It would seem ESG and DEI aren't quite dead yet.
According to a study from Business Insider, mentions of ESG (Environmental, Safety, Governance) and DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) have plummeted rapidly since their peak in 2021.
According to the article:
Plenty of companies are reining in their rhetoric and in some cases action on issues such as sustainability and diversity. They're being extra cautious about weighing in on the social and political debates of the day, especially in an election year. In some cases they're telling their workers to cool it, too; Google, for example, fired more than two dozen workers for protesting its contract with Israel's government.
Anyone with a shred of common sense knows why this is happening. Corporations have seen what has happened to brands like Bud Light, Target, and Disney that have pushed divisive woke messaging in their ads. No one wants any part of this.
In the words of a great man:
The question is: Is ESG and DEI going away, or will it just be hidden, repackaged, and rebranded?
According to this article covering the recent World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, ESG and DEI are being repackaged under a brand-new set of standards entitled "Stakeholder Metrics."
As of January of this year, 150 companies in Europe had already signed on:
ESG's ardent critics will enjoy how few mentions the three-letter acronym got, but won't like that the Stakeholder Metrics' focus is precisely the same — just under a refreshed name.
It seems like they're sticking with ESG and DEI, but trying to hide it from us this time.
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