In recent weeks, the Ministry of Human Resources opened 19 investigation papers against six companies related to Top Glove for failure to apply for an accommodation certificate from the authorities, which led to the discovery of other offences, including crowded, uncomfortable accommodation and lack of proper ventilation. The IR official says ESG (environmental, social and governance) concerns have become the norm, more so following the outbreak at Top Glove’s operations in Klang, which led to scrutiny of the glove maker’s staff quarters. While the palm oil and forestry industries continue to deal with allegations of deforestation and human rights abuses from NGOs on a regular basis, other sectors are now coming under similar pressures. Is ESG now becoming more mainstream? ESG investing is not entirely new. After all, the FTSE4Good ESG Index was launched in 2014 by Bursa Malaysia but the movement is still seen as nascent in Malaysia. Just last Thursday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the government is preparing to transition to low-carbon energy sources and is drafting a Natural Gas Roadmap as part of the National Energy Policy that will be announced in the first quarter of 2021. Aside from regulators and governments driving the ESG agenda, another major factor is businesses’ global customers. Although more people are chanting the ESG mantra more frequently these days, sceptics who question its genuine adoption by companies are equally as many. PwC SDG Reporting Challenge 2019 highlighted that 73% of Malaysian companies mentioned the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in their reporting. Although 20% had SDG in their published business strategy, only 11% had specific SDG targets.

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