All Things Sustainable

Heading into the 2021 proxy season, investors are increasingly focused on equity issues, climate change, and the broader role of companies in society. Shareholders filed at least 435 ESG-related shareholder proposals for the 2021 proxy season, according to the respected Proxy Preview report.

In this episode, we explore three emerging shareholder proposals. One asks companies to give investors a "Say on climate," a variation on "Say on pay" resolutions that gained traction after the 2008 financial crisis. To learn more, we talk with Chris Hohn, a British billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist behind the "Say on climate" resolution. We also hear from Tejal Patel, corporate governance director at CtW Investment Group, which is behind a resolution asking companies to perform racial equity audits. "Even the most well-meaning board might be missing certain ways that their policies affect communities of color," Tejal says. Financial institutions, in particular, need to look for those blind spots "because they play such a critical role in our economy and in our society." And we look at a proposal that asks companies to become "public benefit corporations" to further advance stakeholder capitalism. Stakeholder capitalism posits that companies are responsible for their role in society in addition to making money for shareholders, and the idea has gained traction in recent years.

To read S&P Global's 2021 proxy report, click here.

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Last week, State Street Global Advisors released its annual asset stewardship report. With nearly $3.5 trillion in assets under management, the firm is one of the world's largest asset managers. In 2020, it voted in more than 19,000 meetings and engaged with over 2,400 companies.

In this episode, we hear from Ben Colton and Rob Walker, co-heads of the firm's asset stewardship program. They tell us about the themes the firm focused on in shareholder engagements in 2020, like COVID-19 response, supply chain resilience and racial and gender diversity. And they say that last one is poised for rapid change.

"I believe that in the next six to 12 months, you're going to see a revolution in the quality and the quantity of data related not only to racial and ethnic diversity, but human capital management more broadly," Ben says.

They also talk about the emerging themes they're engaging on in 2021 proxy season. The Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, or TCFD, has become widely adopted. Now, Ben and Rob say investors are shifting their focus from baseline climate disclosures to the governance of environmental issues.

State Street Global Advisors' latest asset stewardship report can be found here: https://www.ssga.com/library-content/pdfs/asset-stewardship/asset-stewardship-report-2020.pdf

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World Water Day was March 22nd, and we're marking the occasion by looking at the looming threat of water scarcity and the lack of investor appetite for financing water-related projects.

According to the United Nations, 2.2 billion people globally lack safely managed drinking water, and 4.2 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation. The U.N. also warns that water scarcity could displace 700 million people by 2030. Access to clean water has become even more vital with COVID-19, which created a worldwide need for constant hand-washing.

Water management is a risk for companies, too. S&P Global Trucost data shows that more than half of companies' water usage comes from supply chains, so even companies operating in water-abundant regions can be affected by scarcity given the global nature of suppliers.

In this episode, we hear from Will Sarni, founder and CEO of water consultancy Water Foundry. Will says the world struggles to value water, which makes it difficult to secure capital investments in water technologies and solutions.

To learn about some of the solutions that do exist, we talk to Emilio Tenuta, Chief Sustainability Officer at Ecolab, a provider of water and hygiene solutions.

"We're seeing that disruptions and challenges to our water resources from climate change can have significant operational risk to businesses," Emilio says. "It really impacts businesses and communities, whether it be operational costs for business, supply chain disruptions, growing constraints related to reputation and brand. Clearly, there's a growing concern for ESG investors who are investing in companies facing these challenges."

Ecolab just released an enhanced version of the Smart Water Navigator, a free, publicly available online tool that helps companies manage water risk using S&P Global Trucost data. Read a white paper co-authored by Ecolab and S&P Global Trucost on the topic of corporate water management here: https://ecolab.widen.net/s/8mlk7dwnsp/smart-water-navigator-working-paper

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New sustainable finance disclosure regulations came into force in Europe on March 10 as part of the EU's push towards making the economy greener. The new Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, or SFDR, is expected to drastically change the scope of sustainable investing by providing greater clarity and transparency and increasing disclosure.

Fund managers will now have to disclose environmental, social and governance risks in their portfolios, marking the first step in a vast EU plan to drive capital to meet sustainable goals.

In the episode we talk to Nathan Fabian, Chairperson of the European Platform on Sustainable Finance and Chief Responsible Investment Officer at the Principles for Responsible Investment, or PRI, a United Nations-backed network of investors. He heads up the platform, a group of experts from industry, finance and civil society who advise the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, on the future of sustainable finance policy in Europe. Listen to a previous episode of ESG Insider to learn more about Europe's new green taxonomy for sustainable activities. another ESG push by the EU: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/banks-big-green-eu-taxonomy-challenge/id1475521006?i=1000511776202

Investors, customers and employees are paying increasing attention to corporate diversity. That was true for gender in the wake of the #MeToo movement, and it has been increasingly true of race following the death of George Floyd in the U.S.

But data is lacking, especially around racial and ethnic diversity. In this episode, we explore a first-of-its-kind diversity report that provides a much-needed window into corporate diversity. This new report is the result of an Illinois law that requires public companies headquartered in the state to report on the gender, racial and ethnic representation among corporate leaders and boards of directors.

In March 2021, the University of Illinois used the disclosures from this law to publish the first report card evaluating how companies are faring on diversity. You can access the report here.

We interview Illinois Speaker of the House Chris Welch, who sponsored the diversity law. He called the report "a goldmine of data."

Speaker Welch said this data will help drive informed decisions. It will also put companies on public notice.

"These companies spend a whole lot of money on their brands," he said. "Having this information out there, companies know that they can be publicly shamed. It shows where their values are, and their customers are paying attention."

You can listen to our previous interview with Speaker Welch, from October 2020, here.

Investors and banks have less than a year to comply with the European Union's new taxonomy for sustainable activities. In this episode, we explore the challenges financial institutions face in applying the taxonomy to their portfolios — something the Biden administration is sure to be watching as it tackles its own climate goals.

Starting in January 2022 investors must explain how they use the taxonomy to assess the sustainability of their investments. They will also have to disclose what percentage of their investments are in line with the taxonomy. The new regulation is expected to radically change how investors and companies report on their environmental performance.

We hear from Daniel Bouzas, a policy adviser at the European Banking Federation. We also talk to Hans Biemans, head of sustainable markets at Dutch bank ING Group, which took part in a recent study on how banks can apply the taxonomy to their lending. Photo credit: Getty Images

Investor pressure is growing for companies and financial institutions to assess and disclose their exposure to climate risks such as wildfires, sea-level rise, hurricanes and other extreme weather events. But in a new report, a handful of climate scientists in Australia warn that many existing climate models are extremely nuanced and were not designed with a business-specific application in mind. In this episode of the ESG Insider podcast, we explore the challenges of using climate models in physical risk assessments. We speak with two authors of the report: Tanya Fiedler, who is a lecturer in the discipline of accounting at the University of Sydney, and Andy Pitman, a professor at the University of South Wales.

We also talk with Steve Bullock, Global Head of ESG Product Innovation and Analytics at S&P Global Trucost. Trucost assesses risks relating to climate change and natural resource constraints with aim of translating those climate models and other data into information companies can use. Steve says financial market participants need some insight into the magnitude of these risks so that they can begin to take action.

"Given the urgent need for action, having a blurry photograph of risk exposure is certainly better than having no visibility at all," Steve tells us.

Over the last year, 30 of the world's richest countries have poured an unprecedented $14.9 trillion into stimulus spending to help revive their pandemic-hit economies. Some hoped that this massive wave of spending would turbo-charge investment in greener industries, such as electric cars, efficient buildings and renewable energy. But has that actually happened?

In this episode of the ESG Insider podcast, we take a closer look at how much global stimulus spending has gone to fighting climate change or protecting the environment. The upshot, according to new research, is that stimulus measures are continuing to have a net negative impact on the environment, mainly because so much of spending is directed at more carbon intensive-industries such as transportation, agriculture and energy. Just 12% of overall stimulus spending is directed at the green economy.

We talk to Jason Eis, executive director of Vivid Economics, a British research firm. Eis says there are signs that the "greenness" of stimulus spending is slowly improving, thanks in part to President Biden's plans to invest in a greener recovery.

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BlackRock CEO Larry Fink made waves in the ESG world last month by pushing companies to plan for a net-zero emissions future. His annual letter also committed to taking more concrete steps within BlackRock to enable the decarbonization transition.

In this episode of the ESG Insider podcast, we dive into BlackRock's own net-zero strategy. We talk to experts about what it means and how much further the world's largest asset manager still needs to go. Fink has acknowledged that BlackRock has a carbon-intensive portfolio and is moving to change that.

We'll hear from Kirsten Spalding, who leads the Investor Network at the sustainability-focused group Ceres. And we'll also hear from Moira Birss, who is Climate & Finance Director at Amazon Watch. Her group is part of a network of NGOs and finance advocates that are pressing asset managers like BlackRock to align their business practices with a climate-safe world.

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Stakeholder capitalism — the idea that companies are responsible for their role in society in addition to making money for shareholders — has taken on new meaning thanks to COVID-19. It was the buzzword among major players in the ESG world like BlackRock CEO Larry Fink as well as heads of government at the Davos summit last week.

In this episode of the ESG Insider podcast, we dive into stakeholder capitalism — what it means and what people were saying at the World Economic Forum's annual Davos gathering, which was virtual this year.

You'll also hear an interview with the World Economic Forum's Project Lead for ESG, Emily Bayley. She describes the story behind a set of new stakeholder capitalism metrics that more than 60 major companies just agreed to use in their mainstream reporting, such as annual reports and proxy statements.