Under normal circumstances, if ideas (like ESG) didn’t work, corporate executives would reconsider such policies. But we are not living in normal times.

Following years of simmering investor backlash, political pressure and legal threats over environmental, social and governance efforts, a number of business leaders are now making a conscious effort to avoid the once widely used acronym for such initiatives.

On earnings calls, many chief executives now employ new approaches. Some companies, including Coca-Cola, are rebranding corporate reports and committees, stripping ESG from titles. Advisers are coaching executives on alternative ways to describe their efforts, proposing new terms like “responsible business.” On Wall Street, meanwhile, some firms are closing once-popular ESG funds as interest fades.

The shift in messaging reflects a reality: “ESG is complicated,” said Daryl Brewster, a former Kraft Foods and Nabisco executive who now heads Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, a nonprofit of more than 200 companies focused on social impact.

After the left was getting hammered with their use of critical race theory in schools, they quickly changed tactics, turning CRT it into a new vehicle called social emotional learning (SEL). Leftists don’t give up, they try to reimagine their schemes hoping the public will be fooled into thinking the threat has gone away so the indoctrination can continue.

In some ways, this latest news and the recent layoffs at BackRock (the beehive of ESG) are encouraging since it may demonstrate that this is companies reconsidering their new found wokeness, but don’t count on it. ESG investing is going strong in Europe and BlackRock is a major player there too.

The ESG movement may be down in the U.S. but people, like Larry Fink, who heavily promoted this racket are obviously waiting for the right moment to somehow revive it. That must never happen even if ESG is called something else.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay