Retailers Commit to Corporate Responsibility

The term “ESG”, or environmental social and governance factors, refers to a vast landscape of issues. The corporate responsibility and governance topics encompassed by ESG have always been part of conversations about businesses’ role in society, and awareness of the moral and strategic imperatives for companies to find their voices had been building for years. Yet the trials of COVID-19 accelerated a convergence of these already growing areas with an even greater sense of urgency.

Customers and employees have found renewed purpose and empowerment in holding society accountable for how they will help shape a better world. More are speaking out on social media, forcing transparency, voting with their dollars, and demanding accountability. The expectation in today’s environment is that retailers will not only care about these issues but will walk the walk and be able to demonstrate real progress.

RILA is committed to helping retailers navigate through these new ESG expectations by offering education, resources, and benchmarking opportunities as well as ways to help shape the evolving ESG landscape by sharing the retail industry’s perspective.