Speaking at the conference ‘Green standards for businesses in the food industry’ which was today organized by the Investment & Trade Promotion Center of Ho Chi Minh City (ITPC), Mr. Pham Phu Lu, Director of ITPC, said that ESG standing for environmental- social - governance is a framework used to assess an organization's business practices and performance on various sustainability and ethical issues. ESG is the key to strong and long-term development in all fields. However, this set of ESG standards is still quite new to the Vietnamese business community.
According to Mr. Lu, in reality, many Vietnamese businesses have made changes in their management thinking on sustainable development and included ESG in their business strategies. Small and medium-sized Vietnamese enterprises operating in the field of consumer goods production such as food and beverage are gradually implementing sustainable development such as producing environmentally friendly products.
Moreover, they have been paying attention to local economic development, and community support activities and especially focusing on producing green products and products labeled green by reputable domestic organizations.
In particular, green products are products that meet 4 criteria. The first criterium is that products are made from environmentally friendly materials; secondly, products provide safe solutions for the environment and health to replace toxic products; thirdly, products reduce environmental impact during use (less waste, use of renewable energy, low maintenance costs); finally, products create a friendly and safe environment for health.
However, the development of ESG for Vietnamese businesses is facing many difficulties. Therefore, relevant authorities need to develop tools to support businesses in inventorying greenhouse gases and publishing reports as well as have solutions to optimize transportation processes and manage supply chains in a sustainable way through carbon and ESG certifications. Moreover, responsible agencies should promote the development of a green and environmentally friendly food packaging manufacturing industry.
