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A case for good business when purpose drives profit
There may be a backlash against ESG but that doesn’t mean firms can’t make money while helping others.
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This is a good time to marry purpose and profits, says the writer, citing the example of Sunseap, a Singapore-based developer of solar energy systems in the Republic which was acquired in 2022 for about $1.1 billion.
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Rajeev Peshawaria
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A clean energy provider. A beverage educator. A healthcare innovator. These apparently unrelated businesses have two things in common: They are commercially successful, and their businesses are driven by meeting a social or environmental need. In other words, doing well by doing good.
Their success comes amid a backlash against ESG – the environmental, social and governance aspects of business that companies used to flaunt. That approach has come under fire of late and has been dismissed as a “woke” checklist or an expensive distraction from the bottom line. Yet, such narratives overlook the fact that when companies take purpose seriously, it gives them a competitive advantage.
