Sustainable investment booms and zero net commitments drive the ESG talent war

According to consultants and contractors, the demand for professionals who are experts in the environment, society and governance is increasing the drive to conduct business in a more sustainable way.

More than one in five of the world’s largest companies has made some commitment to reach some sort of commitment zero net emissions and investors are increasing the social impact of companies that are lagging behind, creating a boom in the market for specialists corporate sustainability.

“The basis is that demand exceeds supply, so there will be a real war for talent, which will lead to compensation,” said Sarah Galloway, intern at the permanent hiring board of Russell Reynolds Associates.

Demand for ESG experts is on the rise in professional services such as management consulting, boutique consulting firms and property firms, contractors and executives said.

But they are increasingly competing to attract and retain ESG-focused employees as more companies and fund managers commit to reducing their carbon footprint and placing greater emphasis on non-financial performance.

AstraZeneca, Aviva, BT, Legal & General and Rolls-Royce are among the companies he pledged to achieve a net zero emissions by 2050.

Experts are attracting private equity funds to ensure that the salaries met by the director general of sustainability and the heads of the ESG are very different, contractors said.

“Private equity has realized that you can’t do business unless you get a very strong IPO, sustainability or ESG history, so everyone is hiring ESG or sustainability leaders at very high levels… To oversee their portfolios,” Galloway said.

Deliverook bombarded ESG’s “S” for nothing, ”he argued, citing 26 percent jump at the stock price of the food delivery app, which floated in March. If there were some big investors he expressed concerns in addition to the treatment the group provides to employees, as well as a list of dual-class shares and governance, prior to the deplorable initial public offering.

Private equity buyers recognize that it is now necessary to evaluate ESG certificates for prospective investments and existing investments, said Julie Hertzberg, who leads Alvarez & Marsal’s new ESG consulting practice, which examines customer portfolios and potential purchases.

“Someday there will be regulations in many of the countries mandated by the report [of ESG information]”Everyone knows that this is coming. This is the construction of it.”

ESG skeptics also say they hire specialists from industry. “A large part of the market is still where they are looking for the hygiene factor. They want the boxes to be checked, ‘well, we have an ESG strategy,’ ”said Stuart McLachlan, director general of environmental consulting at Anthesis.

Increasing expectations that auditors will examine non-financial metrics and company accounts are also driving demand for new specializations in accounting firms, which are hiring specialists and providing training to auditors.

“ESG metrics and reports are becoming a must-have for the business, mainly because of increased investor scrutiny and we plan to move forward before regulatory reforms by expanding our capacity and capacity in this area,” said BDO chief audit officer Scott Knight. The fifth largest accounting firm in the UK.

“There was no hunger when we evaluated this in the past, but the market is developing rapidly,” he added.