Attendees at the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) Summit 2026 received an unexpected answer to the question of how organisations should embed ESG into their operations: stop calling it ESG.
“You start by not calling it ESG. Reframe it. Nobody gets up in the morning and says, ‘I want to improve my ESG scores.’ But everyone wants to make good decisions at work, right?” said panellist Ahila Ganesan, who is Future LinQ Sdn Bhd founder and managing director.
Speaking at a panel on “ESG & Sustainability Risk: Opportunity or Threat?”, she explained that different functions naturally approach the issue from their own perspectives.
Operations focuses on reducing waste and improving efficiency, finance considers whether capital is being allocated wisely, while human resources is concerned with attracting and retaining talent.
“So these are the kind of conversations you need to have. You can’t keep talking about ESG. At the end of the day, it’s business resilience. ESG is a jargon, and it could be changed into something else tomorrow.
“But everybody understands that resilience is what is promised to a company when it comes to enterprise value,” she said.
The inaugural two-day CRO Summit 2026, organised by Star Media Group, brought together CROs, risk leaders and governance professionals to discuss practical strategies for building resilient and future-ready organisations.
Moderated by KPJ Healthcare Bhd operational risk and business continuity management head Syuqry Sheikh Ismail, the plenary panel on ESG explores how ESG and sustainability considerations influence risk, strategy and long-term business outcomes.
On positioning ESG to command the board’s attention, PLUS Malaysia Bhd chief strategy and sustainability officer Satpal Singh said there are generally two approaches: the carrot and the stick.
“The most effective in Malaysia is the stick approach. If you don’t do this, what happens? If you don’t have ESG in place, you are not going to meet certain stock exchange listing requirements and you are not going to get funding,” he said.
However, the effect of “scaring” board members eventually wears off and what becomes important next is using the ESG lens as a competitive advantage, he said.
Satpal pointed to the correlation between organisations with strong ESG commitments and their financial performances.
For instance, organisations with a diverse board tend to create greater long-term value because they benefit from different perspectives, he said, adding that diversity goes beyond gender to include age, technical expertise and capabilities.
Another example of ESG creating competitive advantage, he said, is a company meeting regulatory requirements and net zero target by using renewable energy, while also realising long-term cost savings through improved energy efficiency.
Ahila, who also sits on the board of Velesto Energy Bhd, a strategic company under Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), said PNB’s voting guidelines allow it to vote against the re-election of the board chair and the sustainability committee chair if sustainability targets are not achieved.
“That’s one way to ‘scare’ board members.
“In fact, a report released by the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change said out of the 11 institutional investors
surveyed in Malaysia, 55% have embedded climate change into the requirements for board overnight,” she said.
While this is below the Asian average of 75%, it still represents a five percentage point increase from last year, Ahila added.
On whether the market rewards ESG performances, fellow panellist Ho Yuet Mee, who is the independent non-executive director of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, said the answer is both yes and no.
“If we are asking whether just because a company won awards for sustainability, it gets a higher share price, the answer is no.
“What the market needs is stable earnings, growing earnings, stable profit and loss, and a strong balance sheet.”
Nonetheless, investors do value the outcomes that ESG delivers, she added.
For instance, when a bank helps clients transition by providing sustainability-linked bonds or social bonds to finance renewable energy infrastructure, it is creating new revenue streams, which the market welcomes.
At the same time, engaging clients on their asset resilience and transition plans to ensure they remain viable over the long term will help them advance while keeping the bank’s credit losses under control, she added.
Quoting Professor Alex Edmans’ book Grow the Pie, Ho said ESG investment expands value rather than redistributing resources from a fixed pie.
Some people may think that when a company invests in ESG, money is taken from other areas, leaving less for everything else, she said.
“Edmans says no. Everybody gets more when we invest in ESG activities because that’s a brand promise, and people like it and they will support.
“It is not profit versus planet or people. We are asked to think about the planet and people as a route to profit, because when we take care of these two components well, our profit will last for a longer term,” she said.
The supporting sponsor of the CRO Summit was Kollect Systems Sdn Bhd. Other strategic partners include the Malaysian Financial Planning Council, the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
