When we talk about ESG, Global Business Services often is not the first place people look. Yet GBS holds the data, the processes, and the operational reach that can make ESG more than a corporate promise.

The bigger challenge is not just whether GBS can play a role. It is whether GBS truly understands the potential it holds, and whether it is ready to carry the torch. Like any torch, it comes with risk. If mishandled, it burns. But in the right hands, it lights the path forward for the whole organization.

If GBS chooses to step in, the opportunities are significant:
 • Environment: embedding carbon data into procurement and supply chain reporting, surfacing insights on energy use and travel, and ensuring spend analysis aligns with sustainability targets.
 • Social: enabling visibility on workforce diversity, equity, inclusion and labor practices across markets, while strengthening how companies track and report employee well-being.
 • Governance: providing reliable, consistent, and auditable ESG reporting at scale, increasingly demanded by regulators, rating agencies, and investors.

So what holds GBS back? Legacy perceptions of GBS as a back-office function, lack of ESG awareness, and unclear accountability between corporate functions and service delivery teams. The responsibility can feel too heavy when there is no clarity, support, or empowerment.

Unlocking progress requires deliberate steps:
 1. Awareness: connecting the dots between existing GBS processes and ESG outcomes.
 2. Aspiration: building the ambition within GBS to see ESG not as an add-on but as part of its identity.
 3. Alignment: co-creating ESG data flows and reporting standards with Finance, HR, Procurement, and Legal.
 4. Action: piloting small but visible wins such as sustainability dashboards or supplier diversity trackers that prove GBS impact.

ESG is not only about publishing an annual report. It is about how the business runs every day, and how decisions ripple across stakeholders, communities, and the planet. GBS, by design, enables businesses to run every day.

👉 The question is not whether GBS can drive ESG impact. It is whether GBS is ready to carry the torch, light the way, and show that impact is possible.