The pressure to green up supply chains continues to increase - and now it is joined by heightened pressure to improve profits.No longer can companies invest in sustainability without giving heavy consideration to its impact on the bottom line.Most businesses are unsure how to achieve this. And, unfortunately there are more examples of failures than successes. It almost seems that companies have to choose between being profitable and being sustainable. “The first thing you need to do is then go through each of the ESG headings and define what your biggest vulnerabilities are. Figure out where you are really falling down.” - Christopher Caldwell, founder, United Renewables “The first question that needs to be asked on any sustainability journey is “Why are you doing it? What is your real purpose?” said Christopher Caldwell, a former investment banker and corporate lawyer and founder of United Renewables, a renewable energy developer and clean tech investor. Mr. Caldwell has leveraged his business experience to help companies sort out the overwhelming amount of noise around sustainability and find solutions that are practical and actionable.One of the ways that's the most common is being a purpose driven ESG company. ESG is being used as a kind of byword for sustainability, according to Mr. Caldwell. He points out that all that ESG is comes down to being a series of things to look out for. It's environmental. It's societal. And it’s about governance. Those are the core areas that a company wants to somehow make a positive impact on.“The part about being societal also goes for your employees, your customers, people down your supply chain, human rights and all things related to people,” said Mr. Caldwell.Governance is about how you run your business. It comes down to accountability practices. One of the biggest mistakes companies make is making big promises without having figured out what they are going to do - or how they are going to do it. Building a Frame for ESG GoalsSometimes the hardest part about getting started is getting started.Many companies don’t know where to begin when tackling ESG so they simply put it to one side and plan to get to it ‘later.’ To get going on this, companies are advised to start small and keep it simple.“First off, ask the question of what your purpose is. What difference can you make in the world? Try to pull out what makes your company special and why you exist,” said Mr. Caldwell.“The first thing you need to do is then go through each of the ESG headings and define what your biggest vulnerabilities are. Figure out where you are really falling down. If you are polluting, or if you are using child labor in your supply chain, or if you're doing something that is absolutely egregious, you need to solve that as the very first thing. After that, go back to your purpose and see what your main goal and mission is? And once you have figured that out, see what are the one or two things you can really focus on. Then really double down on that and make that as your big mission statement. Once you figure out what defines your strengths and where you can excel, then you need to work on embedding it. The biggest mistake that people make is they come out and they talk about it as a marketing exercise. And then they start to talk big and make big promises without having figured out exactly what they want to do,” he added.Measuring GoalsYou also need to figure out how to measure your goals. It’s essential to figure out how to track your progress before you start telling the world about your mission or goals. Companies need to figure out their long term goals and break them down into steps in a path towards those goals. This enables them to track their progress, as well as celebrate achieving smaller goals along the way.“Too many companies go out there and talk big with no kind of road map behind it. They get called out for not making any progress towards these goals. And at the same time employees don't think don't think the company is sincere, and neither do the regulators,” said Mr. Caldwell.“Now the Financial Times have started tracking what companies’ leadership are saying and matching that against what they're actually performing on. So you can't get away with greenwashing.”“People will be very patient with you and very understanding as long as they see you’re making some progress towards your stated goals. But they will have no patience if you make some big statement like you're going to decarbonize in 10 years and they don’t hear any updates about your progress. That simply will not work. You need to have a series of short term targets and then report back against them. People can believe in that,” he added.Employees Can Show You the WayIf part of meeting ESG targets involves employees then including them in creating goals makes a lot of sense.“Find out what gets them out of bed in the morning. You want your employees to be bringing creativity to work. You want your employees to bring collaboration to work. You want employees to bring their best selves to work,” said Mr. Caldwell.According to a survey from McKinsey & Co, only 15% of employees outside of the C-suite say that they find their work meaningful.Just being able to shift that percentage so that more of your employees find purpose in their work would be an ESG goal that benefits employees, the company - and hits a ‘societal’ target.Building Greater Valuations Through ESGWhile most companies would like to meet ESG targets, often the pressure to drive profits gets in the way.Most companies view ESG as just one more expense. However it has become a shorter term expense that can pay off with big rewards in the longer term.It could be finding problems in your supply chain that you could get called out and risk paying fines or damaging your reputation. Or it could be creating more productive processes that reduce waste. Or building better relationships with your employees.These initiatives don’t always show an immediate payoff, but long term they lead to a more stable and profitable business. “Happy employees, happy regulators, happy suppliers, happy customers will generally lead you to long term growth. So I don't think there's any great trade off between purpose and profits,” said Mr. Caldwell.