ESG Practices
皇家华人 the Environmental, Social, and Governance Department (ESG)
Why Do It and What is It?
In alignment with our mission, The Wright Center has committed to environmental justice and resilience, social equity, and strict operation standards.聽
The Wright Centers for Community 皇家华人, 皇家华人 Medical Education, and Patient & Community Engagement鈥檚 mission is to improve the health of our local communities and our shared moral purpose is to intentionally support climate resilience and equity in health opportunities while promoting a happy and healthy work organization.
In further pursuit of improving community health and welfare, The Wright Center has made an enterprise-wide commitment to support community programs that benefit those most in need by developing and implementing an internal ESG platform.
The implementation of ESG represents an opportunity to advance internal and regional public knowledge of important ESG issues that affect all operations. These issues rise to the forefront of questions about sustainable and effective growth as an enterprise, especially as climate-related trauma increases and social drivers of health still affect the health of the enterprise and its constituents. An ESG program encompasses all areas of an enterprise, so it is conscious of the interconnectedness, leading to whole, effective, measurable improvements.
Despite ESG鈥檚 beginning in the for-profit sector as a powerful tool to guide investing, as a nonprofit organization and steward of public funds, The Wright Center鈥檚 transparency in ESG reporting and initiatives enhances accountability to our patients and families, learners, staff, governing boards, government agencies, and stakeholders in The Wright Center鈥檚 皇家华人 Medical Education Safety-Net Consortium model. The thrive-ability of the enterprise goes beyond the immediate shared mission because a disciplined, intentional commitment creates awareness and understanding about managing the adherence to ESG through a tailored strategy and plan.
Environmental
Our contributions to climate change must be reduced. 皇家华人 care professionals are in a unique position to do so because the patient-facing side allows us to not only enhance internal operations but also help those affected by changes in their lived environment. This, in turn, helps to better patients’ overall health and living conditions. Alongside soon-to-be-set targets, The Wright Center is working to meet and exceed goals in these two spheres.
Social
We must continue to expand care avenues and lower access boundaries, which are key to achieving our mission of improving the health and welfare of our communities. The other half of our main mission, employing those privileged to serve, means that we must promote a work environment that works and is equitable for all. Building out the programming that allows us to further our mission will enhance the feeling of pride in work across the enterprise.
Governance
Transparency and accountability are key factors for any public-serving organization, especially one tasked with keeping people safe and healthy. Public health and safety require strict operating standards outside of Environmental and Social to ensure those other two sectors remain in the best interest of all stakeholders. Governance dictates ESG鈥檚 implementation and drives integrity evaluations in other departments. To be certain all operations proceed seamlessly, metrics related to board involvement and makeup, in addition to compliance and safety measures, must be evaluated continuously to keep The Wright Center accountable. This includes ESG鈥檚 initial build.
Work Thus Far
ESG鈥檚 Strategic Plan represents The Wright Center鈥檚 first steps into the implementation of ESG policies throughout the enterprise. Through its soon-to-be officiation, TWC will have accepted additional responsibility regarding the promotion of being a moral corporate citizen. The strategic plan and associated materials are extensive documents that outline ESG鈥檚 look over its inaugural years. It begins with the collection of metrics and projects that guide each other to eventual reporting in an annual report, an opportunity for TWC to understand ESG status. In that way, the strategic plan is a means to an end – it sets up a reporting machine that looks to constantly improve itself. For a new initiative, ESG represented a looming learning curve. However, through steady work, the familiarization process proceeded smoothly, guided by the exploration of best practices through existing ESG framework exploration, outreach, and various other learning opportunities, resulting in a plan.
ESG Newsletters
The success of ESG depends on wide-scale acceptance and buy-in. ESG promotes principles shared between the organization and the workforce, so the connection through education must be built. ESG newsletters offer a tool to begin the buy-in mission, allowing for a space for exploration and engagement of ESG through the answering of questions and the beginning of conversations. Simply, ESG lacks awareness. Answering the questions 鈥淲hy should I care?,鈥 鈥淗ow does this connect?,鈥 and 鈥淲hat can I do?鈥 allows for the building of the program that it needs to be a success. Newsletters are that initial engagement.
Climate Resilience Planning
The Wright Center understands our role during a climate-related event. As a health center, we must stay open and continue to provide comprehensive, whole-person primary health services in addition to raising awareness of health risks associated with climate events. Events can range from poor air quality to cold weather to drastic flooding, but that message stays the same: TWC is committed to community safety and education. Presently, we are in the midst of answering the 鈥渉ow鈥 of this commitment. The hazardous weather alert system is one such example, with more projects on the way.
TWC can prepare as much as possible, but proper preparation requires community input. Knowing where best to focus resources and time will create the strongest capacity to respond swiftly and effectively to any climate event. If you have any ideas to best prepare, please do not hesitate to contact slaterj@TheWrightCenter.org.
Hazardous Weather Alerts
The enterprise will soon be offering alerts for the following hazardous weather conditions: heat, cold, bad air quality, and flooding. Click here to learn more about each individual weather condition.
Sustainability Action Plan
In the environmental space of ESG, our internal social responsibility compels us to address climate change within our own operations in addition to outward-facing work. We work with several outside agencies and people to help promote broader ESG awareness as well as accomplishing internal goals.
One example is our Sustainability Action Plan. ESG staff have worked to make contact with Rachel Huxhold, an outside student consultant working on a project for her Master鈥檚 capstone project through Harvard Extension School. At the conclusion of this work, The Wright Center will be presented with a report to address any climate footprint-intensive operations. Click here to read more about Rachel Huxhold.
Outreach
For information about the ESG program, please contact John Slater, ESG specialist, at slaterj@TheWrightCenter.org.
