CPA Bulletin

14 CPA Bulletin > November 2022 www.cpa.uk.net CPA CONFERENCE: 3 who has worked at the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) and with the International Labour Organization (ILO); and David Murray , Executive Director of the Sustainability First environmental change charity and former CEO of The Green Party. Costain’s Lara Young suggested that in many ways adopting ESG measures made plain business sense. While some companies (such as publicly listed plc organisations) must already adopt them by law, others could also benefit from doing so now. Obviously different firms would have different goals according to the nature of their business and the markets they serve, but they could go beyond simply meeting sustainability targets: ESG policies could be shaped to address a company’s local environmental impact and its role in the community. She explained that ESG initiatives could follow recognised principles and frameworks set out on agreed metrics. These could be used by a business itself, and financial institutions, to benchmark the company’s performance and to monitor progress against identified and measurable targets. Indeed, following these processes could be invigorating for the firm and its personnel, working together to achieve common goals and demonstrating the green credentials of the organisation to stakeholders and investors. Moreover, Lara pointed out that good business models had to be adapted constantly anyway, with an eye on future changes and challenges. For example, a plant-hirer with many diesel machines in its fleet might need to retain them for several years to achieve the required return on investment, but a planned transition to new technology would need to be put in place to ensure long-term success. Convenor Merryn Myatt wondered whether ESG could camouflage ‘greenwashing’ (making environmental claims that cannot be substantiated). However, Lara suggested that regulations were constantly being tightened and that peer pressure, as