ESG in Action: Discover's Social Impact Goals Make a Difference in Chicago's Chatham Neighborhood

To demonstrate the real-world value of their coursework in the class Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Impact Investing, Lecturers John Oxtoby and Leah Yablonka took a group of Harris students to visit Discover’s Customer Care Center in Chatham. This call center, located in one of Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods, opened two years ago with a focus on providing results for Discover while simultaneously strengthening and empowering the community it joined – a real-life example of investing to make an impact

“Discover’s successful investment in Chatham is a great example of how companies can align their business strategy with positive societal outcomes,” Oxtoby said. “For many companies, bringing an ESG lens to corporate strategy is just good business.”

Juatise Gathings, the Regional Operations Director at the Discover facility and a Chicago native, took the class on a tour of the building to share all the ways in which the center tries to meet their goal of “adding wealth into the community and doing nothing to take wealth out.”

Discover takes its commitment to the local community seriously. About 90% of the employees at the center live within five miles of the building. Daily subsidized lunches provided for employees come from partnerships with 20 local restaurants. Even the construction of the building itself is representative of the community with 76% of contracts going to minority- and women-owned businesses and the job opportunities primarily staying within the neighborhood.  

“Even if we had to contract someone who was not local, we asked them to hire 80% of their laborers within the five-mile radius as well which helps us multiply the impact in the neighborhood,” Gathings said.

The building also includes the Shine Bright Community Center, where community members and organizations can reserve space to hold meetings and host events. The space has become an important place for community members to gather, learn, grow, and come together. From when they opened the space at the beginning of August 2022 to the end of December that year, a span of only five months, they hosted over 200 events for the community including everything from local government staff meetings to small profit galas to ACT/SAT test prep sessions. 

“The fact that they have the results to show people actually are using the space and it's benefiting the community is impressive to see,” Emma Steyaert, MPP Class of 2023, said. “It could’ve gone unused without proper promotion or without acceptance from the neighborhood, but it was done in a way that provides support and necessary resources to the community.”

Oxtoby and Yablonka’s class focuses on the principles and techniques of ESG and impact investing. They hope students in the class will gain an understanding of how strong ESG practices can improve long-term financial performance and, in some cases, contribute to positive social or environmental outcomes.

The Chatham Call Center provides a perfect example, as Gathings reports that it is the highest performing center across the country on certain performance metrics, in addition to creating jobs and wealth in the community.

Harris students took full advantage of the opportunity to see how social impact investing works in the city of Chicago, speaking with industry experts such as Gathings who oversaw the creation of this center. Part of the draw for many of these students was the chance to have these conversations about the practical application of what they learn in class.

Sarah Bailey, MPP Class of 2023, felt the impact of this class and trip on her consideration of a future career in social impact investing.

“I hope to pursue a career path in this space, especially knowing we live in a world today where we can do good work and be creative about how to invest,” she said.

For Rosalyn Kutsch, MPP/ MBA Class of 2023, the trip to the call center changed her perspective on what ESG could mean in a business setting.

“Oftentimes when you think about ESG, you think it needs to be this sexy social entrepreneurship or a wild crazy innovative initiative,” she said, “but I think this is a really good example of how to invest in the community while doing your normal day-to-day operations.”

The class saw how Discover brought economic and social benefit to the South Side of Chicago while also creating their most successful call center. For those students pursuing careers in ESG related fields, this experience of working with experts and seeing first-hand the benefits of social impact investing provided a new perspective on how to approach this work. 

“It's been really interesting to see how every corporation and every industry can make some kind of social investment like Discover has,” Kutsch said. “You have to be able to put your values first and then have the company and the benefits follow.”