ITPC Director Tran Phu Lu said ESG standing for environmental -social - governance is a framework used to assess an organisation's businesspractices and performance on various sustainability and ethical issues. ESG isthe key to strong and long-term development in all fields. However, this set ofESG standards is still quite new to the Vietnamese business community.
The ESG conference was an opportunity for businesses to access alot of useful information and answer their difficulties and problems inimplementing ESG into production and business activities to improve productionefficiency and competitiveness of Vietnamese goods in the world market.
In reality, many Vietnamese businesses have made changes in theirmanagement thinking on sustainable development and included ESG in theirbusiness strategies. Small and medium-sized Vietnamese enterprises operating inthe field of consumer goods production such as food and beverage are graduallyimplementing sustainable development such as producing environmentally friendlyproducts.
Moreover, they have been paying attention to local economicdevelopment, and community support activities and especially focusing onproducing green products and products labelled green by reputable domesticorganizations.
Not outside the trend of applying ESG among businesses globally,the goals to enhance the sustainable development of businesses in Vietnam aregradually being concretised. In particular, green products are products thatmeet 4 criteria. The first criterium is that products are made fromenvironmentally friendly materials; secondly, products provide safe solutionsfor the environment and health to replace toxic products; thirdly, productsreduce environmental impact during use (less waste, use of renewable energy,low maintenance costs); finally, products create a friendly and safeenvironment for health.
At the conference, experts discussed and deployed useful contentto businesses about global ESG trends as well as the level of influence andmain strategies for the food industry to implement ESG; tools to supportbusinesses in inventorying greenhouse gases and producing reports; solutions tooptimise transportation processes and manage supply chains in a sustainable waythrough Carbon and ESG certifications; green, environmentally friendly foodpackaging.
However, the development of ESG for Vietnamese businesses isfacing many difficulties. Therefore, relevant authorities need to develop toolsto support businesses in inventorying greenhouse gases and publishing reportsas well as have solutions to optimise transportation processes and manage supplychains in a sustainable way through carbon and ESG certifications.
Moreover, responsible agencies should promote the development of agreen and environmentally friendly food packaging manufacturing industry./.