CSR Outlook Leadership Forum 2023, Highlights The ESG Concept In Building Sustainable Business

Photo: Doc. Olahkarsa

JAKARTA - PT Olahkarsa Innovation Indonesia and the Business Council for Sustainable Development (IBCSD) successfully held the CSR Outlook Leadership Forum 2023. Carrying the theme ESG: Moving Forwards Sustainable Future, this forum acts as a medium of dialogue by various business sectors to continue to build positive narratives about the importance of the ESG aspect as a step towards a sustainable business.

This activity was held in a hybrid manner, namely offline located at Soehanna Hall, South Jakarta, and online at the zoom meeting, Tuesday, July 25 at 09.30 WIB to 17.00 WIB.

As many as 14 experts with government, business, and academic backgrounds were speakers in this forum. Various agencies were also present as audiences at the CSR Outlook Leadership Forum 2023 event, starting from state-owned companies, private companies, philanthropic institutions, non-governmental organizations, to students.

In the opening session, Unggul Yoga Ananta as Co-Founder and CEO of PT Olahkarsa Innovation Indonesia said that the CSR Outlook Leadership Forum is a multi stakeholder forum for various points of view related to sustainability issues in the ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) framework.

The taking of this theme cannot be separated from the global trend regarding the climate crisis which also has a correlation with Indonesia's vision of gold in 2045 regarding a sustainable economy. Facing these two challenges, he said that actions related to the issue of climate change and the sustainability economy must be a concern for all stakeholders.

"Hopefully this forum will not only be a medium of dialogue, but in the future among the ladies and gentlemen who attend can collaborate positively," he said.

Also present were the Director General of PPKL KLHK RI, Ir. Sigit Reliantoro, who on this occasion acted as one of the speakers at the CSR Outlook Leadership Forum 2023. Sigit discussed the "Company Performance Assessment in Environmental Management for Sustainable Business".

In his presentation, he explained how important aspects of the environment should be highlighted, as well as the implementation of the PROPER as an effort to assess the company's performance in environmental management for sustainable business.

He explained that since the industrial revolution, humans have been addicted to economic growth. This has consequences for the destruction of nature, the extinction of living species, and social inequality.

Therefore, being a KLHK seeks to change the focus of growth towards redistribution of wealth, as well as development models from extraction to regenerative or improving damaged natural conditions.

"This is what then inspired the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to conduct a PROPER," he explained. One of the other speakers was the Founder and President Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Agility (ISA), Maria R Nindita Radyati Ph.D who discussed the theme ESG: Transforming for long term Value Creation.

Maria explained that the background of the ESG concept is how investors should consider non-financial aspects when buying shares. Because companies operating must have an impact such as global warming and environmental damage.

Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the United Nations at that time together with the International Financial Corporation (IFC) gathered 50 CEOs around the world to agree on this non-financial indicator, the indicator is ESG which then continues to transform and revise to what we know today.

ESG as a criterion that has been agreed upon then applies to all types of industries. For industries that are already go-public, they cannot hide because there is a rating institution that assesses the performance of ESG in companies based on the information available in the general public.

The existence of this rating institution has finally become one of the references from investors to consider the decision to buy company shares. The results of this rating and rating are then published by the rating agency and of course cause unrest for certain companies if the rating is low.

"From the results of research conducted, ESG is directly proportional to the share price, companies that practice ESG, their share prices tend to rise," he explained.

The Presidential Special Staff of the Republic of Indonesia, Angkie Yudistia, also attended with the theme 'Building a Culture of Inclusive Within The Company'. In his presentation, Angkie explained that the business world should not actually discriminate against people with disabilities, because they also have the same right to work like people in general.

"If we don't do it anymore, business entities through the CSR program should target the disabled more," he said.

As one of President Joko Widodo's Special Staff, he has made various efforts to encourage justice and equality for people with disabilities. One of them is that he is involved in the process of establishing legislation for equality and protection of people with disabilities. He hopes that by passing the law, it can further encourage all parties, especially business entities, to be actively involved in helping people with disabilities.

"Since 2019 we have encouraged the ratification of 9 laws and regulations for persons with disabilities including Government Regulations (PP) and Presidential Regulations (Perpres)," he explained.

In addition to the three material exposures, there were 11 other speakers who discussed the practice of ESG in various aspects ranging from finance, education, to equality. In the evening, the event continued with awarding companies that were considered committed to carrying out sustainable development practices through CSR programs.