In relation to environmental, social and governance criteria, Alejandra Espinosa of CIAL Dun & Bradstreet project manager of CIAL Dun & Bradstreet, the main provider of data and business analysis in Latin America and the Caribbean, considers that although the Mexican business environment is beginning To keep in mind the importance of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) strategies, a regulatory framework is still needed, as well as a taxonomy that defines the importance and impact of these in business.
These are improvement actions for the companies, for example the governance companies that do not have a board of directors compared to the cases that do have them and that have seen a change in the relationship of the management teams with the boards of directors where there is greater collaboration and exchange of information that facilitates discussions around environmental, social and governance criteria.
“One of the biggest challenges in Mexico is that there is no decalogue, a specific taxonomy that can define these concepts (ESG), nor are there specific metrics, nor the obligation to disclose them, and that is what we have seen in other countries. , with regulatory measures and that a certain taxonomy and disclosure is required”, emphasized Alejandra Espinosa.
However, in the Mexican case, although lacking a structure, the companies and the financial system have made effective and highly qualified the progress of the companies in these areas when their environmental and social strategies and initiatives are made known and also relating these criteria with a certain danger in the business, such as reputational risk.
To this end, the expert pointed out that in the internal processes of companies, specific roles have begun to be assigned to people specialized in these areas and who can be the link for better decision-making in line with ESG criteria and with the mission. and company vision.
“We believe it is important that they are more diverse, that they have more women, that they have independent directors and are aware of these criteria (ESG) not only of the business itself, and are capable of communicating them abroad, we also believe that specific policies can be applied , of governance could be anti-corruption and transparency policies, risk identification, evaluation and monitoring processes, audits could be very useful in this regard and determine specific roles to give continuity to these strategies and generate commitments in the medium and long term, for example to reduce its impact on the environment.
In this sense, he said that one of the world trends is that investors are waiting for companies to be able to communicate their actions in these areas in order to create a virtuous circle “that can give investors an overview of projects that may be viable for their investments and at a global level we are also seeing certain regulations such as that of the United States and Europe that are moving towards greater disclosure of these criteria”, concluded the expert.