being applied with regards to climate change, “Companies that don’t adapt will go bankrupt without question.”7 Meanwhile, the inverse is argued by Survey Participants to be just as true; businesses that do appropriately address these pressures will enjoy better performance in the long-term. Judy Cotte, CEO of ESG Global Advisors, explains, “There is a lot of academic research showing that companies that manage their material ESG issues well have lower risk, lower cost of capital, better operational performance across a wide variety of measures and better share price performance over the longer-term.” According to Lloyd M. Segal, “Being a responsible member of our community, being good to our employees, doing the right thing at all times is the best way to generate corporate returns.” Keith Halliday concurs, “The best route in many cases to maximize shareholder return, is to contribute to your local economy or your local society.” Senator Hassan Yussuff, the former President of the Canadian Labour Congress (Hassan Yussuff did the interview while he was President of the Canadian Labour Congress and thus prior to being named senator), also has the same view, “A business which enjoys long-term survival and high performance are those that have a social impact.” Granted, practically speaking it is not always easy for business leaders to give prominence to helping tackle global challenges through linking profit with purpose. Michael Trebilcock provides a reminder of the complexities of doing so, “I agree with Mark Carney that corporations are going to need to factor in a reduced dependence on fossil fuels, but we have to also focus our minds on the labour market impacts of a contracting fossil fuel sector.” Danny Murphy eloquently encapsulates the difficulties of balancing profit with purpose, “What is being done to the environment now is not sustainable. Everyone being unemployed is not sustainable either.” Despite the implementation challenges, most Survey Participants saw a closer link between profit and purpose as key to a company’s long-term prosperity. One Business Leader surveyed sums up the calculation with the risk/return lens well, “[These things] will enhance your bottom line, or if you don’t to it, it’ll detract from your bottom line. It will put you at a competitive disadvantage.” Many Survey Participants voiced their belief in the business case because they are of the view that a business’ stakeholders will speak up and most likely reward a business that links profit with purpose - and will potentially penalize it if it does not.
2) Creating and Sharing Value with Stakeholders “This is really about the stakeholders. Unless the stakeholders are all doing well, unless we can understand and work with them as things go on, then we’re not going to have long-term success and sustainability.” – Victor Thomas, President and CEO of the Canada-India Business Council Although stakeholder engagement is largely understood to be a part of doing business, it is not unanimous amongst the business community that a more stakeholder-centric approach will reap economic benefits for an organization. All the same, according to a significant number of the Survey Participants, much like the linking of profit with purpose, there is a strong business case for a stakeholder model. Many Survey Participants link the impacts a business has on its stakeholders with the long-term performance of the organization. Michael Hartmann, 30
