November 19 2024, the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (AmCham) held a conference entitled “ESG Conference - Smart Charity and Social Investment”. A special guest, Boris Titov, was invited to open the round table discussion. Mr Titov is the Special Representative of the RF President for Relations with International Organisations in connection with achieving Sustainable development goals.
The AmCham/ PEBA members around the table discussed current topics and how to interact with Mr Titov in his new role. Mr Titov had just arrived from Baku, where the COP29 Climate Change Conference was held. He presented a summary of the conference from his point of view.
Session 1: “Smart charity and social investment – 2 forms of corporate social responsibility. What is common, is there a difference?”
Session opened with a short introduction by Irina Arkhipova, the AmCham Co-chair for ESG.
The audience heard from a range of speakers from legal, infrastructure and charitable foundations, highlighting many issues and deficiencies for charities, but also demonstrating improvements and deeper recognition of environmental and social care programs. Win-win scenarios such as climate project investments, sustainability projects with social benefits were explained. A clear message was that corporations have an ever-increasing impact on people and communities with increasing emphasis on environmental and social aspects.
Session 2: “Smart Charity”
This session was moderated by Anna Orlova, Co-Chair of the AmCham CSR Committee.
Delegates saw examples of projects designed to raise public awareness on a wide range of major social issues in education, healthcare, culture and childcare. Examples of these awareness issues include a change of thinking, such as re-branding of orphanages to family centres, and introducing social media and technology to enable increased financial support through donorship.
All processes, such as medical, psychological and pastoral care need more investment. Change is happening, but high demand and low investment are slowing things down. Conversely, the X5 “Helping Out” programme provides food aid to people in need, promoting healthy lifestyles, creating a comfortable and safe environment for local communities, and fostering a culture of volunteering. Volunteering was analysed and reported on by several delegates, with varying levels of success. Many current voluntary initiatives were reported to be successful, but more are necessary.
NGO development and maturity was raised. However it was noted that NGOs and Business are moving apart and relationships are on a human level. There appears to be no systemic or functional relationship between the two. Several future directions to address this were postulated, such as more informed donor education, creation of lobbying organisations, and more sophisticated marketing tools. Funds could be allocated for research, social investment and then evaluation and adjustment of these programmes.
Session 3: “Social Investment. The Role of Business in Solving Social Problems”
Session was moderated by Olga Ivanova, Co-Chair of the AmCham/PEBA ESG Committee.
This session presented some interesting marketing analysis on the overall subject of Environmental, Social and Government topics. Demographics and consumption data are starting to feature significantly in corporate marketing operations. Social Media and other technologies are incorporating ESG positivity into their online and offline presence, with encouraging results.
The audience were presented with analyses on the effectiveness of ESG mentions on Sales campaigns. The most popular category of ESG claims were in organic and bio-placed products. The fewest products claiming ESG credentials were in Social Responsibility. 72% women vs 28% men were likely to be receptive to ESG messaging. Most likely receptiveness occurred in the 40-59 years age group.
In general, it seems that all ESG claim categories, except Social Responsibility, outperform non-ESG sales, in terms of sales growth
The conference concluded, having given all delegates an intensive and wide-ranging exposure to the current ESG situation. A very informative and educational day, WELLGO’s appreciation goes to Robert Agee and the AmCham team for their invitation and organisation.