{"id":13836,"date":"2025-04-28T01:51:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T06:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/?p=13836"},"modified":"2026-04-17T15:09:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T20:09:26","slug":"what-is-esg-and-why-do-companies-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/2025\/04\/28\/what-is-esg-and-why-do-companies-care\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is ESG and Why Do Companies Care?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you follow business news, you have heard the acronym &#8220;ESG&#8221; being used more and more frequently.\u00a0 It stands for &#8220;environmental, social, and governance,&#8221; three key factors companies use to assess their sustainability and the ethical impact of their operation.\u00a0 But what exactly do the E, S, and G stand for?\u00a0 And why do companies care?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13837 size-large aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/files\/2025\/04\/pexels-markus-winkler-1430818-19891034-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/files\/2025\/04\/pexels-markus-winkler-1430818-19891034-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/files\/2025\/04\/pexels-markus-winkler-1430818-19891034-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/files\/2025\/04\/pexels-markus-winkler-1430818-19891034-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/files\/2025\/04\/pexels-markus-winkler-1430818-19891034-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/files\/2025\/04\/pexels-markus-winkler-1430818-19891034-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I recently co-authored a <a href=\"https:\/\/agecon.ca.uky.edu\/sites\/agecon.ca.uky.edu\/files\/What%20is%20ESG%20and%20Why%20do%20Companies%20Care.pdf\">fact sheet\u00a0<\/a> answering these very questions and more.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/agecon.ca.uky.edu\/sites\/agecon.ca.uky.edu\/files\/What%20is%20ESG%20and%20Why%20do%20Companies%20Care.pdf\">Click here<\/a> to review our fact sheet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you follow business news, you have heard the acronym &#8220;ESG&#8221; being used more and more frequently.\u00a0 It stands for &#8220;environmental, social, and governance,&#8221; three key factors companies use to assess their sustainability and the ethical impact of their operation.\u00a0 But what exactly do the E, S, and G stand for?\u00a0 And why do companies care? I recently co-authored a fact sheet\u00a0 answering these very questions and more.\u00a0 Click here to review our fact sheet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2443,"featured_media":13837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carbon-contracts","category-extension-publications"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Is ESG and Why Do Companies Care? - Texas Agriculture Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/2025\/04\/28\/what-is-esg-and-why-do-companies-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Is ESG and Why Do Companies Care? - Texas Agriculture Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you follow business news, you have heard the acronym &#8220;ESG&#8221; being used more and more frequently.\u00a0 It stands for &#8220;environmental, social, and governance,&#8221; three key factors companies use to assess their sustainability and the ethical impact of their operation.\u00a0 But what exactly do the E, S, and G stand for?\u00a0 And why do companies care? I recently co-authored a fact sheet\u00a0 answering these very questions and more.\u00a0 Click here to review our fact sheet.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/2025\/04\/28\/what-is-esg-and-why-do-companies-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Texas Agriculture Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/texasaglaw\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-28T06:51:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-17T20:09:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/files\/2025\/04\/pexels-markus-winkler-1430818-19891034-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tiffany.dowelllashmet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@tiffdowell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@tiffdowell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tiffany.dowelllashmet\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/agrilife.org\\\/texasaglaw\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/28\\\/what-is-esg-and-why-do-companies-care\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/agrilife.org\\\/texasaglaw\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/28\\\/what-is-esg-and-why-do-companies-care\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"tiffany.dowelllashmet\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/agrilife.org\\\/texasaglaw\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/754aac94b6e8c9d5829c91e8c9ff7626\"},\"headline\":\"What Is ESG and Why Do Companies Care?\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-28T06:51:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-17T20:09:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/agrilife.org\\\/texasaglaw\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/28\\\/what-is-esg-and-why-do-companies-care\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":83,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/agrilife.org\\\/texasaglaw\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/agrilife.org\\\/texasaglaw\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/28\\\/what-is-esg-and-why-do-companies-care\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/agrilife.org\\\/texasaglaw\\\/files\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/pexels-markus-winkler-1430818-19891034-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Carbon Contracts\",\"Extension Publications\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/agrilife.org\\\/texasaglaw\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/28\\\/what-is-esg-and-why-do-companies-care\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/agrilife.org\\\/texasaglaw\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/28\\\/what-is-esg-and-why-do-companies-care\\\/\",\"name\":\"What Is ESG and Why Do Companies Care? 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