Given the increasing evidence showing health impacts on global prosperity, the time is coming to bring health into an ESG framework focused on outcomes. The positive and negative health impacts of companies can, along with climate impacts, be assessed to encompass 3 key areas: direct impact on employee health, secondary impacts via products and services sold and contribution to the community and societal resilience. With health data plentiful and objectively credible, and at least on a par with climate data, the time is now to incorporate “H” into “ESHG”.

The business and investor community has immense power to drive positive change and impact.

This power can be used to influence the risk factors that can damage your health, like unhealthy food, poor work, pollution, and poor housing, but it can also be used to promote health and wellbeing. System change is needed to focus on health as an asset to invest in, not as a cost in an increasingly unsustainable healthcare system buckling under the burden of poor health driven by growing health inequalities and ageing populations.