Resources / Studies
| • 2005 Call for Action: Managing Climate Risk and Capturing the Opportunities | |
| This Call to Action was released at the May 2005 Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk at the United Nations. Two-dozen institutional investors, recognizing that climate risk poses significant risks and opportunities for investors and our economy, pledged to move forward to implement 10 steps in the Call to Action. Report and Press Release available. | |
• Assessing Creditworthiness: Baseline Survey of Environmental Information Required by Lending Institutions in Atlantic Canada  | |
| Information: outlines a generic set of best-practiced tools which may be used by lending institutions to minimize their exposure to a customer's environmental risk. | |
| • Environmental and Financial Performance: Are They Related? | |
| A study of the relationship between environmental performance and financial performance, using the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500), compared the financial performance of “low polluter” portfolios to industry-matched “high polluter” portfolios. The study found that the “low pollution” portfolio performed as well as - and often better than - the “high pollution” group. Investors who chose the environmental leaders in an industry-balanced portfolio were found to do as well (or better) than those choosing the environmental laggards in each industry. A portfolio that tracked the S&P 500 and included only the environmental leaders in each industry category would be expected to meet or exceed the market returns of the S&P 500. The study concluded that greener firms are doing as well as or better than their more polluting counterparts. | |
| • Global Reporting Initiative - Financial Services Sector Supplement: Evironmental Performance | |
| In September 2003, GRI partnered with UNEP-Finance Initiatives (UNEP FI)to build on the work completed in the social arena, and to develop a set of environmental performance indicators for the finance sector . An evenly balanced multi-stakeholder working group of approximately 20 members, co-chaired by one industry and one non-industry representative, was convened to draft the document. It was released in March 2005 following a 90-day public comment period in 2004. This supplement was developed to be used in conjunction with the GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. | |
| • Goldman Sachs Group - The growing interest in environmental issues is important to both socially responsible and fundamental investors | |
| Information: Environmental issues, in particular climate change, are receiving increased focus from the investment community. Socially responsible and fundamentally driven investors need to consider the implications. This paper provides an introduction to this topic and examples of company specific disclosures. | |
| • Guidelines on Environmental Management and Reporting for the Financial Services Sector | |
| Information: provides step-by-step instructions for implementing and using an environmental management system (EMS), from developing evidence and gaining support for an EMS to assessing the program once it has been put in place. | |
| • JPMorgan Chase - Environmental Policy | |
| • Sustainability Diagnostic Tool | |
| This tool for financial institutions enables individuals to benchmark their sustainability performance. It's an indicator of a financial instiution's approach or progress on sustainabilty. | |
| • Who Cares Wins: Connecting Financial Markets to a Changing World | |
| Recommendations by the financial industry to better integrate environmental, social and governance issues in analysis, asset management and securities brokerage. | |
| • Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) | |
| The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) provides a secretariat for the world’s largest institutional investor collaboration on the business implications of climate change. CDP represents an efficient process whereby many institutional investors collectively sign a single global request for disclosure of information on greenhouse gas emissions. CDP then sends this request to the FT500 largest companies in the world, and 300 of the 500 largest corporations in the world currently report their emissions through this website. | |
| • Equator Principles | |
| Role: An industry approach for financial institutions in determining, assessing and managing environmental & social risk in project financing. | |
| • Global Finance Campaign - Rainforest Action Network | |
| Role: to reconcile economy with ecology, by bringing environmental ethics into alignment with all aspects of the financial sector's business practices. | |
| • Principles for Responsible Investment | |
| Developed by leading institutional investors, the Principles provide a framework for achieving better long-term investment returns and more sustainable markets. The six overarching Principles, which are voluntary, are underpinned by a set of 35 possible actions that institutional investors can take to integrate environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) considerations into their investment activities. | |
| • BankTrack | |
| Role: network of civil society organisations and individuals tracking the operations of the private financial sector and its effect on people and the planet. | |
| • Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) | |
| Role: represents a membership of over 60 000 professional accountants Information: services, policies, news, Environmental accounting information. | |
| • Sustainable Finance | |
| Role: Sustainable Finance Limited (SFL) provides a range of products and services to assist financial institutions in minimising the risks and maximising the rapidly evolving opportunities associated with sustainability. Information: Sustainable Finance Toolkit, Sustainability Diagnostic Tool | |
| • World Business Council for Sustainable Development - Financial Sector | |
| Role: WBCSD’s Financial Sector working group is to make a meaningful contribution towards a financial sector which uses its role and influence in a way that supports sustainable development. Information: publications, case studies | |