Chapter 1 - ESG as Public Relations vs. Investor Relations

1.01 Intro to ESG (4 min.) Sample Lesson Quiz: 1.01 Intro to ESG
1.02a Where did ESG come from and why? (Part 1) (11 min.)
1.02b Where did ESG come from and why? (Part 2) (16 min.) Quiz: 1.02b Where did ESG come from and why? (Part 2)
1.03 A big scope view on how ESG is impacting the energy industry (5 min.) Quiz: 1.03 A big scope view on how ESG is impacting the energy industry
1.04 A Cynical View (14 min.) Quiz: 1.04 A Cynical View

Chapter 2 - ESG in Any Company and Deciding if it’s Worthwhile

2.01 Key Players in the ESG Ratings Space (8 min.) Quiz: 2.01 Key Players in the ESG Ratings Space
2.02a Lack of Standardization (Part 1) (16 min.)
2.02b Lack of Standardization (Part 2) (13 min.) Quiz: 2.02b Lack of Standardization (Part 2)
2.03 Flexibility in Creating an ESG Narrative (13 min.) Quiz: 2.03 Flexibility in Creating an ESG Narrative

Chapter 3 - Exploring ESG Criteria and What They Mean for an Energy Company

3.01a How even a fossil fuel company can qualify as ESG (Part 1) (7 min.)
3.01b How even a fossil fuel company can qualify as ESG (Part 2) (13 min.)
3.01c How even a fossil fuel company can qualify as ESG (Part 3) (10 min.) Quiz: 3.01c How even a fossil fuel company can qualify as ESG (Part 3)
3.02 What Self-Reporting Means (11 min.) Quiz: 3.02 What Self-Reporting Means
3.03 Reasons to Choose Not to Report (3 min.) Quiz: 3.03 Reasons to Choose Not to Report

Chapter 4 - What is ESG and Why is it Important to the Energy Industry?

4.01a Environmental Performance Impact on the Oil & Gas Sector (Part 1) (13 min.)
4.01b Environmental Performance Impact on the Oil & Gas Sector (Part 2) (12 min.) Quiz: 4.01b Environmental Performance Impact on the Oil & Gas Sector (Part 2)
4.02a Why National Oil Companies Don’t Care (Part 1) (11 min.)
4.02b Why National Oil Companies Don’t Care (Part 2) (16 min.) Quiz: 4.02b Why National Oil Companies Don’t Care (Part 2)
4.03 Impact on Privately Held Companies (9 min.) Quiz: 4.03 Impact on Privately Held Companies
4.04 Why Public Companies Care So Much (3 min.) Quiz: 4.04 Why Public Companies Care So Much

Chapter 5 - The Future of ESG: Pension Funds, Banking, Private Equity and Bubbles

5.01a Developments in Regulation (Part 1) (22 min.)
5.01b Developments in Regulation (Part 2) (18 min.) Quiz: 5.01b Developments in Regulation (Part 2)
5.02a Second Degree Impacts: Pressure on Financiers (10 min.)
5.02b Second Degree Impacts: Pressure on Insurers (12 min.) Quiz: 5.02b Second Degree Impacts: Pressure on Insurers
5.03 The Bubble Argument (7 min.) Quiz: 5.03 The Bubble Argument

A Starters Guide to ESG, Energy and Climate / Chapter 1 - ESG as Public Relations vs. Investor Relations

Lesson 1.01 Intro to ESG

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Transcript

01. A Starters Guide to ESG, Energy and Climate - Lesson 1.01: Intro to ESG 02. Environmental, Social and Governance explained

01. A Starters Guide to ESG, Energy and Climate - Lesson 1.01: Intro to ESG

Welcome to A Starters Guide to ESG, Energy and Climate. My name is Dr. Ellen R. Wald, Ph.D., and I'm going to be teaching this course.
I actually am a historian by training, so we are going to be covering a little bit of the history of ESG and in this course. I actually studied Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, and then I got my Ph.D. at Boston University, where I studied American and British oil companies in the Middle East in the 1940s and 1950s. And after that, I taught a variety of different courses, international relations, Middle East history before deciding to go into energy consulting. I have written a book called Saudi Inc., which is a history of the Saudi oil industry, but also Saudi Arabia and really looking at the history of Saudi Arabia through the eyes of Aramco. And that book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, anywhere that you buy books. And I am the president of a consulting firm, Transversal Consulting, where we do a variety of different projects and consulting. It's really a boutique consulting firm. We do issues in geopolitics and energy and policy for all sorts of different energy-related concerns. Oil companies, oil services companies, management consulting, a variety of issues. And you can find our website on the slides below. And I'm also a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute as well as a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center.
Welcome to A Starters Guide to ESG, Energy and Climate. Today, we're going to be looking at what is ESG? This is Chapter 1. And why is it important to the energy industry? And ESG is a really big buzzword today. But unlike some of the buzzwords in the past, it seems to have a lot of staying power and will be important both in terms of energy and also in terms of finance. So we're going to look at a variety of these issues and hopefully gain a better understanding of both what ESG is, what it is not, how it can apply in both the energy sphere and also how it applies in the finance sphere and what that means for energy companies and people who work there.

02. Environmental, Social and Governance explained

We're ready for Lesson 1, which is environmental, social and governance explained. First thing to do is understand what ESG stands for. And the E in ESG stands for environmental, which basically tends to refer to, it can actually refer to a lot of things, but most people see it as referring to a company's energy usage, pollution, waste, use of natural resources, and environmental improvement initiatives. So that can definitely be a lot of things and we're going to explore more what that means as we go on. And the S stands for social, which is a company's impact on society like safety, treatment of employees, charitable initiatives, relationships that they have with their suppliers, the impact on local communities, and also employee diversity. And the G stands for governance, which refers mostly to the makeup of the board of a company. So the diversity of the individuals who sit on the board, their accounting policies, their executive pay and compensation, their ownership structure, and their ethical behavior. For this course, we're mostly going to focus on the environmental aspects and how that applies in energy and also in finance.