European Business Magazine talks to
Esha Mansingh
European Business Magazine talks to Esha Mansingh, our front cover feature and winner of most influential woman in Africa 2022 from our readers. Esha serves on the Executive Committee of Imperial Logistics (Imperial) as the Group Executive responsible for corporate affairs, ESG and sustainability, internal & stakeholder communications, brand, sponsorships and investor relations. You’re currently the only woman serving on Imperial Logistics’ executive committee responsible for the key stakeholders’ sustainability, communications and integrated reporting. Can you tell us and the readers how you integrate sustainable practices and ESG principles into Imperial strategies, and how you think that can be adapted towards a more inclusive and sustainable world? First of all, any business operating in today’s world is no longer just about making money and the profit component. Successful businesses today have to focus equally on their people who make the business and then on being a responsible corporate citizen but also equally giving back to our planet where we source our scarce resources and emit pollution. Based on that premise, environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices are no longer just a nice to have in any business strategy. Imperial has followed this route where we elevated ESG, which was previously just an element of sustainability that was done in bits and pieces across the group, to become a focused pillar of the group strategy. The moment you encompass ESG practices into the business strategy, it automatically puts focus on those elements up front and top of mind for our entire management team and our people. What’s important is also when you think about ESG, it’s about many considerations, but most importantly, in our African geographical context, it’s about localisation and our clients’ expectations. When you’re deciding what strategies to focus on from an ESG perspective, it has to be co-created because it can’t be a top down 54 europeanbusinessmagazine.com
