Cohosted with:

On April 20, 2023, the ESG Pillar of the Dentons Smart Cities & Connected Communities Think Tank and Keystone Policy Center co-hosted a virtual roundtable entitled “To Speak Or Not To Speak – That Is The Question: How Companies Can Navigate Challenging Social And Political Issues.” Dentons Senior Counsel, Gail A. Lione, moderated the discussion to explore how companies are deciding whether and how to address these issues with a group of industry leaders including Dentons partner and former CEO Mike McNamara; Dentons partner Sam Olens; Sharon Barner, Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer & Corporate Secretary, Cummins Inc.; Paula Gold-Williams, Chair of the Board, Keystone Policy Center and Paul Washington, Executive Director, ESG Center of The Conference Board.

Companies around the globe are facing new pressures in choosing when or whether to take a public position on divisive social and political issues. These cross-currents come from many stakeholders, including investors, consumers, employees, unions, suppliers, regulators and elected officials, to name just a few. Issues discussed range from broad international concerns to highly localized concerns, including the pandemic, war in Ukraine and other global instability, health benefits, political activity, racial justice and equity and other ESG issues.

Panelist Paul Washington noted that in the United States, roughly 78 percent of companies describe today’s environment as politically divided and challenging to navigate, with approximately 42 percent expecting the political climate for companies to become even more divisive in the next few years. This degree of social and political volatility has companies concerned about growing opposition to ESG initiatives from governmental bodies and business customers. Panelists Sharon Barner and Mike McNamara emphasized that company leaders need to understand local, national and global sensitivities in addition to workforce concerns in deciding when, where, and how to speak out about social and political issues without endangering or challenging their operations, which is very difficult to balance. Panelist Paula Gold-Williams stated that it is important for CEOs to inform their boards of directors on the stakeholder landscape is much bigger today than a generation ago, and challenges to statements made publicly are to be expected.

Key open questions from the discussion include how company leaders can prospectively plan and immediately react to the inherent tensions in choosing to lend their voice to public debate.

To listen to the complete discussion, a recording of the webinar is available here:

Introduction

• Christine Scanlan, President and CEO, Keystone Policy Center

Opening remarks

• Paula Gold-Williams, Chair of the Board, Keystone Policy Center

Welcome

• Clint Vince, Chair of the US Energy practice, Co-chair of the Global Energy sector for the US Region, and Co-chair of the Global Smart Cities & Connected Communities Think Tank, Dentons US LLP

Moderator

• Gail Lione, Senior Counsel, Dentons US LLP, Corporate Director and former General Counsel

Speakers

• Samuel Olens, Partner, Public Policy practice, Dentons US LLP
• Paul Washington, Executive Director, ESG Center of The Conference Board
• Sharon Barner, Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer & Corporate Secretary, Cummins, Inc.
• Mike McNamara, Partner and former Chief Executive Officer, Dentons US LLP

Questions

For more information or if you have any questions regarding this series, please contact smart.cities@dentons.com.