Henry Pomerance

4/14/20

Senior Project 2020

Business and Marketing

Critical Reflection #1: What I Know, What I Don’t

Even when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down normal life, my senior project remained virtually the same. I was still bent on studying the intersection between business and the public good, in particular the environment. I chose my particular question, “How do private sector businesses implement effective ESG strategies?”, as a way to approach my broad interest from a real-world perspective. Although, aside from an economics class and some rudimentary additional study, I was not too familiar with the business world. Yet, I have been able to do helpful research because I know fairly clearly what I still need to learn; this has streamlined the research process significantly.

The acronym “ESG” stands for “Environmental, Social, and Governance”, and it usually applies to corporate decision-making. My essential question specifically asks about private-sector businesses, so my project will primarily be looked at through a microeconomics lens. Additionally, I know that private-sector businesses make decisions first for their own well-being, so they will tend not to act altruistically unless they benefit from that action. Coming into this project, I have an understanding of microeconomics and finance, as well as the ability to make connections between seemingly disparate evidence and research. This will serve me (and has already) as I first do background research, and then when I focus more specifically on ESG. In particular, I still do not have a firm, foundational understanding of the topics and sectors that ESG affects. Finally, I still need to do more research on the role impact investing plays in ESG corporate governance, as at first I believed it made up all ESG decision-making, but I now know that is not true.