Building Your Business with ESG

ESG Scores, what are they and how do they apply to you?

ESG stands for Environment, Social and Governance. Many of your larger companies have already established ESG practices into their mission statements and ways of doing business.  

Just like energy companies trying to produce cleaner energy, many companies are changing their sustainable vision to be inline with ESG.  ESG is a way to run your company ethically in a sustainable market. It will be the way of the future, and a good to way to stay a head of the changing sustainable market.

Lets Break it down:

• Environmental- Preservation of our Natural Environment
• Social- The Human Ethical Element
• Governance- The Process for running a business

Environmental- How are you improving your company practices to not do more harm to the world around you.  For example, using less packaging or no packaging, at Mossy Creek Natural (our retail store) we have added a refillery.  This is way for our customers to reuse their containers by refilling them with our products. Instead of buying a new container. 

Social- This would be operating your business ethically, with gender and diversity inclusion.  Engaging with people from demographics or ethnic groups that have previously not engaged with your brand.  For example, we are looking into developing a mobile option for our retail store to bring our products directly to the people who otherwise do not have transportation to our downtown area.

We understand that not everyone can afford to shop with us but we want to include everyone, we believe using natural products do not need to be uber expensive and should be available to everyone.  Taking the container out of the picture is our way of bringing the price down for our customers and be able to make a product that is sustainable.

Governance- A variety of governmental organizations have devised a way to grade companies (ESG Scoring) based on how sustainable or diverse a company is doing business. ESG scoring is a way to score your company based on how you operate in an sustainable world, which may change the way you are able to get funding in the future.  Currently, some larger companies are getting lower stock rankings because of their score.  I think most of our small soapmaking business are already inline but it is something to consider.

Building your brands vision and sharing your vision by communicating this on your "about us" page on your website, social media pages and on your printed material would be a way to create transparency in regards to ESG.

Trying to build a new company? Need help? Contact us on how you can start your own Soapmaking Business or join us in our next Soapmaking Weekend Workshop.