Getting Practical About ESG: What I Learned from My Recent Course
One of the biggest challenges I’ve found while transitioning into sustainability is not the why, that’s clear to me. It’s the how.
How do companies actually embed sustainability into decision-making?
How do they move beyond vision statements to measurable action?
And how can we, as professionals in this space, contribute to that process?
To explore these questions, I took the course “Sustainability and Corporate ESG | Practical Implementation” in June 2024. It’s a hands-on course that focuses on turning principles into real-world systems — and it offers a helpful, grounded perspective on the operational side of sustainability.
From Frameworks to Action
I’ve always been interested in the big picture, systemic change, long-term thinking, and purpose-driven work. But I know that creating real impact requires more than values. It requires structure.
This course gave me that structure by walking through the building blocks of a corporate ESG strategy:
Materiality assessments to understand what matters to stakeholders and the business
Goal-setting and reporting aligned with international frameworks like the GRI, SASB, and SDGs
Risk management strategies that incorporate climate, labor, ethics, and supply chain issues
And most importantly, how to move from commitments to implementation
We explored how companies navigate challenges, communicate progress transparently, and balance multiple (sometimes competing) priorities, all while being held increasingly accountable by regulators, investors, employees, and the public.
Discover a personal journey bridging Brazil and the Netherlands through sustainability — a story of culture, change, and growth.Read the story
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Why This Learning Matters to Me
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For me, sustainability has always been personal. It’s about fairness, dignity, and resilience. But it’s also about systems, and I’m particularly interested in how companies, as major drivers of our economy and culture, can be part of the solution.
This course helped me connect high-level sustainability goals with practical business tools. It showed me that ESG is not a “nice to have”, it’s a way to future-proof organizations and design operations that are aligned with people and planet.
It also made me think more critically about how sustainability is communicated. A lot of companies today say the right things, but the real question is:
Are their actions measurable, traceable, and built into how they operate every day?
I now feel better equipped to ask the right questions, analyze ESG strategies, and contribute to creating solutions that are credible, actionable, and grounded in reality.
A Few Key Takeaways
Here are just a few reflections I took from this experience:
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. ESG is built on data, and learning to work with sustainability metrics is crucial.
There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. Every organization has different risks, opportunities, and stakeholder expectations. ESG needs to be customized and dynamic.
Implementation takes everyone. Sustainability isn’t the job of one department. It needs leadership from the top and integration across teams.
Looking Ahead
Taking this course reinforced something I believe deeply: sustainability needs systems. And those systems need people who understand both the values and the mechanics behind them.
This is exactly the space I want to be in, where purpose meets process, and where the work is as practical as it is meaningful.
If you’re also navigating this journey or curious about the practical side of ESG, I’m always happy to exchange insights. Let’s keep building a more sustainable future, one step, one system, and one conversation at a time.— Morena
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