Giving Compass' Take:

• Mike Hower discusses the unprecedented focus on the social side of ESG sustainability as the coronavirus and racial injustice take center stage in 2020.

• How do the environmental and social aspects of ESG sustainability work in tandem? What are you doing to push for continued social sustainability after the pandemic?

• Find resources to help you donate throughout the chaos of coronavirus.

The mass climate protests of 2019 and subsequent outpouring of major corporate climate commitments from the likes of Amazon, IKEA and Kering, among others, seemed to indicate that 2020 would be the year of the E in ESG.

And then along came a global pandemic, and everything changed. As the world went into lockdown, ESG conversations shifted from the E to the S, or social — how companies were responding to COVID-19 in terms of employee health and welfare. The emphasis on the S intensified even further after the murder of George Floyd sparked a movement for racial justice and employees, customers and investors demanded companies take a stand.

Addressing deeply rooted systemic inequalities requires a much greater commitment and means of measuring success. Until now, companies have gotten by with doing nothing or just the bare minimum. No longer, thanks to the events of 2020.

Moving forward, corporate board members, investors and executives will be expected to consider worker welfare and complex social issues such as racial inequality. "Companies are scrambling to address these issues, and everyone needs to throw out the manual and completely rethink how they approach equity in the workplace, because something is not working," Whittaker said.

But as the S takes over the wheel, are environmental issues, the E, getting pushed into the backseat? No, said Alison Humphrey, director of ESG at TPG. "It’s just joined climate in the front seat."

"There’s so much interesting intersectionality with social justice and climate — they are both so connected," Humphrey said. "Climate work is hard and exhausting. In many ways, it mirrors many of the challenges with social justice — and you can’t address one without the other."

Read the full article about ESG sustainability by Mike Hower at GreenBiz.