Headhunters

Full sustainability report covering 2024 performance; DNV assurance; aligns to GRI/ISSB and SMP goals.

Main sustainability narrative and scorecard for FY2024–25.

FY2025 ESG overview; progress on climate (≈50% renewable power), opportunity, community, and governance; published Sept 2025.

Latest sustainability progress incl. safety & quality, culture, emissions, and full data indices; published late Aug 2025.

The sixth edition of the TPI Centre's flagship corporate report, State of the Corporate Transition 2025

• 98% of companies have not disclosed plans to shift capital away from carbon-intensive assets or to align spending with their long-term decarbonisation goals.  
• Publicly-listed companies across high-emitting sectors to exceed 1.5°C global emissions intensity budget by 61% between 2020 and 2050 on current trajectory.  

Crude Awakening 2 – Oil trade to face growing risks as rapid ice sheet losses drive faster sea level rise

26 of 30 key oil ports of the Top 5 oil producing, consuming, exporting & importing nations are vulnerable to 1m of SLR, possible by 2070

ESG governance, sustainable sourcing, packaging and nutrition highlights; progress vs. long-term goals.

Governance, climate strategy and performance tables; updated GHG methodology (AR5); safety and community engagement.

Access-to-medicines strategy, product quality and safety, emissions and waste trends, workforce and community initiatives.

Progress against climate and safety targets; 6.2% absolute GHG reduction vs. 2021; governance, data tables and assurance.

Quarterly stewardship update as of 31 Mar 2025. Covers engagement highlights, proxy voting activity and governance focus areas.

UK Stewardship Code 2020‑aligned annual report covering 2024 activities, outcomes and governance of stewardship across UBS AM strategies.

Annual overview of 2024 stewardship: engagements, voting and collaborative initiatives. Highlights approach to long‑term value creation for pension beneficiaries.

Vanguard advised funds Q2

Register of 356 engagements with issuers during Apr–Jun 2025. Topics mapped to Vanguard’s stewardship priorities used to inform proxy voting.

BIS’s annual voting-season review for the proxy year 1 Jul 2024–30 Jun 2025. Summarises key vote rationales, policy updates and regional trends across ~12,700 meetings and ~152k proposals. Includes engagement activity.

We’re in both an age of enlightenment and an age of turmoil. The progression embodied in artificial intelligence is being met with the regression of incoherent and threatening policies from the US.

That’s why we’ve called this year’s edition of Expected Returns ‘The Stale Renaissance’ to reflect this paradox.

Transition finance has emerged as a central focus in ESG regulatory evolution, with growing momentum behind regulations, guidance and related initiatives worldwide. Progress on sustainable finance taxonomies has been notable in such jurisdictions as Australia, Brazil, Chile and India, where innovative approaches to integrating transition finance reflect diverse national priorities and the need to address high-emitting sectors.

Hubei Science Technology Investment Group Co., Ltd. - Second-Party Opinion
Tue 09 Sep, 2025
  
Sustainable Fitch has provided its Second-Party Opinion on the sustainability finance framework of Hubei Science Technology Investment Group Co., Ltd.

We consider transactions under the framework to be aligned with the ICMA Green Bond Principles, Social Bond Principles and Sustainability Bond Guidelines, as well as the LMA, LSTA and APLMA Green Loan Principles and Social Loan Principles; our opinion is that the framework’s alignment is ‘Good’.

Kingdom of Denmark - Pre-Issuance Review - European Green Bond Assessment Wed 03 Sep, 2025  

Sustainable Fitch has conducted a pre-issuance review of the European Green Bond (EuGB) factsheet prepared by the Kingdom of Denmark (Denmark) in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2023/2631.

We consider the transaction to be fully aligned with the EuGB Standard and the EU taxonomy; therefore, the EuGB designation can be used for bonds issued under this factsheet.

Key findings

• European sustainable-fund flows have proven more “sticky” than those of conventional funds, with sustainable-fund investors less likely to sell after short-term underperformance.
• The renaming of sustainable funds in the EU has not driven outflows — likely because 90% of rebranded funds have remained sustainability-focused, as investors look beyond fund names.  
• Top fund houses still embed financially material sustainability risks into investment processes for conventional funds, underscoring their ongoing commitment to sustainability principles. 

Scope 3 emissions offer key insights into a company’s climate impact and exposure to transition risks. In many cases, they capture the majority of a company’s total carbon footprint, whether from upstream (e.g., extraction, processing, manufacturing, transport and distribution for a consumer-electronics company) or downstream emissions (e.g., the lifetime emissions of vehicles sold by an automotive company).  

Investors may be buoyed by increased reporting on Scope 3 emissions — whether encouraged or mandated by major jurisdictions including the EU, U.K., Australia and Japan — but should be wary of its utility.

This is the third of our just nature blogs that addresses that in the race to net zero and a healthy planet, nature has too often been the silent partner – essential to sustaining life, yet consistently undervalued in policy and investment decisions.

While climate change rightly dominates headlines and boardroom agendas, the parallel crisis of nature loss has unfolded more quietly, despite its profound implications for people and the planet.

As the connections between nature, climate, and social outcomes become increasingly evident, integrating just nature into environmental strategies is not just responsible – it is essential for building resilient portfolios and sustainable economies.

Policy recommendations for a fit-for-purpose SFDR

The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) is a key element of the EU sustainable finance framework. Since its inception, it has improved transparency with the integration of sustainability risks, and the consideration of sustainability impacts in investment decisions.

However, some challenges prevent the SFDR from fully delivering on its objectives. Despite being a disclosure-based regulation, the framework has been used by market participants as a product classification system. Insufficient clarity of certain concepts and definitions, a lack of robust criteria, and diverging interpretations from market participants and supervisors have led to market fragmentation and greenwashing concerns.

The review of SFDR is expected to be published in Q4 2025, and the EC is currently exploring several policy options regarding its content. Eurosif, based on detailed input from its members and the Advisory Group composed of investors and other Financial Market Participants (FMPs), is now publishing this report to present its detailed policy recommendations for improving the SFDR framework to ensure that it is clear, effective and fit-for-purpose.

Highlights 

• The dialogues prior to the 2025 shareholders’ meetings were dominated by the possible impact of the geopolitical and macro-economic uncertainty (in particular the tariffs ‘war’), the future of the diversity and inclusion policies of companies with a large footprint in the United States and the experiences with the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
• Even though the CSRD has not been implemented into Dutch legislation yet, virtually all large listed companies (more than 500 employees) have published a fully-aligned CSRD and ESRS sustainability report on a voluntary basis and have also requested their external auditors to provide (at least) limited assurance on the sustainability report. We compliment the Dutch companies for this achievement.  

Investors have been hesitant to embrace the biodiversity space, but investment momentum and flows should shift with the release of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure game-changing framework.

Summary

• Critics argue biodiversity is too complex to effectively measure
• TNFD framework sharpens sector focus and data metrics
• Investors can now better differentiate biodiversity leaders

• Sustainable Fitch has affirmed Telefonica SA's ESG Entity Rating at ‘2’. This reflects the positive social impact of its telecommunications services, including in rural and under-served areas in countries where it operates, and its well-defined ESG strategy.
• The rating is positively driven by the increase of ultra broadband and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) accesses in 2024, continuous investments in broadband networks in rural areas, strong ESG policies and a positive trend in environmental KPIs.
• The rating is negatively affected by a high number of safety incidents with major consequences in the last three years, high CEO pay ratio and governance-related controversies.

ESG investing is currently in a state of flux, a significant reason for this is the regulatory changes that are occurring. In this session we will discuss some of the latest updates to ESG related regulations, how they continue to evolve, and the overall impact on the ESG investment landscape within EMEA.

This webinar will cover:

• The latest on the EU Omnibus package
• ESG Rating Provider Regulation
• The latest SFDR updates and their implications
• What’s next for ESG Investing

Speakers:

• Lindsey Stewart, CFA, Director of International Insights, Morningstar
• Anne Shoemaker, Senior Director, ESG Product Management, Morningstar Sustainalytics
• Andy Pettit, Director, Policy Research, EMEA, Morningstar
• Lia Mitchell, Senior Policy Analyst, Morningstar

"Just three financial institutions – Vanguard, BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase – together provided over US$1.6 trillion to the Forest 500 companies, giving them a significant influence on deforestation, conversion and associated human rights abuses.

Financial institutions headquartered in China provided the most financing by country, over US$400 billion, to the Forest 500 laggards (the 168 companies without a public deforestation commitment). This is followed by the United States (US) with US$151 billion, and French financial institutions with US$57 billion.

In 2023, 45% of the financial institutions assessed had a public deforestation policy. This fell to 40% in 2024. This troubling shift is in contrast to the trend over the previous decade, when financial institutions increasingly set deforestation policies.

Despite accelerating global heating and the increasing frequency of destructive climate events, the proportion of financial institutions that recognises deforestation as a business risk in 2024 was virtually unchanged at 37%, compared to 35% in 2023."

The ocean is vast and complex. It covers over two-thirds of the planet and holds over 90% of Earth’s water. However, anthropogenic pressures severely threaten ocean health. Climate change, habitat destruction and over-exploitation of marine resources are all key drivers of significant biodiversity loss. Marine pollution – including plastic waste, chemical runoff, and noise pollution – is a further significant cause of harm.

Given the environmental, social and economic importance of the ocean, there is a growing recognition that more needs to be done to protect and restore ocean resilience and the ecosystem services derived from the ocean.

Chronos Sustainability is working with the First Sentier MUFG Sustainable Investment Institute to collate evidence on ocean-related sustainability issues for investors. This research will inform the development of a high-level decision-making framework for institutional investors on the ocean and related issues.

The first part of this work is a survey that aims to understand how ocean sustainability is currently perceived, integrated, and prioritised within investment strategies. The survey wants to understand whether and to what extent ocean-related issues are addressed in decision-making, what are the key ocean-related themes and issues that investors are concerned about, and what are the key barriers to progress. The survey also seeks to understand what data and information investors use in decision-making, and which of the many ocean-related reporting and impact frameworks are most widely used by investors.

The survey – which will remain open until the 26th September 2025 - can be accessed here 

Notes:

1.      First Sentier MUFG Sustainable Investment Institute: here 

2.      Chronos Sustainability: here 

Many investors asked us to add the chemicals sector to a suite of our corporate assessments. And we listened.

We are pleased to announce that the TPI Global Climate Transition Centre (TPI Centre) at the London School of Economics and Political Science has a new publication, “The Carbon performance assessment of chemical producers: discussion paper.”

This discussion paper proposes a new methodology to assess the Carbon Performance of chemical producers and provides the assessment results of 20 companies with high emissions intensity and diverse subsector exposure. We are keen to get feedback on our approach.

The proposed chemicals methodology adds to the TPI Centre’s sectoral methodologies to assess corporate Carbon Performance. The Centre currently assess Carbon Performance in the 12 high-emitting sectors, including electricity utilities, oil and gas producers, and high-carbon industrial and transport sectors.

The chemicals sector is significant both to investors and the climate. It is one of the largest global manufacturing industries by market capitalisation. As the largest industrial consumer of fossil fuels, the sector plays a major role in global emissions, accounting for 1.3 gigatonnes of direct carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions annually — approximately 3.6% of the global total.  This combination of broad economic influence and high emissions exposes the sector to transition risk and makes it a priority for credible decarbonisation pathways.

Fri 12th Sept 2025: 14:00 UK | 15:00 CET | 09:00 NY

Join us for a 60-minute webinar exploring aviation’s decarbonisation strategy.

Despite growing interest in sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), the sector remains off-track for Paris alignment—under-investing in zero-emission aircraft (ZEA) and relying on technologies with uncertain scalability.

Carbon Tracker analysts Rich Collett-White and Saidrasul Ashrafkhanov will kick off with a short presentation, followed by a panel discussion featuring leading voices from policy, finance, and industry. There will also be time for audience Q&A.

Guest Speakers:

• Trishla Shah – Manager, Sustainable Aviation, Systemiq
• Gabriel Lepine – Vice President, Finance, ZeroAvia
• Menzo Reinders – Director, Energy Sector Coverage, ING
• Celeste Hicks – Policy Manager, Aviation Environment Federation (Moderator)

Key topics include:

• What are the real barriers to aviation decarbonisation?
• How realistic is the industry’s reliance on SAF?
• Is jet fuel plus carbon removals (DACCS) a viable long-term pathway?
• What can aviation learn from the rapid electrification of road transport?
• Could China’s rise in electric aviation reshape the global landscape?

This session is designed for stakeholders and policymakers seeking to understand the sector’s progress and identify levers for accountability and accelerated action.

Includes selected sustainability disclosures

Sustainability data annex 2024

Sustainability in brief

Sustainability Factbook 2024

Double Materiality Assessment 2024

Sustainable investors have typically avoided investments in defence. Geopolitical developments, and the evolution of a more nuanced view of what matters for sustainability, have now brought the sector into focus: sustainability criteria and investing in defence can be aligned as autonomy, resilience and security emerge as key investment themes, writes Sindhu Janakiram.  

The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals seek to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030, all people enjoy peace and prosperity. They cover sustainability-related topics such as inequality and climate change.

On the 10th anniversary of their launch, Berenice Lasfargues looks at progress on their implementation and the usefulness of the SDGs for investors.     

As we enter the next phase of global decarbonisation, institutional investors are rethinking their strategies. Instead of avoiding high-emitting sectors like cement, steel, utilities, and waste management, many are now investing in their transformation—advancing climate goals while capturing long-term value.

These sectors are major contributors to global emissions but remain essential to modern economies. Divesting from them may seem like a straightforward approach to portfolio decarbonisation, but this is not reflective of economic reality and risks sidelining the progress needed to reduce emissions in the real economy. Increasingly, investors are taking a different approach: backing “improvers”—companies with credible plans and capacity to deliver value-creative decarbonisation.

Investor insights on stewardship, standards & strategic expectations for Canadian companies
August 2025

In the context of a pushback on ESG, the Securities and Exchanges Commission shifting rules on investor engagement, as well as the implementation of Canada’s anti-greenwashing (Bill C-59), investors are reaffirming their commitment to the integration of environmental, social and governance issues into investment decision making, with governance becoming a more central focus.

A climate of change: Canadian investor perspectives
September 2025

Millani’s eleventh Semi-Annual ESG Sentiment Study of Canadian Institutional Investors finds that current pushback on ESG is less a retreat than a pause, with uncertainty eroding disclosure quality, trust, and ultimately increasing the cost of capital.

When it comes to the links between sustainable investment and enhanced returns, numerous explanations focus on how companies that perform well in terms of sustainability/ESG tend to out-perform those which don’t.

There may, however, be other forces at play. Fundamentally, investment decisions are made by people, and people are driven by both logic and - crucially - emotions. As explained by research into behavioural finance, psychological factors, including biases, can influence decision making, and result in potential risks and opportunities being missed.

Sustainable investment strategies can potentially act as a remedy to bias, and thus allow investors to identify both risks and opportunities that they may otherwise have overlooked or discounted. Here, we will be focusing on the impact of four key biases: loss aversion bias, risk aversion bias, anchoring bias, and recency bias.

As a responsible investor, it is not only vital to understand non-financial risks posed to (and by) companies, but also what they are doing to mitigate these.

In the case of single materiality, this might mean how a company is preparing to adapt to climate change, and in the case of double (or single-outward) materiality, this might mean what it is doing to mitigate the risks it poses to external stakeholders, including the environment.

However, not all risk mitigation measures are created equal, and how can investors distinguish between companies that simply state they are working to limit risks (be they inward or outward) and those which are making systematic efforts to do so?

In the case of limiting outward risks to the environment, enter the environmental management system.

Key points

• Financial inclusion-focused companies help the world’s poorest become more resilient and represent a huge growth opportunity
• Nubank, Grab and Remitly provide digital-focused services that help them undercut older rivals
• However, face-to-face education remains important for the financially vulnerable, which is why HDFC Bank is opening new branches in rural India

IPR analysis of the quarter’s most consequential policy and transition developments – and their implications for investors monitoring climate risk and opportunity

Join our expert panel in the 3rd IPR Quarterly Briefing for 2025.

• Jennifer Anderson, Managing Director, Global Head of Sustainable Investment & ESG, Lazard Asset Management
• Lily Burge, Policy Manager, Climate Bonds Initiative
• Karoline Hallmeyer, Senior Manager for Climate & Biodiversity Strategy, Deloitte
• Jakob Thomä, Project Director, Inevitable Policy Response (IPR)
• Moderator: Daniel Gallagher, Ph.D., Senior Lead, Climate Change, PRI

Thursday, 16th October 2025

Time: 14:00 – 15:00 BST

Platform: BrightTALK

Registration Link

This report, now in it’s fourth edition, was published in June 2025 by the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and examines the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy usage of the 200 leading tech companies worldwide.

The report’s 2025 edition raises the alarm on the ICT sector’s growing carbon footprint with the rapid expansion of AI. The report represents a key step in supporting companies to adopt science-aligned, transparent and accountable climate strategies.

The first report Greening digital companies: Monitoring emissions and climate commitments was published in 2022.

"Shareholder activists launched 129 campaigns in the first half of 2025, a strong showing amid increased uncertainty, though down 12% from 2024.

Our Investment Banking Shareholder Advisory team’s H1 2025 Review of Shareholder Activism also tracks an increase in activists targeting small companies, muted European activity and greater success in securing board seats."

• Hybrid vehicles are gaining favor among US drivers, and their market share is projected to increase as North American sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are forecast to decelerate.
• The easing of US fuel economy rules and the elimination of tax credits for EV purchases prompted Goldman Sachs Research to cut its forecasts for EV market penetration.
• Margins for North American operations may be 2 to 3 percentage points higher than previously assumed as traditional automakers maximize profits with an optimized balance of internal combustion and hybrid vehicles.
• Goldman Sachs Research now projects EVs to be 25% of global sales in 2030, down from a prior prediction of 28%, though its forecasts for China remain unchanged.

• 2024 was the year of transition – the two legacy teams merged formally as of May 2024.
• Policy and process documents were finalized and published for the merged entity – CMAM – on engagements, voting and exclusions, including both sectoral and controversy-based exclusions.
• The new Stewardship Committee of the group was formed, with 4 Voting members with final decision-making authority on all stewardship-related activities for all asset management entities

"As an active owner, we engage with our investee companies to influence them to appropriately manage ESG risks as well as seize ESG opportunities. By exercising our voting rights, we affirm our engagement in line with our sustainable approach during shareholder meetings. We use our voting rights and target 100% voting across all our equity and bond holdings."

9 May 2025 - "The 2024 Calvert Stewardship Report examines our engagement & proxy voting activities that aim to drive positive change on financially material sustainability topics. The report covers the period from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, and highlights Calvert's commitment to engaging with companies on key sustainability issues, including climate change, human capital management, human rights, worker health and safety, and governance."

RFP/consulting; Stewardship/engagement; Strategy

Reporting (CSRD); Data/analytics; Strategy

As Senior Director Sustainability, you will play a critical role in defining the direction for Sustainability & ESG and you lead the execution of our environmental Sustainability program, ensure delivery against key KPIs and targets in close collaboration across all functions, such as Product Development & Sourcing, Brand, Supply Chain Management, Finance, HR, Sales, Own Operations and develop cross-functional direction, guidance and upskilling on company’s sustainability efforts. You will be responsible to ensure a successful contribution of the environmental program to the overall ESG performance of the company.

Assurance; Reporting; Consulting; Climate/transition finance

Data/analytics; Reporting

Drives operationalization and sustainability of mature data management practices with a focus on data governance.

Data/analytics; Reporting (SFDR/CSRD)

Climate/transition finance; Investment research; Impact/SDG strategy; Data/analytics

Employment Type Part time

Please note, where PRI has an office there is an expectation to work a minimum of 2 days per week

Location Hybrid · London, UK

Seniority Senior

Closing: 8:00pm, 21st Sep 2025 BST

We have an exciting opportunity for an individual to join our Liverpool FC Foundation team as a Insights and Impact Manager.

You will be responsible for ensuring that the LFC Foundation can demonstrate the impact of its work to a wide range of stakeholders including staff, trustees, funders and the communities in which the Foundation operates.

The successful candidate will have demonstrable experience managing evaluation and research projects and extensive knowledge of using data systems such as Salesforce and Power Bi.You will be passionate and knowledgeable about different approaches and methods to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data.

JobPost: Franklin Templeton - Stewardship & Sustainability Analyst (London, close unknown)

24 mth contract

JobPost: S&P Global - Senior Principal Analyst, Climate Risk and Opportunity (London, close unknown)

JobPost: JPMorganChase: Asset Management, Product Manager - Sustainable Investing & Stewardship - Associate/Vice President (London)

JobPost: M&G - Sustainability Manager – Sustainable Investment Frameworks (London, close 7 Sept)

• Program Associate, The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance

  Climate Finance Intern

  Partnerships Lead | The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance

  Analyst - ClimateShot Investor Coalition (CLIC) / Agri-Food Systems, Africa.

  Manager - Agri-Food Systems, Africa

  Call For Applications: India Clean Energy Finance

   

JobPost: Aviva  - ESG Fixed Income Analyst (London, close unknown)

The ESG Analyst is a key member of our dynamic in-house team responsible for evaluating current and potential portfolio investments and leveraging active ownership strategies — including company engagement, proxy voting, and public policy — to advance sustainable business practices. We seek experienced and accomplished candidates with exceptional research and analytical capabilities, superior communication and relationship management skills, and the ability to effectively manage time and deliver multiple projects with keen insight and attention to detail. 

JobPost: Chanel - Senior Manager – Climate & Nature Impact Performance (Fixed-term, Maternity Cover) (London, close 30 Sept)

ShareAction’s Banking Standards team works towards holding financial institutions accountable for their impact on climate change. We have a history of campaigning on key aspects of banks’ climate strategies—such as their emission reduction targets or fossil fuel policies—and we are gradually expanding our work to include other sustainability themes and banking regulation. We have achieved significant wins, such as contributing to HSBC becoming the world’s largest bank to cease financing for new oil and gas fields, Barclays dramatically reducing its oil sands financing, and mobilising investors to call on Societe Generale to set a renewable energy target.

The team is structured around two main pillars: our campaigning and research pillar. The research pillar ensures that the team’s campaigning and advocacy work is based on sound analysis and facts. The Senior Research Manager oversees the research pillar, currently composed of three more junior researchers. The Senior Research Manager is responsible for developing and implementing a research strategy that underpins campaign needs for analysis and insight in line with campaign timelines and available resources. They oversee and contribute to the delivery of high-quality research outputs, including thematic reports, investor briefings, surveys of Europe’s largest banks, and ensure that they are underpinned by clear and robust research methodologies. Alongside the Head of Banking Programme and the Senior Campaign Manager, they act as an ambassador for the team in external forums, the media, and when meeting with and presenting to external stakeholders, including banks, civil society organisations, and investors.

Key responsibilities are detailed in the Job Description in the downloadable Candidate Pack.

If this role sounds like something that would build on your current skill set and engage you, we’d love to hear from you!

Applications will be reviewed regularly, and this advert may close earlier than stated if a suitable candidate is identified. You are therefore encouraged to apply as soon as you can. Previous applicants should not re-apply.

Apply below

Employment Type - Contract - Please note, where PRI has an office there is an expectation to work a minimum of 2 days per week
Location Hybrid · London, City of, UK
Team IIC
Seniority Mid-level
Closing: 8:00pm, 22nd Aug 2025 BST

JobPost: ShareAction - Senior Engagement Manager - Investor Engagement (London, close unknown)

JobPost: Goldman Sachs - Asset & Wealth Management, Sustainability & Impact, Value Creation, Associate - New York

See links below for further details and to apply

Account Manager, Fundraising

Senior Sponsorship Specialist, Events (8 Month Fixed Term Contract)

Senior Associate, Events (8 Month Fixed Term Contract)

JobPost: Bloomberg - Senior Sustainability Analyst, Reporting & Data - Global Sustainability Office (NYC, close unknown)

JobPost: Mondelez - ESG Data & Digital Manager (various global locations)