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ESG and anti-corruption

The rise of ESG (environmental, social and governance) presents opportunities for the anti-corruption movement. With growing investor interest in ESG incorporating anti-corruption efforts into ESG strategies is crucial. While companies have incentives to adopt ESG, like enhanced reputation and access to capital, challenges exist, such as cost and a lack of standardised frameworks. Despite these hurdles, mandatory reporting frameworks, like the EU's European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), have emerged, requiring specific disclosures on business conduct and anti-corruption measures. Within the ESG framework, corporate corruption has wide-ranging consequences. It is not only a key factor in the "G" (governance) component, but its negative effects also ripple out to affect the "S" (social) and "E" (environmental) dimensions.

28 February 2024
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ESG and anti-corruption

Main points

  • Incentives for using ESG practices in business include better financial performance, capital market advantage, serving investor interests, access to public contracts, improved reputation and trust, and enhanced resource efficiency.
  • Disincentives for businesses implementing ESG practices include short-term costs, lack of standardisation in ESG data and ratings, the risk of greenwashing and associated sanctions, and the potential for profitability through sustainability reporting deficiencies.
  • While there is evidence suggesting that ESG reporting can have a positive impact on anti-corruption behaviour within companies, there are challenges and limitations that need to be addressed for more effective integration of anti-corruption measures within the ESG ecosystem.
  • ESG disclosure landscapes include both voluntary and mandatory practices. This paper highlights some features of mandatory frameworks in the EU (recent ESRS) and the US.
  • The mandatory European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), especially ESRS G1 on Business Conduct includes anti-corruption themes such as prevention and detection of corruption and bribery, lobbying, corporate culture etc.

Cite this publication


Rahman, K. (2024) ESG and anti-corruption. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2024:24)

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About the author

Kaunain Rahman

Kaunain received her Master's in Corruption and Governance from The Centre for the Study of Corruption at the University of Sussex in the UK where her focus area of research was corruption in international business. She works as Research Coordinator at Transparency International (TI), and her main responsibilities lie with the Anti-Corruption Helpdesk.

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All views in this text are the author(s)’, and may differ from the U4 partner agencies’ policies.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

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