Bruna Zampieri Colpani
Lawyer at Marcos Martins Advogados
The American newspaper The New York Times published an article reporting on the number of deaths recorded in Qatar since the start of preparations for the World Cup, which varies between 12,000 and 15,000 deaths due to undignified working conditions. Unfortunately, this is not a distant reality in Brazil.
According to data from the Occupational Health and Safety Observatory, the ILO and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Brazil recorded 2,500 deaths and 571,000 Work Accident Reports (CATs) in 2021.
Faced with this scenario, prevention is the best alternative for reducing costs and corporate and social damage, as well as optimizing the working environment and maximizing employee production. In other words, the ESG agenda in a nutshell.
The acronym ESG ( Environmental, Social and Governance ) is today the main indicator of transparency, quality and solidity in companies.
We can say, then, that ESG or ASG is a set of good practices implemented to measure the organization’s commitment from an environmental, social and corporate perspective, evaluating the work of companies towards social objectives, as well as the fight against corruption through compliance, which should support all ESG indicators.
Implementing ESG practices is an essential strategy for the growth of companies, since society is increasingly evaluating the ethics and transparency with which companies carry out their activities and honoring good corporate practices.
The environmental indicator refers to sustainability and concern for the preservation of the environment, such as CO2 emissions, pollution, etc. The social indicator values decent, inclusive work, with fair processes. The governance indicator, on the other hand, relates to integrity strategies created for the company to relate to stakeholders and investors, always taking care of its image and reputation.
It is therefore clear that investing in the prevention of occupational and operational illnesses and accidents is a path that should be followed by all companies, industries or businesses, whatever their area of activity.
Legislation on Occupational Health and Safety is one of the guiding pillars, but it needs good practices and the participation of all members of the institution to generate good results.
Companies that effectively adopt ESG practices, eschewing just marketing appearances, have differentiated themselves in the market in all areas.
The adoption of ESG as an organizational culture, combined with compliance, the main corporate governance tool, brings about total alignment between best sustainability practices, ethics and transparency, because today, the objective of an ethical corporation must go far beyond maximizing profits.
Legal intelligence is fundamental in guiding the application of ESG practices, ensuring that all legal measures are observed in order to minimize labor liabilities and boost other corporate results.
