ESG

American

abbreviation

environmental, social, and governance: a strategic framework for measuring a company's impact on the environment, relationships with the people and companies it is connected to, and management practices.

The remaining question is whether ESG can be implemented without negatively impacting profit.
Financial regulators have been promoting green finance and ESG investing.

Etymology

Origin of ESG

First recorded in 2005–10

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He argued that cryptocurrencies should be regulated as securities and tried to require companies to do more reporting around ESG, or environmental, social, and governance issues.

From Barron's • Apr. 18, 2026

Support for ESG resolutions by asset managers, voting the shares of their investors, has dropped from 46% in 2021 to 18% in 2025.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 16, 2026

Greater transparency and clarity are urgently needed to disinfect the greenwashing fraud of many ESG initiatives.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 16, 2026

DEI, ESG, and climate change, perennial mainstays of previous meetings, were almost completely absent from the agenda.

From Barron's • Jan. 23, 2026

In the middle of campus, halfway between Heart and ESG, there’s a flagpole with a big circular driveway around it.

From "Sparrow" by Sarah Moon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023