Capitalism – Needing Reinventing? Is Corporate Sustainability / Responsibility / Citizenship’s Focus on ESG Part of the Mix of Reinvention?

by Hank Boerner – Chair & Chief Strategist – G&A Institute

There are many voices raised now, joining in the public dialogues on corporate sustainability, corporate citizenship, corporate responsibility, ethics, good governance…and more.

The perspectives offered fit into the commentary stream on the future of capitalism — and how to make it work for everyone.

There are rigorous companion dialogues going on – and rapidly growing in number — related to the role of sustainable investing as more asset owners and their internal and external managers adopt new approaches, many focused on the analysis of corporate ESG performance and related outcomes.  We see this as further reinventing of capitalism. Do you?

On Corporate Purpose – How, What, Why and more – another public dialogue dramatically expanding since the release of The Business Roundtable’s revised statement on purpose in summer.

There are more voices being added to the expanding public dialogues on all of the above and more, which is what our newsletter’s Top Story focuses on.

A fascinating range of voices will be raised by Fast Company as the publishers spotlight “15 voices” working at the forefront of trying to reinvent our economic system…and together, the pursuit of important structural reforms and ideas to bring about “fairness” (much needed, we can argue, in 2019!).

The first voice “raised” by Fast Company is that of Darren Walker, Ford Foundation president who says in his essay “capitalism is in crisis” and explains why in his essay — “How to Save Capitalism From Itself”. 

As the editors of Fast Company explain, the voices to be raised in the future (that you will want to follow via Fast Company essays) include:

Zeynep Ton, MIT b-school prof who founded the Good Jobs Institute;

Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy (the artisanal marketplace) whose company’s social-impact initiatives are held to the same standard as financial reporting;

Fashion icon Eileen Fisher (champion of the B Corp movement);

Barry Lynn, founder of Open Markets Institute (who favors more regulation to address today’s monopolies);

Rachel Lauter, ED of Fair Work Center..and others!

Keep in mind Fast Company is a must-read for many GenXers and Millennialls – and so you will want to keep up with the publication’s voices no matter what generation you belong to.

The Ford Foundation’s CEO essay is at: https://www.fastcompany.com/90411391/ford-foundations-darren-walker-how-to-save-capitalism-from-itself

Top Stories

Capitalism is dead. Long live capitalism
Source: Fast Company – For capitalism to thrive, the system needs to evolve to be fair, inclusive, and sustainable. Fast Company highlights companies and innovators leading the change.

And of importance, the public dialogue – and action! – on the SDGs:

Protecting Our Future: Moving from Talk to Action on The Sustainable Development Goals
Source: Forbes 

How an Italian Energy Company Revolutionized Sustainable and Impact Investing in Structured Credit
Source: Forbes 

First SDG-linked bond in the European market raises 2.5 billion euros
Source: UN Global Compact 

Feeding the 9 Billion in Year 2050 Is A Great Challenge for Society

by Hank Boerner – Chair and Chief Strategist, G&A Institute

The United Nations Population Prospects 2019 tells us that there will be nine billion souls to feed on this Good Earth by year 2050 (up from seven billion-plus of us today).

The greatest growth will be in Asian nations (such as India, China) and on the African continent. 

Consider: in just 900 months or 1,560 weeks there will be 4.7 billion people to feed in Asia and 4.3 billion in the nations of Africa.

Latin America, North America and Europe combined will total but 1.8 billion.

The 47 least-developed nations of the world are the fastest-growing (population) and the need to feed the world’s population bumps into the challenges as we work to reduce and eradicate poverty, promote more diversity, address the climate change crisis, improve healthcare and education, and find the money and political will to do all of this.

The numerous challenges implied in these projections include finding the available farmland & ranchland to grow the food that will be needed by the 9 billion; to do this even as cities expand and farmland shrinks as a result of urbanization; to assure that the farmers, especially in less developed countries, are able to survive economically; to replace today’s farmers as the population of such workers ages; to increase protein sources as the middle classes continue to rise in many countries in Asia and Africa in rising the economies of local nations…and more!

Oh, and we must consider that agriculture is a major factor in climate change with its array of carbon emissions, as well of use of (and often) because of bad practices the degradation of ever-more land for growing crops. 

Today’s example is burning the old growth Amazon forests (the “lungs of the Earth”) to make room for more cattle ranches (more protein!) and palm oil plantations. More cattle — all those people moving into middle class want meat!

There have been encouraging developments related to farming — some welcomed and some controversial. 

Hydro-farming and rooftop farming in urban areas are considered a plus; advances in genetically-modified crops are both welcomed and condemned, depending on your geography or business interests or public policy point-of-view. 

Fake meat is cheered in some quarters, condemned in others — even as leading meat producing companies and related purveyors explore the breakthroughs to consider both risks and opportunities. 

The National Geographic Society has offered up a five-step plan to feed the world. Step One is to freeze agriculture’s footprint (ag is one of the major contributors to GhGs); Step Two, grow more on today’s farms; Step Three, use our resources more efficiently; Step Four, shift diets (meat in focus); And Five, reduce waste. 

NatGeo experts say these five steps could help to double the world’s food supplies while cutting the environmental impact of agriculture.  Click here to read more.

This issue of our Sustainability Highlights newsletter we’ve aggregated food & agriculture-related content for your reading.  The three Top Stories are of interest, we think you’ll agree. 

Top Stories

The future of food is mobile, plant-based, and sustainable, experts say
Source: Geek Wire 

Farming Ain’t For Sissies, & Sustainable Farming Is Especially Tough
Source: Clean Technica 

How sustainable is tuna? New global catch database exposes dangerous fishing trends
Source: Science Daily 

Fashion, Style, Brand and Sustainability Are Today’s Coupling Terms Now for a Growing Number of Consumers…

by Hank Boerner – Chair & Chief Strategist, G&A Institute

We’re all consumers of one type or another.

We buy a variety of food and beverages, the latest electronic products, and an assortment of apparel and footwear products as needed — or desired!. 

So the questions come to mind…

What are you wearing?  Is it fashionable?  Stylish? And sustainable (as a product you want or need)?  Sustainably and responsibly produced?  In a global (mostly invisible) supply chain that you could say with certainty is “well supervised and responsibly managed”?

Do you identify yourself with the brand’s culture, ethos and sustainability and the praiseworthy efforts of the maker or the retailer in their declarations to the marketplace? 

Do you make sustainability a conscious buying decision?

A growing number of apparel & footwear brand producers/marketers are counting on “yes” answers to these questions.

In our monitoring of news and feature content from around the world and many prominent and not-so-prominent sources, we have been seeing a significant amount of content related to “fashion” and “sustainability” being coupled (as it, taken together as a given, like human nature (human + nature – a natural coupling).

The big bold industry and brand marketing names are part of the conversation: Victoria Beckham, Stella McCartney, Tommy Hilfiger, Gucci, and H&M are focused on sustainability and delivering the fashion + sustainability sales message in the coupling efforts (details in our story selections).

We’re presenting our “capture” of fashion and consumer-buying content this week in our Top Stories in the newsletter. 

In our constant monitoring we are seeing the trend in other consumer-facing areas of industry – in autos, toys, and a variety of food products and ingredients (palm oil, coffee beans, seafood/harvests of the seas).

The good news for society is that many more corporate leaders recognize the timely opportunity for their company to demonstrate that their company’s strategies and processes, and products & services offered in both consumer and B-to-B markets are “sustainable & responsible” … as now more frequently explained in the company’s sustainability report, in the 10-k, proxy statement, on its web pages…and on their products’ labeling. 

In this week’s Highlights newsletter we bring you a selection of the many news and feature stories focused on consumer marketing with a sustainability theme.

The range of coupled content (our product + sustainability) is growing by leaps and bounds and we try to select the most topical and informative content for you.

On coupling:  the best-selling author Malcolm Gladwells’s newest book is “Talking to Strangers”, a great read, we recommend. 

He explains why we are so overwhelmingly trusting of others (the strangers) as a basic human default and the concept of “coupling” — certain circumstances that can make certain assumptions, assertions and claims ring true for us.  

This comes to mind the acceptance of apparel, footwear and other brand marketers’ claims about “sustainability” in product and/or production. 

We are eager to invest belief in the claims. But do the facts support the claim?

Gladwell’s insights are terrific to contemplate as we receive the messages about sustainability from some brand marketers.

Top Stories

Fashion Brands Take Sustainability Further for Spring 2020
Source: Forbes 

Exclusive Q&A: Why Retailers Should Embrace Sustainable Supply Chains
Source: Retail Touch Points 

Why Sustainability Should Be Top of Mind for Retailers This Holiday Season
Source: Yahoo

Consumers want to buy sustainably—they just don’t know how
Source: Fast Company 

How Sustainability Became the Future of Retail
Source: Footwear News

Consumers Want to Buy Sustainably, but They Often Don’t
Source: Architectural Digest 

The Best 11 Brands for Sustainable Vegan Sneakers
Source: Love Kindly 

How can shoppers make sense of sustainable fish labels?
Source: The Guardian 

The Young People Move to the Streets to Protest Slow or Lack of Action on Climate Change Challenges…

by Hank Boerner – Chair & Chief Strategist, G&A Institute

When our young people take to the streets in significant number, there is usually a revolution of some type in store, history tells us.  Revolutions belong to the young, we can say with some certainty if history is our guide. 

Think: Young “Minutemen” in the American Revolution, youngsters on the barricades in the French Revolution, counter-sitters and marchers in the Civil Rights protests in the American South. 

Dramatic change followed these protests. And now, we watch the young men and women in the streets of Hong Kong.

So what to make now of at least four million young men and women flooding into the streets and plazas of large cities and local communities around the world to “protest” their views of “inaction on climate change challenges” by those adults in charge (government and business, especially).

In New York City, Rome, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Madrid & Barcelona, Montreal, Berlin, Vienna, and many other of the world’s cities, on September 20th hundreds of thousands of young people rallied in protest and called on leaders to protect our planet. 

There were marches, music, signs of all sorts, speeches, and other public expressions intended to draw attention to the dangers posed by climate change.

A real crisis in our time and a dangerous threat to the young men and women and their younger peers in the decades ahead!

As symbol of the moment, climate activist Greta Thunberg (at age 16) boldly sailed over the seas from her home in Sweden (rather than take a jet airplane) to get to New York City for the celebration of Climate Week and the gathering of leaders at the United Nations General Assembly).

In interviews she commented that she does not understand why world leaders — including the President of the United States — would mock children and teenagers for acting on science that advances evidence that climate change is real – and dangerous for humanity and our planet.

But business is responding – and investors and the public sector, too. 

In one of the focus features we bring you this week, in the Harvard Business Review author Andrew Winston tells us what 1,000 CEOs really think about climate change and inequality. (We know Winston from his best-seller, “Green to Gold”.) 

He reminds us that nearly 200 CEOs working through the Business Roundtable (BRT) declared that business is no longer just about maximizing shareholder profit.

Many more hundreds of CEOs are in agreement and many are focused on climate change.  Are we moving fast enough? 

A report from UN Global Compact and Accenture (“The Decade to Deliver: A Call to Business Action”) presents the views of more than 1,000 global executives on their views of sustainability.

All of the large-cap company CEOs interviewed believe that sustainability issues are important to the future success of their enterprises.  The biggest challenge is climate change. 

This week our Top Stories (plural) are presented as snapshots of where we are as consumers, investors, government leaders and yes, business leaders, focus on sustainability and especially climate change matters.

An appropriate footnote:  in rural Southwest Montana, a participant in the local rally by mostly young people had this to say in a letter to the editor of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle in response to criticism of the young peoples’ rallies:  

“Climate change is not a political issue. It is a life or death issue. Our children are asking in what way school matters when our future is disintegrating before our eyes. 

“Children have as much right and reason to march anyone.  They march because they can still see possibility, opportunity and reasons to fight four just futures. 

“Next time, maybe you should join us to understand what our kids are marching for.”

Our offerings for you this week:

After strikes, youth climate activists keep pressure on leaders
Source: Reuters 

What 1,000 CEOs Really Think About Climate Change and Inequality
Source: Harvard Business Review

Business leaders join the UN Global Compact Leaders Week to address climate crisis and advance the SDGs
Source: UN Global Contract

Banks worth $47 trillion adopt new UN-backed climate, sustainability principles
Source: UN News 

Markets face major risks over lax climate forecasts, top investors warn
Source: Reuters 

The second-largest gift to a US university was pledged to Caltech. It’s being used for climate research
Source: CNN 

Climate Activism Requires More Than Just Sustainability Statements From Brands
Source: Ad Week 

Most of world’s biggest firms ‘unlikely’ to meet Paris climate targets
Source: The Guardian 

Lead on global climate change and sustainability
Source: St. Peter Herald 

Editorial: Climate Week 2019
Source: Advanced Science News 

Climate crisis seen as ‘most important issue’ by public, poll shows
Source: The Guardian 

The DJSI – Pioneer in ESG/Sustainable Investing Indexes, Celebrating 20 Years of Industry Leadership and Partnership of RobecoSAM and S&P Global Dow Jones

by Hank Boerner – Chair & Chief Strategist, G&A Institute

ESG equity indexes are certainly all the buzz these days as many more institutional and retail investors are embracing sustainable investing and directing their investment dollars toward existing and new index families that qualify (or purport to qualify) as a suitable ESG/sustainable investment.

Of note, Morgan Stanley Institute reports that its surveys reveal that are there very strong signals in asset management circles for growth and opportunity as sustainable investing has definitely gone mainstream. 

Three-quarters of asset managers report they are adopting sustainable investing (up from a modest 10 percent in 2016).  Those surveyed for Morgan Stanley said they believe they can maximize financial returns while investing sustainably (62% said so); and 89% of respondents say their firm is devoting additional resources to the approach over the next year or two.

It was not always this way. The he pioneers (asset owners and their internal and external managers) focused on the early forms of sustainable investing back 40, 30, 20 years did not have a wide range of indexes/indices to choose from as they embraced a new approach in equity analysis and portfolio management. 

They believed that sustainable investing methods could help them do well by doing good, as the early adopters proclaimed.

To meet investor demand, in 1999, the early days in sustainable investing as we know it today, S&P Dow Jones and SAM (one of the first asset managers focused on sustainability) developed the pioneering approaches to sustainable indexing with a family of funds that have over the two decades worked to shape global sustainable investing practices. Today, SAM is known as RobecoSAM, based in Switzerland.

Over time, inclusion in “the DJSI” (family of indexes/benchmarks) became a distinct badge of honor and pride for a public company board and management.

Here at G&A Institute we hear that from a wide range of company managers in various sectors and industry categories. “The CEO wants to be in…”  Part of our service offerings is helping corporate managers understand and respond effectively to the annual Corporate Sustainability Assessment – the CSA.

Today with literally thousands of sustainable indexes and benchmarks and ESG investable products available to investors and more coming every day (it seems to us in our monitoring) the DJSI choices remain king-of-the-hill for sustainable investment professionals.

RobecoSAM and S&P Dow Jones Indexes continue to set the pace for this ever-more important class of benchmarks.

That first year, public companies were invited to provide ESG information to the partners – 280 did and 228 were included in the first versions of the DJSI. Today, 1,200 companies actively participate in the annual “CSA” exercise, providing critical ESG data and information to RobecoSAM comprehensive analysts.

The invitations go out from RobecoSAM to companies in the spring of the year and the new formulations for the family of DJSI indexes are announced in the fall (companies included and excluded). 

The period between the September announcement and the preparation for the next spring’s CSA response is critical for examining the results of (say, the 2019 response and results) and the preparation of the 2020 CSA response by the company.  In our experience, it can take a full six months of preparation to increase scores by providing updated data and information – which the competing peers are doing as well!

The more you know about the DSJI and related process, the better as you prepare for the 2020 CSA response when/if your company is invited by RobecoSAM.

There’s a complete history of the DJSI and a wealth of useful current information in this week’s Top Story for you.

SPECIAL BY INVITATION WORKSHOP FOR UNDERSTANDING THE DJSI AND RESPONDING TO THE CSA…


SPECIAL EVENT FEATURING ROBECOSAM

G&A Institute and Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN) have partnered to host an invitation only event featuring RobecoSAM to help corporate managers whose companies are responding – or plan to respond – to the annual Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA).  Our next program is scheduled for October 15, 2019 at Baruch College’s Vertical Campus in New York City.

This by-invitation program is specifically designed for qualified corporate managers (such as corporate IROs, corporate governance managers, and sustainability managers and others in the corporation charged with responsibility to respond to the CSA) to help workshop participants understand the process.

And, to hear first-hand from experts involved in the CSA process, including ESG investment professionals utilizing the data for scores and index creation (DJSI, S&P ESG Indexes for example).

To request an invitation to participate submit your info here:
https://www.ga-institute.com/index.php?id=502

The one-day event will feature speakers from RobecoSAM, S&P Dow Jones Indices, State Street, Abbott and Owens Corning, and valuable peer-to-peer conversations for corporate sustainability and IR managers. 

The event is sponsored by G&A Institute and Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc., (DFIN) the leader in risk and compliance solutions, providing insightful technology, industry expertise and data insights to corporate clients around the world.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Dow Jones Sustainability Indices Review Results 2019
Source: Yahoo Finance – The three largest (by free-float market capitalization) additions to and deletions from the DJSI World this year are:

And also of interest…

State Street to Battle BlackRock, DWS With New Sustainable Funds
Source: Yahoo Finance – State Street Corp. is almost doubling its line-up of socially-responsible exchange-traded funds as it looks to compete with the likes of BlackRock Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG’s DWS Group in the burgeoning market for values-oriented…

3 Myths About Sustainable Funds
Source: MorningStar – In a 2017 Nuveen survey of investors, four out of five said they want their investments to make a positive impact on society and on environmental sustainability. And in an Allianz Life survey released in April, two thirds of…

Fidelity International launches ‘Sustainable Family of Funds’ ESG range
Source: International Investments – Fidelity International today announced the launch of its Sustainable Family of Funds (the Sustainable Family), a new cross-asset class fund range with a focused environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework.

Climate Change-Related Disclosure: The TCFD Is Here — the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures

Original Document: August 2017 – published in G&A’s “To the Point” Management Briefing Platform

Republished on  Sustainability UpdateOctober 2, 2019

by Hank Boerner – Chair and Chief Strategist – G&A Institute

The Work of the TCFD Will Affect Your Company’s Important Financial Disclosure & Filings.

And Your Relationship With Investors, Lenders, Asset Managers, Insurers, Public Sector Entities…

More climate-related disclosure in store for your company’s income statement/cash flow statement/balance sheet.

How will your company be affected by the FSB TFCD guidelines for your company’s ESG disclosure?

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is a global, multi-stakeholder organization that brings together senior policy makers from the G20** nations plus leaders from the European Union (with 28 individual states), Hong Kong, Singapore, Spain, and Switzerland.

The Board’s gatherings include representatives of the G-20’s central bankers, regulatory leadership, bank and financial sector oversight leaders, and others.

The deliberate and work to create “financial stability” policies for countries to follow — these are not mandates, not replacements for existing sovereign authorities — that those at the table as thought leaders and influencers can also take home and implement in various ways.

There are six regional “consultative groups” that help coordinate activities in an additional 70-plus countries, including in developing economies & emerging markets.

In this way as financial sector policies are being formulated there is help available from more experienced professional (such as professional colleagues in developed nations, the G20 plus four group),

The work of the FSB (formed after the 2008 global financial crisis) is all about addressing risk in the financial services sector – the important tasks of identifying risk, addressing risk, avoiding risk, developing protective risk management approaches for underwriters (insurance companies); lenders (banks); investors (asset managers and asset owners).

And in “risk” for all of these entities and their activities there is the looming question of the possible impacts on all kinds of assets in a rapidly-changing global and in regional climate conditions.

The Finance Ministers and Central Bankers of the nations in the G-20 asked the FSB to address this evolving challenge and to review and make recommendations on how the financial sector can take account of climate-related issues. Think: The Federal Reserve and the Securities & Exchange Commission in the U.S.A. — the Bank of England in the U.K.

And the focus is on “risk” for all these entities and their activities.

Therefore, there is the looming questions about possible impacts of a changing climate on both corporate and fiduciary assets.

The FSB leaders convened a “Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures — the FSB TCFD*.

The task force is headed by Chair Michael Bloomberg (he’s former mayor of New York City, principal of Bloomberg LP, UN Envoy to Cities, chair of the SASB, etc.).  Mr. Bloomberg leads the 32-member task force; the work began in December 2015.

There were numerous invitations to stakeholders to submit suggestions (such as the American Bar Association); public meetings were held; industry input was solicited — and at year-end 2016 the recommendations were being drafted for public release in late-June 2017.

Quick Review
The primary aims of the task force work were:

  • To develop climate-related disclosures that could promote more informed investment, credit, and insurance underwriting decisions;
  • This, in turn, would enable stakeholders to understand the carbon-related assets in the financial sector and the financial system’s exposure to climate-related risks.

The recent release of the task force’s draft report is an important heads up to boards and managers in many sectors — the carbon-related risk / the climate change risk is likely to be a very important consideration for the financial sector players going forward, in the ways they do business with your company.

It is important to note that the FSB task force focused on the financial impact of climate change on a corporation, especially in the financial services sector — not the impact of the corporation on the environment.

These are the four top-line thematic areas for corporate disclosure on climate change matters across sectors and industries; these are to be disclosed in either the regular public filings or in supplemental reports on a voluntary basis (so far):

Corporate Governance Factors
The organization’s governance structure around climate change risk and opportunities (in the USA, the SEC has reminded public company boards of directors of their responsibility to oversee this more than six years ago).

Strategies / Strategy Setting
The current and potential impacts of climate risks on the company’s strategies, and, operations, business, and financial planning.

Risk Management
The company should identify, assess and manage climate-change risks and disclose the processes used to do this.

Metrics / Targets To Be Set
Determining the appropriate metrics used and targets set by the organization to assess and manage climate-related risks and opportunities? These should be explained to stakeholders.

Think about the approach of the FSB TCFD guidelines and the impact on your organization in this way:

  • There are transition risks for a company which will include: policy, legal; technology; markets; corporate reputation issues.
  • Transition opportunities for companies will include: enhancements in resource efficiency; varied energy/sources; innovative products & services; corporate resilience.
  • All of the above could and do have an impact on the company’s financials — its revenues and expenditures.
  • The impacts should be reflected in key corporate disclosures: the 10K, the proxy statement, the income statements; cash flow statements; balance sheets.
  • Which then impacts: corporate assets and liabilities; capital and financing.
  • And all of this is the province of the board of directors and the C-Suite of the public company. The responsibility is clearly at the top of the organization in the Task Force work.

Ask yourself as you evaluate these developments:  What business is your company in?  How resilient to climate-related risk is your company? Are you taking advantage of climate change opportunities?

There is [Task Force] Guidance for Financial and Non-Financial companies in certain sectors. 

  1. For the Financial Sector: Banks:  Insurance Companies; Asset Managers; Asset Owners.
  2. For Non-Financial Industry Categories: [Initially] Energy; Transport; Materials & Buildings; Forest Products.  These industries are identified as accounting for the largest proportion of GHG emissions, energy usage, and water usage.

The task force suggests that companies in these sectors with more than US$1 billion in annual revenues should consider disclosing strategy and metrics and targets information in other reports when the information is not considered to be material and therefore included in the required financial filings.

It is expected that the adoption/uptake of the FSB task force recommendations by companies in the financial sector and in targeted industries will evolve over time, as companies disclose important information and [especially] as financial sector firms utilize the information in some way.

The task force adopted a five-year time frame for development of quality and consistency of reporting as suggested by the recommendations.

The ultimate goal: Broad understanding of the concentration of carbon-related assets in the financial system and the financial system’s exposure to climate-related risks (such as in the industries in focus).

The task force will be monitoring implementation of the recommendations beginning later in 2017 and into 2018 and will engage with stakeholders going forward.

Corporate Community Reaction

How did the corporate community react to these recommendations?
The FSB says more 100 companies with combined market caps of US$3.3 trillion and financial community firms with more than $24 trillion in AUM provided statements of support, encouraging the embrace of the TFCD recommendations.

The FSB task force recommendations closely align with other public disclosure standards and frameworks. Adoption would move a company in the direction of an integrated reporting structure.

The SASB recommendations for sustainability disclosure such as in the 10-k is closely aligned with material information (and materiality is addressed by the task force).

It’s important to keep in mind: The GRI Standards, taking effect in January 2018, replaces the current G4 framework for all corporate reporting; the GRI Standards will definitely move companies in the direction of reporting against the FSB TFCD recommendations.

If you have questions about the task force recommendations and the impact on your company, or the opportunities presented for enhanced disclosure for investors and stakeholders, the G&A Institute team is available for a conversation.

We are monitoring the uptake of the important climate change disclosure recommendations by U.S. and global companies going forward.

RESOURCES:

# # #

Notes:

The TCFD:
* The Task Force Vice Chairs include Graeme Pitkethly, CFO Unilever; Denise Pavarina, Managing Officer Banco Bradesco; Christian Thimann, Group Head, Strategy, Sustainability and Public Affairs, AXA; and Yeo Lian Sim, Special Advisor, Singapore Stock Exchange.

Task Force Members include leaders at KPMG; BlackRock; Generation Investment Management; JP MorganChase; UBS Asset Management; Moody’s; Tata Group; Ernst & Young; Barclays; Bank of China; Deloitte; PGGM; Swiss Re; BHP Billiton; HSBC; Storebrand; Aviva Investors; ENI; S&P Global Ratings; Tokio Marine Holdings; Canada Pension Plan Investment Board; Daimler; Air Liquide Group; Dow Chemical; EnBW; PGGM. 

Keep in mind these important organizations are members of the Financial Stability Board:

  • USA:  U.S. Department of the Treasury; US Securities & Exchange Commission; Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
  • Canada:  Bank of Canada; Office of Superintendent of Financial Institutions; Department of Finance
  • China:  People’s Bank of Chain; China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission; Ministry of Finance
  • United Kingdom: Bank of England; Financial Conduct Authority; HM Treasury
  • Germany:  Deutsche Bundesbank; BAFIN; Bundesministerium der Finanzen 

The complete list is here: https://www.fsb.org/about/fsb-members/

The G-20

** The Group of Twenty (“G20”) nations comprise an international forum for discussing economic, financial and related issues. The Group of 20 account for more than 80% of the world Gross Domestic Product and almost the same amount of world population.

The first meeting of the Group was in Berlin in late-1999; there have been almost two dozen meetings since then; attendees include heads of state. (The initial participants were finance ministers and central bank leaders — the same players who asked for the Task Force to go to work on expanding corporate disclosure on climate change issues.) 

The G-20 nations are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudia Arabia, the Republic of South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America – plus the European Union; plus the European Central Bank; plus The Netherlands and Spain, “non-members” that attends leader summits.

Also participating and invited to conferences: Chair, ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations; African Union; New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD); World Health Organization (WHO); International Monetary Fund (IMF); United Nations; World Bank; International Labour Organization (ILO); Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); World Trade Organization (WTO); Chile, representing the APEC nations; Asian Development Bank (ADB).  The invite list can vary. 

The G7 is a smaller group: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States of America.

This was originally the G8; Russia was added (the eighth state) was suspended after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The G7 governments’ focus is on issues in the more developed industrial economies.