In this conceptual paper we argue that changes in the regulatory environment, and particularly the increasing importance of the Environment, Social and Government (ESG) concept, will require businesses to strike a balance between profit, survival and sustainability. The social as well as governance elements central to ESG ensure that this development will have a deceive impact on the HR function. ESG provides a strong incentive for top management to require HR not only to focus on financial performance, but also to make a contribution to sustainable performance. In this regard, policies and practices that over the last decades have emerged from the Sustainable HRM literature are becoming increasingly relevant. We position the enablement of sustainable performance in the context of an ecosystem where stakeholders intertwine, often with different perspectives, to work towards a common good. Importantly, the connection between ESG governance and an HRM ecosystem means that there is no strategic control within a single organization. Therefore, the interplay between individual, often dispersed, and systemic actors become important. This notion of ESG governance within an ecosystem has implications for methodology and specifically the units of analysis that we pay attention to. Finally, these conceptual integrations will enable us to inform policy, as it plays out in the future and continue to link sustainable performance to HRM.
