ESG is about mindset, an impulse towards inching towards responsible capitalism. The individual building blocks of E and S are worlds in themselves, however they work very differently when they are together as ESG risk, as scale and context play a role. The plurality of definitions and understanding about ESG is a key strength, as the world of business is diverse as business itself.

ESG is a business value driver in the climate zeitgeist. ESG is an actor network, and each node will have different weights. ESG is thus:

1. A Risk Mitigation Lens

2. A Responsible Capitalism Lens

3. An Investment Thesis

4. ESG as Culture

And ESG is a subset of the normative paradigm of sustainability, as an operational meta framework from the floor to the boardroom and its meanings shape shift at each scale.