ESG status of Vologda enterprises: expert survey results

Globalization processes aggravate a number of problems of socio-economic development. At present, the issues related to the solution of social and environmental problems are becoming increasingly relevant. The research is aimed at analyzing the results of an expert survey conducted at the enterprises of Vologda for the compliance of their activities with ESG principles. In the course of our work, we used such methods as analysis, synthesis, generalization and comparison of theoretical and factual material, as well as methods of statistical and comparative analysis. We considered interpretations of ESG factors, determined the composition of ESG principles on the basis of available studies of Russian and foreign authors and regulatory and legal framework, highlighted the key provisions of the concept of socially responsible investment. We analyzed the expert survey results conducted by the researchers of Vologda Research Center of RAS. We identified the problems of ESG principles implementation in the activities of enterprises, including financial costs, other priorities of company development and lack of personnel with the necessary qualifications. More than half of the respondents use secondary raw materials for production. The absolute majority of enterprises do not carry out ECO-certification of products, lack an environmental management system and do not have environmental requirements for contractors and suppliers. Corporate charity and volunteering programs are not widespread among the enterprises of the city. Activities to promote responsible consumption at the surveyed enterprises are not organized on a regular basis and are occasional. Each of the surveyed enterprises implements internal product quality control activities. The elements of the scientific novelty include the development and testing of our tools to determine the level of prevalence of ESG principles in organizations' activities. As a direction for further research, we consider the possibility of increasing the number of objects to be analyzed by territorial expansion of the research.