As ESG Consulting Booms, Consultants Push Small Business to Get on Board

News Analysis
The business of ensuring compliance with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors is booming, and a study by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), a government agency that works with entrepreneurs and smaller businesses, suggests that its clients get on board the ESG train or be left in its dust.
However, ESG is facing considerable criticism and BDC does acknowledge the costs and administrative burden that compliance involves.
BDC’s study “ESG in Your Business: The Edge You Need to Land Large Contracts” released March 30, which surveyed major buying organizations in the public and private sector and their small and medium-sized suppliers, concluded that 50 percent of suppliers say ESG leads to new business opportunities, 32 percent say it makes it easier to recruit and retain employees, and 31 percent say it improves access to financing and investment….