香港地球之友綠色金融顧問 Mostafa Monira Firdouse / Mostafa Monira Firdouse, Green Finance Advisor of Friends of the Earth (HK)
在當前的經濟形勢下，不少公司面臨著業績上甚至經營困難的壓力。員工們每天為履行日常職責爭扎求存，因此公司要推行新計劃時往往會遇到阻力。尤其人們普遍認為，要推動環境、社會與管治，必然是大型、複雜及昂貴的，但事實並非這樣。為了令公司更有效發揮，公司管理系統需要根據企業性質和規模而不斷改變，而這便是環境、社會與管治引致的直接業務收益。有效地節約和使用能源及材料有助於降低生產成本；減少廢物和排放以及進行回收，可大規模減少一直增長的廢物處理成本。實際上，企業也可將某些有機廢物轉化為燃料或能源，從而提高公司的可持續性及節省業務成本。環境、社會與管治亦可以幫助公司建立流程，根據行業標準計算其支出基準，並確定潛在的生產和營運成本。
同樣地，一些公司經營上的切實效益可透過改善「社會」方面得以實現。清晰、透明的人力資源政策和程序可改善員工和管理人員之間的溝通，這有助於預測並避免出現勞工問題。另外，有效的職業安全與健康管理程序，能幫助公司識別工作場所和員工執勤過程中的風險，並減少甚至消除潛在的負面影響。這不僅可減少工作導致的傷亡，還為經營上帶來好處，例如降低缺勤率及員工流失率，以及減少員工補償金。
簡單來說，環境、社會及管治的效益，可延伸至不同的管理範疇，包括公司業務對環境的影響、員工和其他外部持分者。
現在，我們應把重點帶到，環境、社會及管治可在多大程度上幫助公司進行可持續發展。我認為，現時企業正面臨著許多重大的環境和社會挑戰，目前面臨的迫切挑戰包括：（1）能源和原材料成本不斷上升（2）環境和員工監管機構的力量及影響力不斷增強（3）消費者對環境與社會問題的意識和關注迅速發展。以上問題促使投資者不得不在投資前先考慮公司的環境、社會及管治表現。因此，我的結論是，良好的環境、社會及管治表現能透過風險管理，確保長遠投資收益。
隨著亞太地區監管機構引入新的環境、社會及管治報告披露指南和管理要求，亞太市場對環境、社會及管治數據的關注正迅速增加。這種趨勢尤其受到股票交易市場的推動，主要原因是環境、社會及管治報告被視為優質海外投資的評價工具，另一原因就是投資者和政府愈發關注公司如何建立長遠價值。在此，我想特別提出幾點，希望大家思考一下：
- 香港交易所應訂立一套驗證要點，令本港環境、社會及管治政策盡快與國際標準看齊嗎？
- 除了繳稅以外，企業還採取了哪些措施/合作計劃來應對氣候變化、從而推行保育及保護生物多樣性？
- 撰寫環境、社會及管治報告時應同時考慮合約員工，以提供社會安全網。
- 社區投資應根據法規/政策進行規劃。
- 環境、社會及管治報告的監察應與可持續發展目標（SDG）保持一致，對準全球性普世目標。
In the current economic climate, companies are under pressure to perform or even just survive. New initiatives are often met with resistance as people struggle to keep up with their day-to-day responsibilities. Some people think that an environmental and social governance must be big, complicated and expensive part to play. But that is not really true. To be effective, a management system needs to be scaled to the nature and size of the company. That is what ESG is leading through direct business benefits. Conserving and using energy and materials more efficiently helps to reduce production costs. Reducing waste and discharges, and recycling can minimize costs of waste disposal, which have been steadily increasing over time. In fact, a company can convert certain organic waste into fuel or energy to maximize sustainability and costs savings for the business. ESG can help a company to build processes to benchmark its expenditures against industry standards and identify potential production and operational cost savings.
Parallelly, same tangible benefits can be realised on the social side. Clear, transparent human resource policies and procedures improve communication between workers and managers. This helps to anticipate and avoid labour problems. Effective occupational health and safety management procedures will enable a company to identify workplace and process hazards, so you can eliminate them or reduce their potential negative impacts. This can not only reduce injuries and fatalities but can also lead to bottom-line business benefits such as reduced absenteeism and worker turnover, and lower insurance premiums for workers’ compensation.
ESG simply extends that approach to the management of the impact of company’s business on the environment, workers, and other external stakeholders.
So, the question is, to what extent ESG can help a company’s sustainability. In my view, companies are confronted with a number of significant environmental and social challenges. The immediate challenges are: (1) Increasing energy and raw materials costs (2) Growing power and influence of environmental and labour regulatory agencies (3) Rapidly evolving consumer awareness and concerns about environmental and social issues. These are leading investors to look at company ESG performance before investment. The idea is, good ESG performance will ensure long term investment benefits through risk management.
ESG data disclosure in Asia Pacific market is rising rapidly as the region’s regulators introduce new ESG reporting guidelines and stewardship requirements. This trend is especially driven by stock exchanges since ESG reporting seen as a proxy for good foreign investment and investors and governments are increasingly concerned with how companies are building long-term value. So, I would like to flag that:
- HKEX should have point of validation, ESG POLICY is compliant with international standard?
- Apart from the tax paying, what are the initiatives/collaborations that company is taking to tackle climate change in context of conservation and protection of bio-diversity?
- Contracted workers should be counted in ESG reports to ensure social SafetyNet.
- Community Investment should be planned under regulation/policy.
- IMAPCT Monitoring should be included and be aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to aggregate at global goals.
