Accountability on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Issues

Key words: Government, social, people, environment

Wix site, (2025)

Seeking out the importance of serving people and your society well is critical in a public relations role. Making quick decisions for a company could result in a major crisis communications uproar so being thoughtful in various aspects of a company is critical. 

Social Values 

Adidas got into a crisis when Kanye West, who was a partner of Adidas, made antisemitic remarks. As a company, Adidas made a delayed response a couple of weeks later and announced they were ending the partnership with Ye and are losing hundreds of Millions of dollars because of this. This decision showed that they cared more about finances rather than ethics. 

“Whether Adidas dropping Ye is an example of a company holding steadfast to

its values or simply trying to appease the social media mob and angry stakeholders, driving

forces in today’s business and communications society are strong enough to make a company

embrace ESG over short-term financial gains in favor of superior longer-term performance” (Adidas, n.d)

Fryer, (2025)

A school district made an accounting error which resulted in major budget cuts. Once the public found out about the budget cuts they were in an uproar. The district was reactive, and there ended up being chaotic school board meetings because the district was not being transparent (Tracy, 2007). 

School leaders took an emotional approach by saying things like “We are so devastated by this” rather than fully explaining why the district is where it is (Tracy, 2007). Ultimately delaying transparency, especially when people are asking questions, is not the best PR move. 

Government Responsibility   

The Flint water crisis is a perfect example of government agencies not providing the right information to the public and it backfires. Flint switched where they were getting their water from because it was cheaper and people started to complain of foul smell, discoloration, and health issues over the water (Nowling & Seeger, 2020). 

Flint did not take swift action in this situation but rather they took a sensemaking approach at the risk of the people. They lied to their public to save money because studies showed how leads had been traced in the water (Nowling & Seeger, 2020). 

Ultimately the officials should have been honest from the beginning or this did not have to end in a full-blown scandal. A Flint resident shares years later “Dionna believes that the high amounts of lead in her blood later led to ADHD and dyslexia diagnoses—issues she had not experienced before” (Nelson, 2024). 

Watch this video and see where Flint, MI is at now.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation is a popular breast cancer charity and in 2012 faced a major PR crisis. They cut ties with Planned Parenthood with no clear reason to the public. 

Half of the supporters felt betrayed while conservatives praised the move but Komen was feeling the heat when donors began to cut back (Politics of Pink, n.d.). They decided to re-partner with Planned Parenthood and people felt the damage was already done. 

From a PR perspective, they should have made a clear reasoning as to why they were cutting ties when Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading advocate and provider for sexual and reproductive health care (Planned Parenthood, 2025)

Accountability Is Critcal 

Public relations practitioners constantly have to look at the impact one decision has on an organization. Komen did not consider how impactful their decision to cut ties with Planned Parenthood would be and Flint taking the sensemaking approach led to unhealthy water and angry people. All in all, it is important to reflect on how politics, the environment, and social structures connect back to PR. 

Citations

William D. Nowling & Matthew W. Seeger (2020) Sensemaking and

crisis revisited: the failure of sensemaking during the Flint water crisis, Journal of Applied

Communication Research, 48:2, 270-289,

Our impact in healthcare | planned parenthood. Planned Parenthood. (n.d.). https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/our-impact 

Nelson, B. (2024, May 29). Ten years later, Flint still doesn’t have Clean Water. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/20/ten-years-later-flint-still-doesnt-have-clean-water?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA74G9BhAEEiwA8kNfpVWW2S1bDvE1f-3E9LKwtgessgPlOKlDfD9UesPE2KSY6kw58bZS8BoCeNUQAvD_BwE 

Karen Tracy (2007) The Discourse of Crisis in Public Meetings: Case Study of

a School District's Multimillion Dollar Error, Journal of Applied Communication Research, 35:4,

418-441

NBC News. (2024, April 24). Flint, Michigan residents still fighting for safe water 10 years after crisis. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8LaMa7ZLIQ&t=78s