While ESG has climbed to board-level importance, Kurt Neilsen warns that applying it too broadly across supply chains is unrealistic—and potentially ineffective.

Speaking from his experience at Aegon UK, he emphasizes the need for a more strategic, risk-based approach: prioritize environmental and social metrics for the suppliers that truly move the needle. For the rest, a blanket policy may just waste resources without driving meaningful impact.

Neilsen also issues a cautionary note about climate risk: it's not just about net-zero pledges.

Third-party exposure to extreme weather events—like floods hitting data centers—can have very real operational fallout. Yet most firms are only beginning to gather this data. And looming behind it all is a deeper uncertainty: with ESG increasingly politicized, particularly between the US and Europe, the entire framework could shift overnight with a change in government. In that context, ESG isn't just an ethical commitment—it's a strategic gamble.