As a member of “Gen Z” working in Sustainable Finance or Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG), whenever I respond to questions of “What do you do for a living?” particularly from those of an older generation, I am often met with the immediate charge of “wokeness.” The assumption being that because I work with investors and companies to support the integration of ESG factors within both their investment and business strategy, I am somehow part of a broader attempt to force certain political, almost always left-wing, values upon them.

Truthfully, this “ESG-Wokery” equivalency is nothing more than a pejorative that denigrates a concept that many, none more than me, genuinely believe can be used to support more profitable and resilient businesses. It is best summarised by Heritage Action, a US based activist thinktank, who state that “under the umbrella of ESG activism, corporations […] are weaponizing capital, and promoting nearly every left-wing policy issue they care about.”

Core to their argument is the belief that an investor or company prioritising ESG factors has no intention of improving their financial performance, and will even happily sacrifice financial performance so long as their pre-identified political outcomes have been achieved. Indeed, a maxim I often hear is “go woke, go broke,” and with the United States entering the 2024 election cycle, I fully expect to see these exact arguments regurgitated by the Republican party nominee.