Journalism, ESG and sustainability

Heavy rains and high temperatures have been an important topic for Brazilian journalism in recent weeks. In Portugal, the highlight was Sustainability Day, on September 25th. But what about journalistic outlets? Do they care about the environment and sustainability as they write? Do they have ESG practices?

First, it is important to conceptualize ESG. This is the acronym for Environmental, social and (corporate) governance. There are three vectors of practices for companies to apply to achieve sustainability.

This expression was created in the 90s by British researcher John Elkington. He published the book The Triple Bottom Line, where the author states that a company should not only worry about financial sustainability, but also social and environmental. The acronym ESG appears as a guide to corporate practices, within these three vectors of sustainability.

In other words, it is possible to say that a company should not only worry about profits to be sustainable. Social issues, such as human rights, working conditions and environmental issues, such as resource depletion and waste treatment, must also be prioritized.

The 17 UN Goals

The environmental issue, especially climate change, gained space in journalism, at summits and in other public debates in the 21st century. In 2015, the UN published the 2030 Agenda, with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals are related to ESG practices. Most financial projects require ESG practices, and projects include at least one of the 17 objectives as mandatory.

On Sustainability Day in Portugal, some newspapers highlighted criticism of the expression ESG. There were journalists and experts who considered the acronym unnecessary and outdated. There were critics about the practice of greenwashing, the false concern for the environment. However, sustainability will remain on the agenda, with or without the term ESG.

And the newspapers? Do they have ESG practices?

After all, is journalism concerned with the environment and sustainability? Have the media adopted an agenda with ESG practices? Or are the sections dedicated to the topic just greenwashing the information?

Firstly, we need to ask: what are “ESG practices” in a media outlet? What environmental practices can a newspaper carry out? Social and governance practices are easy for a media company, the problem is in the environment.

We can assume that a communications company does not harm the environment too much. Perhaps printing is the only problem that is easy to check. However, if we look at the 17 SDGs proposed by the UN, we can ask several questions:

• Is there gender equality in newspapers?
• Are innovation practices important?
• Do journalists have good working conditions?
• Do newspapers care about the health of journalists and other workers?

Possibilities

The objective of this article is to open the discussion about ESG practices and sustainability in news media companies. Thus, the idea is to open discussions on two topics: internal practices and content analysis of special newspaper articles on sustainability.

Therefore, I will post two more articles about: first, about special sections for sustainability in digital newspapers: Público and Expresso (Portugal), UOL and Globo (Brazil). Secondly, about the internal practices of these companies.