Monthly Archives: September 2017

Meet Jocelyn Cascio, Intel Corporation @ Demystifying The CSA & DJSI Workshop

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Jocelyn Cascio, Supply Chain Sustainability Senior Manger at Intel Corporation is speaking at Demystifying the Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) & The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI). This practitioner workshop is presented by Governance & Accountability Institute in collaboration RobecoSAM on October 24, 2017 and is being hosted at Baruch College/CUNY in New York City.  Jocelyn will be focusing on assessment questions for supply chain at the workshop.

MEET ONE OF THE SPEAKERS: JOCELYN CASCIO
Supply Chain Sustainability Senior Manager at Intel Corporation
Topic: Workshop 3: Supply Chain

A conversation with Jocelyn:

Q:  What is your involvement and experience at Intel Corporation in completing the RobecoSAM CSA for the DJSI each year? 

For the past 6 years, my team and I have owned completion of the Supply Chain section of the CSA. We analyze, synthesize and consolidate data from various sources and collaborate across internal stakeholders to ensure the most complete story in the application. We also own the SC section in Intel’s CSR Report.

Q:  What can attendees expect to learn from your session on Supply Chain?

  • Insight on how Intel has evolved our Supply Chain Sustainability Program over the past decade and how we’ve integrated Sustainability into our standard supply chain processes.
  • How we’ve leveraged Industry Associations like the EICC to create and proliferate standards and achieve the greatest possible reach across our global Supply Chain.
  • What some of the key focus areas of our program are (e.g., Forced and Bonded Labor, Conflict Minerals, Supplier Diversity) and how we measure them.
  • How our Supplier Capability Building Program supports and enables supplier performance improvement. 

Q:  What advice do you have or opportunity that you see for attendees who are considering attending the program and looking to improve their RobecoSAM CSA responses, and get on the DJSI? 

Build strong relationships internally with others in your company that work on the different programs comprehended in the CSA. Determine an overall lead as well as clear ownership for the various sections to ensure you are able to provide the most complete picture with all relevant data. Have a strong multi-stakeholder sensing process in place to ensure you comprehend the various, ever-changing and increasing priorities (including DJSI); this will enable you to stay ahead of emerging issues and be proactive versus being completely reactive and potentially losing points.

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CAREER BACKGROUND:
Jocelyn Cascio, Supply Chain Sustainability Senior Manager at Intel Corporation

Since 2009, Jocelyn Cascio has been the Supply Chain Sustainability Senior Manager at Intel, working internally and externally to integrate sustainability more deeply into the supply chain, define increased expectations for suppliers and lead capability building efforts.  She has spent her 20 year tenure at Intel in various roles across the Supply Chain, leading business process improvement and change management efforts on a variety of global, cross functional initiatives.  She is a Lean Six Sigma Certified Black Belt with a BA in Organizational Communication from Arizona State University and an MBA from Babson College.  She also holds Leading Organizational Transition and CSCMP Supply Chain Masters certifications.  Jocelyn’s personal passions include competing in equestrian sports as well as marathons and Ironman triathlons.

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For more information about the course and how to register, visit: http://bit.ly/CSAtrain

The aim of this workshop is to increase the participants’ knowledge about the methodology behind the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) and the RobecoSAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) — in this session, specifically on selected criteria including Human Rights, Supply Chain, and Human Capital. A workshop session will also be included on how institutional investors are utilizing data from the CSA and ESG data in their investment decision-making.

Click here for more info and to register.

RobecoSAM and Governance & Accountability Institute expert representatives will contribute to the meeting overall and in particular present content (including analysis and slide decks) that address each of the criterion. Representatives from CSA-responding corporations that are high scorers in the respective CSA criterion will respond and share their perspective and experience in crafting responses to the CSA.

Participants can expect to take away a deeper understanding of:

  • The DJSI 2017 – results and learnings.
  • Effective approaches to assessing established and emerging sustainability topics in the CSA.
  • Rationale, the business case, performance, and results from last year’s assessment, and learn more about major challenges for companies, especially in the CSA Criteria of Human Rights, Human Capital, and Supply Chain.
  • How institutional investors/fiduciaries are utilizing ESG data.

For more information about the course and how to register, visit: http://bit.ly/CSAtrain

Meet Robert Dornau, RobecoSAM @ Demystifying The CSA & DJSI Workshop

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Robert Dornau, Director, Senior Manager Sustainability Services, RobecoSAM is speaking at Demystifying the Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) & The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI). This practitioner workshop is presented by Governance & Accountability Institute in collaboration RobecoSAM on October 24, 2017 and is being hosted at Baruch College/CUNY in New York City.  Robert will be focusing on assessment questions for Human Rights, Human Capital & Supply Chain as well as providing results, and learnings of the DJSI 2017.

MEET ONE OF THE SPEAKERS: ROBERT DORNAU
Director, Senior Manager Sustainability Services, RobecoSAM
Topic: Workshop 1: Human Rights; Workshop 2: Human Capital; Workshop 3: Supply Chain

A conversation with Robert:

Q:  What is your involvement and experience with RobecoSAM’s CSA for the DJSI? 

I am a director in RobecoSAM’s Sustainability Services business. We leverage the unique CSA database and provide benchmarking services to companies. In this role I have looked at the environmental performance of hundreds of CSA participating companies in detail and helped them understand RobecoSAM’s CSA methodology and the rational and scoring methodology for the questions we ask. It is important to know that my department is not involved in the CSA scoring process.

Q:  What can attendees expect to learn from your presentations?

For all of the focus areas in this workshop I will present RobecoSAM’s rational, the approach we expect companies to take when they address these areas, the performance indicators that we measure and our assessment methodology, and the link we see to business value drivers (Risk profile, growth, profitability). I will also present statistical analysis on the results of the 2017 assessment in the focus area. Based on that the areas most companies struggle with will be identified and discussed in more detail.

Q:  What advice do you have or opportunity that you see for attendees who are considering attending the program and looking to improve their RobecoSAM CSA responses, and get on the DJSI? 

The basis to improve your performance in RobecoSAM’s CSA is an improvement of your underlying sustainability performance. This workshop will help you better understand RobecoSAM’s rational and expectations in the focus areas covered. The better you understand the requirements, the more focused your answers to the assessment can be. A better understanding of the CSA approach also helps you find the arguments internally to improve e.g. your companies processes and transparency in certain areas. The value of participating in the CSA goes clearly beyond inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. By definition only a small number of companies can make it into the index. The results of the CSA are also published on Bloomberg, this allows investors to see the full ranking of companies that goes beyond the top 10% included in the index.

CAREER BACKGROUND:
Robert Dornau, Director, Senior Manager Sustainability Services, RobecoSAM, Zurich, Switzerland

Robert joined RobecoSAM’s Sustainability Services Team in February 2014. Before that Robert worked in different roles in climate change and sustainability, including Vice President, Global Head Climate Change Service at technical verification and inspection firm SGS, Deputy to the CEO of the International Emissions Trading Association, Consultant to the World Bank as Conference Director for Carbon Expo. Robert is a regular speaker and chair at workshops, webinars and international conferences. He holds a Master in Economics from the University of Konstanz, Germany and has published articles in peer reviewed journals and contributed chapters to different books on among others carbon markets and climate change regulation.

* * * * * * * *

For more information about the course and how to register, visit: http://bit.ly/CSAtrain

The aim of this workshop is to increase the participants’ knowledge about the methodology behind the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) and the RobecoSAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) — in this session, specifically on selected criteria including Human Rights, Supply Chain, and Human Capital. A workshop session will also be included on how institutional investors are utilizing data from the CSA and ESG data in their investment decision-making.

Click here for more info and to register.

RobecoSAM and Governance & Accountability Institute expert representatives will contribute to the meeting overall and in particular present content (including analysis and slide decks) that address each of the criterion. Representatives from CSA-responding corporations that are high scorers in the respective CSA criterion will respond and share their perspective and experience in crafting responses to the CSA.

Participants can expect to take away a deeper understanding of:

  • The DJSI 2017 – results and learnings.
  • Effective approaches to assessing established and emerging sustainability topics in the CSA.
  • Rationale, the business case, performance, and results from last year’s assessment, and learn more about major challenges for companies, especially in the CSA Criteria of Human Rights, Human Capital, and Supply Chain.
  • How institutional investors/fiduciaries are utilizing ESG data.

For more information about the course and how to register, visit: http://bit.ly/CSAtrain

Sustainable Business Practices Can Impact The Bottom Line, Say This Quartet of Researchers — Lessons Here For Busy Execs

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You can read our Top Story this week first and then you can forward this important commentary to your C-Suite if the execs there have been wondering how corporate sustainability may be impacting a company’s bottom line, in positive ways.

A quartet of experts writing in the Harvard Business Review has responded to the short-term, bottom-line pressures that we hear so much about throughout much of Corporate America.

To develop their case, the authors (three academics and a consultant) looked at Brazil’s giant beef industry, a challenge for studying considering the size and complexity of the industry and its long-term impact on the planet.  (Brazil is the world’s largest beef exporter and second largest consumer market for beef products.)

Key finding:  “sustainable” and “deforestation-free” industry practices created significant financial benefits for all players in the industry value chain. Quantifying this, the authors found net benefits to ranchers ranging from 12% to 23% of revenues.  Sustainable agricultural practices provided the most financial benefits, while the uptake of deforestation-free commitments over time reduced risk to the industry and company components.

Their approach demonstrated (they write) that measuring the value chain of sustainable business can be done and the sustainable business itself can be cost-effective.  Brazil’s beef industry impact on the plant has been intense (with de-forestation and GHG emissions) and there have been significant steps taken to address the issues involved.

One industry participant explained that while there is no price premium for sustainability alone, there is for quality, and the company’s quality immediately increased with the adoption of sustainable practices.  Today, 70% of their beef products are sold with a quality premium, from “zero” two years ago. That resulted in increased revenues and greater customer satisfaction.

While the focus is on the Brazil beef industry (and the value chain from grower through the processor to retail) we think there’s some good material here to help executives understand “the possible” bottom line impacts through sustainable business practices.

The authors are Tensie Whelan of NYU Stern School of Business, Center for Sustainable Business; Bruno Zappa, A. Kearney strategy consultant; Rodrigo Zeidan, of NYU-Shanghai and Fundacao Dom Cabril/Brazil; and Greg  Fishbein at The Nature Conservancy / Collaboration for Forests & Agriculture.

The academic authors worked with AT Kearney to develop the methodology for their case.  The work included research, data analysis and interviews with key players.  Organizations examined included McDonald’s; Carrefour; JBS, Mafrig, Antea Group (all in Brazil); Infalora; Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV); and, The Nature Conservancy.
And, they provided a link to the Excel spreadsheets on which they calculated the numbers for the article (it’s embedded in the post).

Top Stories This Week…

How Do We Measure Sustainability?
(Friday – September 08, 2017)
Source: EWN – Globally, there has been an increase in demand for higher transparency on environmental, social and governance issues.

DJSI Results Announced — Are You In / Out? Attend Our Workshop in Collaboration with RobecoSAM in New York City on October 24th

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Many corporations that endeavor to be sustainable become a bit nervous as we pass Labor Day in the USA.  The rebalancing of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes is traditionally announced at that time.  Is my company in?  Out?  Increasingly, CEOs and other C-suite execs and board members (as well as numerous managers) are holding “membership” in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices in very high regard.

On September 7, 2017, the results were announced in Switzerland by RobecoSAM (the creators and managers of the DJSI) and S&P Dow Jones Indices (owners of the intellectual property and one of the world’s leading index providers).

Among the many new companies added to the Indices, three were announced in the official press release, Samsung Electronics, Ltd; BAT (British American Tobacco plc); and, ASML Holding NV.  And among the many unfortunate companies dropped from the index, the three mentioned in the release included Enbridge Inc; Reckitt Benckiser Group plc; and, Rio Tinto plc.

The DJSI were launched in 1999, and over time became the “gold standard” for corporate sustainability indexes.

Every year select corporations are invited to respond the company’s Corporate Sustainability Assessment (“CSA”) — a rigorous, rules-based online process for company managements’ response efforts. There are about 600 data points per company that is organized into one overall score. Certain criterion (topic sub-sections of the CSA) are added for specific sectors based on materiality, and each sector has different scoring weights applied to the various criterion based on how material they are to the sector.  (Note that the G&A Institute team assists client organizations in their response efforts each year.)

This year, the CSA assessed “Policy Influence” for the first time — assessing public companies’ lobbying activities.  And the Impact Measurement & Valuation Criteria were expanded to just about all industries. RobecoSAM sees Policy influence as a material issue for investors, especially in such countries as those where the revenues of public companies may exceed the GDP of that country.

RobecoSAM acknowledges that companies are aware of the need to “understand environmental and social profits and losses, but less than 10% have a viable valuation approach in place to provide detailed insights into potential E and S financial impacts.”

Top Stories This Week…

How Do We Measure Sustainability?
(Friday – September 08, 2017)
Source: EWN – Globally, there has been an increase in demand for higher transparency on environmental, social and governance issues.

A special all-day workshop is being offered to corporate managers, presented by G&A Institute in collaboration with RobecoSAM in New York City on Tuesday, October 24th at Baruch College/CUNY:

Demystifying The Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) & The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI)
Focused on Assessment Questions for
Human Rights, Human Capital & Supply Chain
Click here for more information and to register.

Highlights of the Workshop:  The aim of this workshop is to increase the participants’ knowledge and obtain advice on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) and the RobecoSAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) — in this session, specifically on selected criteria including Human Rights, Supply Chain, and Human Capital.

Representatives from high-scoring CSA-responding companies including 3M and Citi will share their perspectives and experience in crafting responses to the CSA.

Participants will also learn how institutional investors are utilizing data from the CSA and ESG data into their investment decision-making with a special guest from Bloomberg LLC.

Participants can expect to take away a deeper understanding of:

  • The DJSI 2017 – results, lessons, outlook.
  • Effective approaches to assessing established and emerging sustainability topics in the CSA.
  • Rationale, the business case, performance, and results from last year’s assessment, and learn more about major challenges for companies, especially in the CSA Criteria of Human Rights, Human Capital, and Supply Chain.
  • How institutional investors/fiduciaries are utilizing ESG data.

Early bird pricing is open through September 30th.
Get more details and register at: http://bit.ly/CSAtrain

 

This Is Hurricane Season in the Americas — And Climate Change Discussions Will Accompany News Reports About the Super-Storms Coming Ashore

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All news/all the time — that was the American television viewer’s diet of content during the week long siege, with Hurricane Harvey sweeping ashore along the Gulf of Mexico areas of the State of Texas.  And the plight of the people of the Houston region, in particular, was on everyone’s mind as we watched the struggles of the residents there to stay safe and help their neighbors.

As we watched, many of us from afar, this was the American Spirit at its very best, in such terrible times for Texans to remind us all of the traditions of neighbor-helping-neighbor.

The public debate about the issues surrounding climate change (is it happening/what is the cause/what can be done) goes on, folks on both sides of the issue were cautious and sensitive about bringing the subject up in the midst of the suffering in Texas.  But gradually, the debate centered on Harvey’s effects came around to the point.

And Florida, another U.S. state, was brought into focus by writers at The Guardian as writer Richard Luscombe (a free lancer based in Miami) reminded readers of perhaps one of the early canaries-in-the-coal-mine — Hurricane Andrew almost 25 years ago to the day that the giant storm tore through Miami-Dade County — and causing US$15 billion in insured losses.

Professor Hugh Gladwin in the piece wondered:  Will people base their real estate decisions on climate change futures? He sees higher-standing areas of booming Miami becoming gentrified as a result of sea level rise…and coastal areas threatened by flooding and storm surge will decrease in value.

Writer Luscombe tells us that residents of South Florida are already buying houses in North Carolina and Tennessee — to have a safe place to go as the seas rise in the Sunshine State!

Climate Corporation (San Francisco) says that it will only take a few climatic events in a row for a collapse in regional/local real property values to fall.  That could make the housing crisis of 2008 “look small.”

Luscombe writes that properties in Norfolk, Virginia; Annapolis, Maryland; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Savannah and Charleston, Georgia; and Miami Beach, Florida — all have areas now where fish swim in driveways and people drive through salt water streets.

As we’ve reported for you recently, the nation’s urban leaders (the mayors of cities large and small) are already addressing the challenges of climate change and making their cities more resilient.  As the TV coverage of Hurricane Harvey slows and we move on to the next news cycle, no doubt climate change discussions will increase in tempo.  This is hurricane season, after all, and there is already a Category Five storm approaching the American coastlines.

We can debate “when” it is appropriate to raise the issues surrounding climate change, and what to do about it.  But we think it is a conversation that is necessary — so in the end we should do our best to protect all of the U.S.A.’s coastal areas, where 2/3 of the American population reside.

Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends and colleagues in Houston and the Texas and Louisiana coastal region.  We should all pitch in to help — neighbor-to-neighbor — in any way that we can.

What are your thoughts on all of this?

Top Stories This Week…

How climate change could turn US real estate prices upside down
(Wednesday – August 30, 2017)
Source: The Guardian – Floridians have long recognized climate’s threat to their homes. Amid the disaster wrought by Harvey, home buyers may look to higher ground

Practitioner Workshop: DEMYSTIFYING THE CSA & DJSI

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Practitioner Workshop: DEMYSTIFYING THE CSA & DJSI
Focus on Assessment Questions for
Human Rights, Human Capital & Supply Chain 
October 24, 2017

Presented to you by G&A Institute in collaboration RobecoSAM
Hosted at Baruch College/CUNY in New York City

The aim of this workshop is to increase the participants’ knowledge and obtain advice on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) and the RobecoSAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) — in this session, specifically on selected criteria including Human Rights, Supply Chain, and Human Capital. A workshop session will also be included on how institutional investors are utilizing data from the CSA and ESG data in their investment decision-making.

RobecoSAM and Governance & Accountability Institute expert representatives will contribute to the Meeting overall and in particular present content (including analysis and slide decks) that address each of the criterion. Representatives from CSA-responding corporations that are high scorers in the respective CSA criterion will respond and share their perspective and experience in crafting responses to the CSA.

Participants can expect to take away a deeper understanding of:

  • The DJSI 2017 – results, learnings, outlook.
  • Effective approaches in assessing established and emerging sustainability topics in the CSA.
  • Rationale, the business case, performance, and results from last year’s assessment, and learn more about major challenges for companies, especially in the CSA Criteria of Human Rights, Human Capital, and Supply Chain.
  • How institutional investors / fiduciaries are utilizing ESG data.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

EARLY BIRD RATE: $995
(Available until September 30th. Full price: $1,190)

Registrations will be open until October 22nd, 2017.

AGENDA

Welcome to the Day 
– Hank Boerner, Co-Founder & Chairman, Governance & Accountability Institute
– Louis Coppola, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President, Governance & Accountability Institute
– Robert Dornau, Director, Senior Manager Sustainability Services, RobecoSAM

Workshop 1: Human Rights 
– Moderator: Louis Coppola, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President, Governance & Accountability Institute
– Robert Dornau, Director, Senior Manager Sustainability Services, RobecoSAM
– Ariel Meyerstein, Senior Vice President, Corporate Sustainability Program, Citi

Workshop 2: Human Capital 
– Moderator: Hank Boerner, Co-Founder & Chairman, Governance & Accountability Institute
– Robert Dornau, Director, Senior Manager Sustainability Services, RobecoSAM
– Tina M. Berg, Sustainability Specialist, 3M Corporate Social Responsibility (To be confirmed)

Networking Lunch

Workshop 3: Supply Chain 
– Moderator: Louis Coppola, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President, Governance & Accountability Institute & Board Member of Global Sourcing Council (GSC)
– Robert Dornau, Director, Senior Manager Sustainability Services, RobecoSAM
– Corporate Representative – To Be Announced

Workshop 4: ESG Data From an Investor Perspective 
– Hideki Suzuki, Senior ESG Analyst, Bloomberg LP

DJSI 2018 Outlook & Closing Remarks 
– Hank Boerner, Co-Founder & Chairman, Governance & Accountability Institute
– Louis Coppola, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President, Governance & Accountability Institute
– Robert Dornau, Director, Senior Manager Sustainability Services, RobecoSAM

DETAILS
Tuesday, October 24, 2017 — 8:45 am – 4:00 pm
Baruch College/ CUNY, Newman Vertical Campus 55 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York 10010

For information and to register click here.

About Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc. (www.ga-institute.com) 
Governance & Accountability Institute is a New York City-based sustainability research, consulting and educational services company working with corporate sector and investment community clients. Typical engagements include preparation of sustainability, CSR and citizenship reports; peer benchmarking on ESG issues and reporting; customized ESG research (environmental, social and governance performance); strategic materiality analysis; sustainable investor relations; corporate communications around sustainability; and assistance with stakeholder engagements. The company is the exclusive Data Partner for the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for the USA, UK and the Republic of Ireland.

About RobecoSAM (www.robecosam.com) 
Founded in 1995, RobecoSAM is an investment specialist focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing. It offers asset management, indices, impact analysis and investing, sustainability assessments, and benchmarking services. The company’s asset management capabilities cater to institutional asset owners and financial intermediaries and cover a range of ESG-integrated investments, featuring a strong track record in resource efficiency-themed strategies. Together with S&P Dow Jones Indices, RobecoSAM publishes the globally recognized Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) as well as the S&P ESG Index series, the first index family to treat ESG as a standalone performance factor using the RobecoSAM Smart ESG methodology. Based on its Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA), an annual ESG analysis of over 3,900 listed companies, RobecoSAM has compiled one of the world’s most comprehensive databases of financially material sustainability information. The CSA data is also included in USD 86.5 billion of assets under management by the subsidiaries of the Robeco Group.

RobecoSAM is a sister company of Robeco, the Dutch investment management firm founded in 1929. Both entities are subsidiaries of the Robeco Group, whose shareholder is ORIX Corporation. As a reflection of its own commitment to advancing sustainable investment practices, RobecoSAM is a signatory of the PRI and UN Global Compact, a member of Eurosif, Swiss Sustainable Finance, Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Ceres and Portfolio Decarbonization Coalition (PDC). As of December 31, 2016, RobecoSAM had client assets under management, advice and/or license of approximately USD 16.1 billion.

For questions, contact Louis D. Coppola, Executive Vice President & Co-Founder, Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc. at Tel 646.430.8230 ext 14 or email lcoppola@ga-institute.com.