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What are we going to do about ESG?

Plus: Meet Private Equity's nemesis

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Ryan Sheppard & Joel Leeman
January 29, 2024

Welcome back to Spark, a weekly newsletter from Vivace Content. We compile news signals from across the business, financial, and cultural landscape, and spark ideas to help you and your business jump on something new to talk about. Send tips and feedback to [email protected] or just hit reply.

Welcome to the 8th edition of Spark and the end of January. Time feels like it’s flying, so much so that I don’t feel like I’ve adjusted to calling it 2024 yet. Do you feel prepared for February and beyond?

Read on for some ideas of what to focus on, key dates to be aware of, and a LinkedIn post that reads as satire, yet somehow it is not.

-joel

In today’s issue: The future of ESG, the decline of the CMO, meeting Private Equity’s archnemesis, and vol. III of the Vivace Index

Let’s talk about ESG

We strongly believe that forward-thinking organizations have a real chance in 2024 to provide both insight and clarity on the future of ESG.

If you’ve followed the space closely over the past few years, you know it’s always been a hotly debated topic and a poorly understood acronym. But the backlash, particularly in the U.S., continues apace (see chart further down), making this moment feel different.

According to Cathy Conlon, head of Corporate Issuer Strategy & Product Management at Broadridge, ESG isn’t going to die, but it is due for a rebrand. She explains, in this excerpt from Broadridge’s 2024 Predictions, which we were lucky enough to help shape:

Last year may have seen a sharp drop in responsible investment inflows, but there are still a few important underlying trends that are hard to deny.

For instance, the EU’s climate disclosure regulations are already strong. In the U.S., as all eyes will be on the Securities Exchange Commission’s (SEC) long-anticipated disclosure rule. California — the world’s fifth largest economy — just passed its own set of sweeping climate disclosure laws,  which on their own could have a large impact on both companies and their investors.

Good governance won’t go out of fashion in 2024 either: just look toward the OpenAI boardroom struggle in November of 2023. As an industry, we will begin to use other terms than ESG, such as responsible investing, sustainable finance, and climate disclosures, and will continue to be more specific on ESG issues.

Do you agree with this assessment? We’d love to hear your thoughts and dig in further if you want to kick around any ideas. But for now, here are a few idea starters.

> Angles:

  • Has your organization clearly laid out (internally and externally) your strategy and messaging as it relates to ESG, Responsible Business, and Sustainability?

  • What industry coalitions are you part of that you could leverage to help codify new vocabulary and language?

  • Now feels like the right moment for depth rather than a one-off. A new documentary? A podcast series devoted to the issue? A disruptive ad campaign? Forward-looking research and in-depth surveys? The future is bright, and the opportunities are endless.

Vivace Index 👆

Our recurring feature providing a snapshot of the world by the numbers.

  • $83M: Dollars awarded to E Jean Carroll in her defamation case against former U.S. president Donald Trump, which she promises to spend on something he hates. (BBC)

  • $60B: 2023 revenue for the American gambling sector. (DealBook)

  • 2,350: Crew members aboard Royal Caribbean’s newest mega cruise ship, billed as the world’s largest. Plus: 20 decks, 15 bars, 5,600 passenger capacity, 7 pools, all clocking a gross tonnage of 240,800. (Chartr)

  • 57.7B: Minutes of viewing time for Suits in 2023, now the most-streamed show on TV in a single year, eclipsing both The Office and Stranger Things in 2022. (New York Times)

  • 105%: Average percent growth of Magnificent 7 stocks in 2023, which include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. (New York Times)

  • -33%: Once hailed as a world leader in parental and birth policy, Finland’s fertility rate has fallen nearly a third since 2010. (FT)

  • -4%: The decline in the percentage of Tequila exports, the first year to see a drop, halting its skyrocketing growth since 2009. (Chartr)

  • 32%: Share of Americans trust in mass media. (Axios)

Best of the rest

What’s behind the decline of the Fortune 500 CMO? Why the Taylor Swift deepfakes are a warning for us all. The secret to finding the best idea ever. Goodbye Evergrande, China’s largest real estate firm. The key issues for business in a likely Trump-Biden rematch.

Off the charts

📆 Upcoming events

  • Feb 1: U.S. Black History Month begins

  • Feb 2: World Wetlands Day

  • Feb 4: The Grammy’s, World Cancer Day

  • Feb 9: NY Fashion Week

  • Feb 10: Happy Chinese New Year! 2024 is the Year of the Dragon.

  • Feb 11: Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Francisco 49ers play NFL Super Bowl LVIII. Taylor Swift will dominate the conversation.

🗳️ Reminder: 76 democracies will hold elections in 2024. Check out this convenient 2024 Global Election Quick Reference guide compiled by Marshall Manson.

Start planning now: Earth Day (April 22)

Friends of Vivace: News and views

  • What a marvelous profile in Institutional Investor of Ludovic Phalippou, Professor of Financial Economics at Said Business School, described in this piece as the “Bête Noire of Private Equity.”

  • Great clip of Aaron Barefoot, Co-Founder at ColdChain and Web3 Digital Marketing expert, sharing insights on how SEO is connected to every single aspect of your website and needs to be thought through from the beginning.

  • This week’s just trust me: Public affairs and PR veteran (and Spark subscriber) Noelle Coleman provides some much-needed perspective in response to the founder of CB Insights posting about the investment opportunity due to the “growing army of sexless, lonely men.”

Send us your shout-outs, strong opinions, and headlines to include in next week’s edition.

Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Please send all ideas and feedback to [email protected]. 

Spark is a production of Vivace Content, where we help our clients navigate what to say and how to say it every single day. Get in touch if you’d like a no-hassle consultation about how we can help you. Have a great week ahead, and see you next Monday.