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

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Louis Coppola

#Corporate Citizenship #Corporate Responsibility #Corporate Sustainability #RobecoSAM #SRI #Sustainability Big Data #Sustainability Professionals #Sustainability Reporting #Sustainable Investing 
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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.
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For more information about the course and how to register, visit:
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: