a consistent story to stakeholders.

When ESG initiatives aren’t broadly communicated, stakeholders —including investors, philanthropists, patients, employees and community members — aren’t aware of projects, which can mean missed opportunities for funding or public support. In our analysis of for-profit payers and providers, we found that 97% of their press releases and public announcements revolved around the social pillar, similar to not-for-profits, where the percentage was 96%. Demonstrating your organization’s stable governance and concern for sustainability to potential donors, investors, employees and others holds considerable value.

Whether you’re a for-profit organization courting investors, a not-for-profit engaged in fundraising or any organization seeking mergers and partnerships, it is likely you’ll be faced with ESG-related questions. If you don’t have quick answers and a coherent story, these deals could be at risk, especially when you’re under the scrutiny of regulators or policymakers. We recommend you start your reporting journey by considering what metrics you should be tracking to paint a clear picture of your efforts. You may find that you need to establish some new documentation processes, but departments across your organization are likely already collecting an abundance of data that can be curated and consolidated into a comprehensive ESG report, including compensation, DEI-related statistics and energy consumption, just to name a few.

We recently discussed the importance of ESG to healthcare organizations and offered best practices for bolstering your own efforts on a recent episode of Modern Healthcare Custom Media’s Healthcare Insider podcast. Click here to listen, or find it on your favorite podcatcher. Additionally, PwC created a report on ESG and you can access it here. 

You can also check out The Next in Health weekly healthcare podcast series hosted by PwC's Health Research Institute, which addresses industry trends and topics that impact the US healthcare system and consumers.

Trine Tsouderos is a management consultant for pharma and vaccine companies, and leads PwC's Health Research Institute (HRI), which produces thought leadership on pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, healthcare provider organizations, payers, employers and new entrants. Based in Chicago, Trine also is co-host of PwC’s Next in Health podcast with Igor Belokrinitsky.

Igor Belokrinitsky is an advisor to executives in the healthcare industry for Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting business. Based in San Francisco, he is a Principal with PwC US. He works with mission-driven hospitals and not-for-profit health insurance companies to develop new consumer-centric, market-driven strategies for delivering and financing health care. Igor also is co-host of PwC’s Next in Health podcast with Trine Tsouderos.

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