BT strengthens ESG focus with dedicated reporting team, new newsletter offering

Tee Zhuo

Published Wed, Apr 13, 2022 · 01:00 AM

Help us shape BT's ESG coverage: bt.sg/esgsurvey

Every company and government now professes a commitment to sustainability, diversity or being "green". But how can we tell which ones truly care about ethics or the environment?

To help investors and businesses separate the wheat from the chaff, The Business Times will be strengthening its coverage of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) with its distinctive brand of hard-nosed reporting.

A dedicated team of seasoned journalists will support this increased focus, addressing an urgent need from BT's readers who seek to navigate the rapidly evolving regulatory and operational environment in South-east Asia and beyond.

BT editor Wong Wei Kong said BT has long provided coverage of these issues to serve readers' needs, especially with its long-standing expertise on corporate governance.

"The strengthened coverage reflects BT's priorities and ongoing mission to stay relevant to its users," he said. "We hope to focus our efforts on these important issues and rapidly grow in both breadth and depth over the next several months."

A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU

Friday, 12.30 pm

ESG Insights

An exclusive weekly report on the latest environmental, social and governance issues.

BT's deputy news editor Joan Ng will lead the newly assembled team of journalists, who between them have decades of reporting experience across the various components of ESG. The team members are:

Michelle Quah, senior correspondent
Kenneth Lim, senior correspondent
Wong Pei Ting, correspondent
Janice Lim, correspondent

Kenneth Lim will also headline a weekly newsletter that looks at ESG in Singapore and the region, to be launched by June 2022.

This offering for BT's subscribers will demystify sometimes dense and messy regulatory or reporting frameworks, while offering analysis of market-moving ESG developments. More details will be provided in due course.

Industry watchers and experts welcomed BT's enhanced ESG coverage. Professor Mak Yuen Teen of the National University of Singapore Business School said it was a timely move. The media, he added, should take a "somewhat sceptical approach" given greenwashing and marketing hype surrounding companies' ESG practices.

The corporate governance advocate also said Singapore needs to go beyond a focus on climate and diversity, and that there is much to learn from other markets in Asia and beyond.

"There are many emerging and leading practices by companies in markets like UK, EU and US, and companies there are subject to much more scrutiny on ESG issues than here...(the) best practices in ESG may not be here but elsewhere," he said.

Abhi Bhuchar, head of consumer and industrials, South-east Asia at Oliver Wyman, said the media can help inform and educate customers and consumers on how the ESG ecosystem is evolving.

"The key challenge is going to be 'who pays' for the energy transition; and therefore anything we can do to help customers make different choices is an important contribution," said Bhuchar, who also heads energy for Asia-Pacific at the consulting firm.

While Mak said he would prefer longer in-depth pieces focusing on specific aspects of ESG, Bhuchar favoured short-format stories "that look beyond the human element to establish dollars and cents, and in a way that works for the audience".

Ng said that as with the rest of BT's coverage, readers can expect a rich range of explainers, in-depth features, commentary and multimedia from the ESG team.

"We expect ESG coverage to be increasingly challenging as the noise grows in this space, and so we welcome feedback from readers on how we can better serve their needs," she said.

Read BT's ESG coverage today at bt.sg/esg. Send pitches and story ideas for the team to btnews@sph.com.sg.

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