Reimagining ESG: A Tetralemma Approach to Multifunctional Sustainability Reporting

ESG frameworks have become a central tool for aligning corporate strategies with sustainability imperatives. Yet, by reducing environmental, social, and governance dimensions to standardised metrics, conventional ESG framework risk obscuring the complex ethical commitments that arise from incommensurable societal subsystems. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, this paper critiques ESG’s tendency to privilege specific function systems – science, politics, and economics – while marginalising others such as religion, art, and education. We further introduce the tetralemma, a concept from Indian logic, to illuminate novel ways of reconciling or transcending the paradoxes inherent in integrating these domains. By combining a multifunctional approach with tetralemma thinking, we demonstrate how organisations can expand their reporting scope beyond narrow ESG categories, foster inclusive stakeholder engagement, and respond more effectively to morally fraught sustainability dilemmas. This integration ultimately reframes ESG as a flexible, context-sensitive practice that embraces societal complexity and offers a holistic route to accountability.