The Digital-ESG framework is designed to serve the digital economy. It is not designed to replace the existing ESG framework, but to serve as an extra layer on it.

Although commonly adopted ESG frameworks and standards have advanced the environmental agenda, there have been concerns raised about the following points: 

1) their guidelines are in general risk-focused and downplay the opportunities that can potentially be created by industries; 2) their guidelines along the social and governance dimensions may not be universally applicable due to cultural differences across different regions and cultures, and 3) their guidelines on the disclosure of social and business risks related to the world’s rapid digital transformation remain inadequate.

Digital-ESG aims to compensate for those areas where ESG falls short—especially in managing:

• 1) digital-related risks with greater focuses on the social (S) and governance (G) dimensions and 
• 2) digital-related opportunities through cross-dimensional technologies to enhance environmental sustainability (E). 

Considering that all digital- and technological-related matters are universal in nature, the enhancement of S and G dimensions with digital-related risks add values to the current ESG Framework with less controversial, culture-neutral, and more objective standards for businesses.