Around 86 percent of large companies worldwide now disclose sustainability information, and assets tied to ESG mandates are projected to reach 35 trillion USD [1]. So what is ESG, and why has it moved from a niche concern to a board-level priority? ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance, the three dimensions used to assess how a company manages its impact on the planet, its relationships with people, and the way it is run. Once treated as a reputational add-on, ESG has become a measurable discipline shaped by investors, regulators and customers. This article explains what ESG means for businesses, why it matters, how the reporting rules work, and what it looks like in practice for the audiovisual and live events sector.
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What ESG means: the three pillars
ESG is a framework for evaluating a company beyond its financial results, across three connected pillars. The environmental pillar covers a company’s impact on nature: greenhouse gas emissions, energy and water use, waste, pollution and biodiversity. The social pillar looks at how the organisation treats people: employees, suppliers, customers and the communities it operates in, including working conditions, diversity, health and safety, and human rights across the value chain. The governance pillar examines how the company is directed and controlled: board structure, executive pay, business ethics, transparency and how risks, including sustainability risks, are managed.
The three pillars are interdependent. Strong governance is what turns environmental and social ambitions into measurable action, which is why regulators increasingly treat sustainability as a governance obligation rather than a marketing exercise [2]. For most companies, the environmental pillar is where measurement begins, because emissions can be quantified precisely. Organisations that map their footprint with an automated carbon reporting tool gain the reliable data that underpins credible reporting across all three dimensions.
| Pillar | What it covers | Typical metrics |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental | Impact on the natural world | Carbon emissions, energy, water, waste, biodiversity |
| Social | Relationships with people | Working conditions, diversity, health and safety, human rights |
| Governance | How the company is run | Board oversight, ethics, pay, transparency, risk management |
Why ESG matters for businesses
ESG has become material to how companies raise capital, win contracts and manage risk. Global assets under management in ESG-related funds stand at roughly 41 trillion USD, a steep rise over the past decade [4]. A large majority of asset managers, around 85 percent, treat ESG as a high priority, even as many, close to 64 percent, worry about a lack of transparency and consistent disclosure from the companies they assess [4]. That tension is precisely why credible, comparable ESG data now carries real financial weight.
The business case rests on several drivers. Investors screen for ESG risk because poor environmental or governance practices can translate into stranded assets, fines and reputational damage. Large customers increasingly require sustainability data from suppliers, so ESG performance can decide whether a company stays in a supply chain. Talent and consumers factor a company’s values into their choices. And regulators have turned voluntary disclosure into a legal obligation for many firms [2]. At the same time, the landscape is not uniform: in some markets, political and legal pushback has made ESG a contested term, which makes rigorous, defensible measurement more important than broad claims [3].
ESG reporting: CSRD, ESRS and the move to assurance
The most significant shift in ESG is the move from voluntary, fragmented reporting toward regulated disclosure with the rigour of financial accounting. In the European Union, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive requires in-scope companies to publish standardised, independently assured sustainability data alongside their financial statements, using the European Sustainability Reporting Standards [2]. This converts ESG from a communications task into a governance and assurance obligation overseen at board level [1].
Scope has been a moving target. A recent Omnibus reform refocused the CSRD on the largest companies, broadly those above 1,000 employees, to concentrate obligations on the organisations with the biggest impacts [2]. Even where a company falls outside the direct scope, it often still faces ESG data requests from larger clients and lenders, which pushes reporting expectations down the value chain. Beyond Europe, a patchwork of frameworks and standards means multinational companies must reconcile several regimes at once [1]. The common thread is that assured, auditable data is now the baseline, and that starts with measurement. Companies frequently pair reporting with expert sustainability support and a clear roadmap so disclosure reflects genuine performance rather than aspiration.
ESG in audiovisual production and live events
The audiovisual and live events sector illustrates how ESG applies concretely, because its impacts are large, visible and increasingly scrutinised. The industry spans film and television production, live events and concerts, streaming and gaming, and each sub-sector carries a significant footprint, from data-centre energy for streaming to waste at large-scale events [6]. A single blockbuster production can generate more than 3,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, and a major music festival can produce emissions comparable to those of a small town over the same period [7]. As the CSRD extends its reach, media and entertainment businesses must treat carbon accounting and ESG reporting as core operations rather than optional extras [7].
Film and television productions
On the environmental side, a production accumulates emissions from crew and cast travel, generator fuel, studio energy, set construction and a long supply chain. The social pillar shows up in crew welfare, fair contracting and safe working hours, while governance appears in how a studio sets targets and assures its data. Progress is measurable: among ten major film and television companies analysed, eight cut their scope 1 and scope 2 emissions over a recent two-year window, led by ITV, Netflix and Paramount [8]. Producers can keep the underlying operational data clean with a dedicated crew scheduling platform, while emissions are captured through GreenPro.
Live events and festivals
Events concentrate impacts in on-site power, audience and crew mobility, local sourcing, waste and overnight stays, with social and governance dimensions in supplier practices and community relations. Because each edition differs, ESG data should be gathered at the event level rather than estimated from an average, so claims stay defensible. TheGreenshot documents comparable work with major productions and events in its client case studies.
GreenPro, the carbon tracking tool from TheGreenshot, automates data collection for productions and events, producing reports aligned with Albert, CSRD and the GHG Protocol without manual entry. It turns scattered operational records into the assured, auditable figures that ESG reporting now demands. Learn more about GreenPro.
Conclusion
Understanding what ESG means is now essential for any business, because the framework has shifted from a voluntary label to a measured, assured discipline. The three pillars, environmental, social and governance, give investors, regulators and customers a structured way to judge how a company manages its impact and its risks. The direction of travel is clear: more standardised reporting, stronger assurance, and rising demand for comparable data even from companies outside the direct scope of regulation. In a landscape where ESG is both financially material and, in places, politically contested, the organisations that thrive will be those that ground their ESG strategy in accurate measurement and transparent governance rather than broad claims, turning sustainability from a reporting burden into a source of resilience and trust.
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Going further with TheGreenshot
Whatever the scope of an ESG programme, its credibility rests on the environmental data underneath it, and this is where GreenPro supports creative industries. The platform reads invoices, receipts, purchase orders and call sheets through OCR and AI, converts each line into CO2 values, and generates reports aligned with recognised methodologies such as the GHG Protocol and CSRD. That gives a production or a company the assured baseline that ESG reporting increasingly requires. Combined with a tailored green strategy, it helps teams move from broad ambition to concrete, auditable action, and to identify where reductions will matter most before the next reporting cycle begins.
Our carbon experts help production studios frame strategy, train teams and track results, tailored to operational constraints.
