“My name is Vuyolwethu Dubese, an Innovation Strategy and M&E Consultant and welcome to an episode of ESG for SMEs - a 60 second podcast where I answer your questions on ESG for your SME.” . This is your official invitation to the genesis of the creation of the #ESGforSMEs. Let's dive in!
“My name is Vuyolwethu Dubese, an Innovation Strategy and M&E Consultant and welcome to an episode of ESG for SMEs - a 60 second podcast where I answer your questions on ESG for your SME.”
This has been the ongoing introduction of my 60 second proof of concept for Environmental, Social and Governance for Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs), packaged as a podcast, as of December 2022. It was launched with the honest intent of having the opportunity to work with some of the most innovative, visionary and inclusive startups, and enabling them to account for their systems (or lack thereof) to better monitor, measure and evaluate their impact. This, is how the #ESGforSMEs podcast was born.
Born with the vision to unpack, that ESG is not only a framework or tool that uses the pillars of the factors of environmental, social and governance to assess the impact of and manage the risk of the business as discussed in Episode 1. Moreover, it’s a vehicle to ultimately unlocking these 5 opportunities no matter the size of your SME:
- Making company operations sustainable
- Reducing costs and improving financial performance
- Robust talent engagement and strategy
- Efficient innovation and,
- Regulatory and legal interventions
In Episode 2, we break down three (3) of the most employed acronyms when the conversation and outcome is impact-driven. That is ESG, SDGs and CSR. Tune into the episode to unpack the hidden value of these acronyms for your SME and how they can be structured to assist with the monitoring, measuring and evaluation of your small to medium enterprise. That is:
- SDGs Represent the Goals,
- CSR is a Management Strategy
- while ESG underpins the quantitative Measure of Sustainability
One of the surest ways of recruiting for SMEs as I’ve so humbly recorded in my career, is to dangle the carrot of funding. This is why, in Episode 3 on ESG-linked Funding, we highlighted the kinds of funds and investing that are ESG-linked that your SME can apply for as it prepares for its sustainable transition to implement specific efforts aimed at enhancing its sustainability profile and performance. These include, but not limited to Angel Investing, Green Financing to Grants. Episodes 4 -8 invite the listener as we take a dive on what these ESG-linked investing and access to capital require from your SME at its particular stage how you can prepare for the type of investment, the benefits as well as examples of these funds.
Season 1 of #ESGforSMEs has 17 Episodes, and premier every Wednesday at 12h00 (SAST).
Season 2 of #ESGforSMEs premiers 17 May 2023, and we are so excited about how ESG has encouraged us to innovate in the second season.
Listen to the current season’s episodes on these following platforms:
LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
