McDonald’s and other companies respond to pushback against ESG initiatives (2023)
| Environmental, social, and corporate governance |
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The Conference Board, a global nonprofit business organization, reported recently that ESG pushback has become a concern for many business executives:
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Nearly half of the firms surveyed by the Conference Board recently said they have experienced some level of backlash against their ESG-related initiatives. Among those companies, those in the financial and insurance services industries have been affected the most, with 37% of that sector saying they have experienced some level of backlash over environmental, social and governance initiatives. The next highest was business and professional services, with 8% of respondents in that sector saying there had been some backlash. A report on the survey results authored by Andrew Jones, senior researcher, ESG center, at the Conference Board, said most of the backlash has been centered primarily on the social and environmental components of ESG, with the backlash being particularly emotionally charged when companies take public stances on social issues.[1] |
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Bloomberg reported on August 11 that McDonald’s had recently removed a number of ESG references from its website, potentially in response to criticism:
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McDonald’s Corp. quietly removed the term “ESG” from some parts of its website at a time when environmental, social and governance initiatives have been attracting criticism from some conservative policymakers in the US. The fast-food chain’s “Purpose & Impact” website recently removed several mentions of ESG, according to an analysis by Bloomberg News. One web page that was titled “ESG Approach & Progress” is now labeled “Our Approach & Progress.” Most of the other text remains similar. Another web page, previously titled “Performance & ESG Reporting,” now shows up as “Goal Performance & Reporting.” In some instances, McDonald’s subbed the phrase “environmental and social issues” for the ESG abbreviation. … McDonald’s declined to comment on the changes but affirmed its commitment to reporting annually on its progress on social and environmental goals. The chain released one such update earlier this month.[1] |
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Meanwhile, Matt Cole, the CEO and CIO at Strive—the asset management firm co-founded by ESG opponent and presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy—suggested that McDonald’s efforts to distance itself from ESG may be due to engagement efforts by investors and asset managers. Cole said that such decisions are often superficial:
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Less than one month after Strive’s public engagement with McDonalds … they scrub ESG from their website. Great job by Justin Danhof and the Strive Corporate Governance team in shining a light on companies breaching their fiduciary duties. But it’s important to remember that while the term ESG is quickly going away, the underlying problem still exists. Similar to McDonalds; Blackrock, Coca-Cola and others have been quietly removing the word ESG but all are still committed to the real problem: stakeholder capitalism. We are just getting warmed up in the fight of shareholder capitalism vs stakeholder capitalism.[1] |
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See also
- Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
- Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's ESG newsletter
External links
Footnotes
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