ESG to launch courses on sustainability for businesses

ENTERPRISE Singapore (ESG) is launching a series of courses for businesses on sustainability under the Enterprise Sustainability Programme (ESP), with a 70 per cent fee subsidy for up to 3 participants per eligible enterprise.

Developed in partnership with Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS), PwC Singapore and the Singapore Environment Council (SEC), the first series of these courses will start in March 2022.

These courses are GCNS's "Foundations in Corporate Sustainability", PwC's "Kickstart your ESG Journey" for small and medium-sized enterprises, and SEC's "Putting Sustainability into Practice for Business."

Each course spans 2 to 3 days and covers sustainability trends, risks and opportunities, as well as concepts and topics such as decarbonisation, circular economy, sustainability reporting and carbon management. There will be up to 30 runs of the courses each year.

Aside from the courses, enterprises eager to embark on sustainability projects can get support from the ESP in areas such as sustainability strategy development, resource optimisation, standards adoption and product development.

A Career Conversion Programme for sustainability professionals is also being developed by Workforce Singapore in collaboration with ESG and key industry stakeholders.

One firm that is keen to participate is FoodXervices, with chief executive Nichol Ng saying that the idea of sustainability used to be reserved for big firms who have the budget or the professionals to look into this.

"But over the last 5 years, pressing global issues have indirectly impacted all businesses big and small... hence bringing on a new sense of responsibility amongst us small business owners to embark on our own ESG (environmental, social and governance) journey," she said.