Page 273 - Social Enterprise A New Business Paradigm for Thailand

greenhouse gas emissions reporting, and occupational health and safety data. Mr. Pakorn
Peetathawatchai, President of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, offered further commentary on
the latest growth in companies meeting sustainable investment criteria. He noted:

“Today, ESG factors, whether corporate governance, climate-related risk, or human rights issues

within organizations and supply chains, all have a direct impact on business operations.
Investors need access to this information to understand how listed companies manage these
risks. ESG data is therefore critical, and it has become one of the key factors that investors use
to guide their decisions. Upgrading the sustainable stock announcement to a formal rating
system, SET ESG Ratings, will help investors, analysts, and fund managers make better-informed
investment decisions. It will also provide a foundation for developing future investment
products. At the same time, listed companies can use the ratings as benchmarks for improving
their ESG performance. This, in turn, enhances investor interest and increases access to capital.”

(InfoQuest News Agency, November 6, 2023)

Box 9.3: CSR, SD, and ESG

CSR vs ESG: Over Time Google Trends

ESG
10

75
0

50
CSR
25

Source: Richard Hardyment (2024)
• CSR is a key component of sustainable development (SD). At the 1998 WBCSD conference, it was proposed
that CSR capable of driving sustainable development should encompass three dimensions: financial,
environmental, and social (as diagram shown below).
• Later, in 2004, the report titled Who Cares Wins introduced the term ESG formally for the first time, covering
three dimensions: environment, social, and governance. The final dimension, governance, was broader than
what had been proposed at the WBCSD meeting. Since then, ESG has gained increasing popularity and has
overtaken CSR in prominence, particularly from around 2019 onward (as figure shown above).
• Richard Hardyment of the Institute of Business Ethics argued that ESG’s success stems from its logical
alignment with investment decisions. The Who Cares Wins report pointed out that companies that perform
well across all three ESG dimensions are able to deliver higher value to their shareholders.

Corporate Responsibility
(Sustainable Development)

Corporate Corporate Corporate
Financial Environmental Social
Responsibility Responsibility Responsibility

Source: WBCSD’s Corporate Social Responsibility Report (1999) 239