Professional associations

Allianz GI: Eight lessons learned from 20 years of ESG investing 

• ESG investing is the answer to a double tragedy. Global systemic risks such as climate change are particularly challenging to address because they embody two intertwined dilemmas: a tragedy of the commons and a tragedy of the horizon. ESG investing has emerged as a mechanism for bridging the gap between short-term pressures and these long-term sustainability imperatives.
• A bet on change. ESG metrics as a risk and analytical tool provide an essential lens through which to navigate the investment landscape, focusing on avoiding idiosyncratic risks today while anticipating long-term systemic risks and opportunities tomorrow. Rather than assuming a continuation of the status quo, they enable investors and institutions to manage change and drive innovation.
• Moving from hype to mainstream. Investor attitudes towards sustainable investing have evolved from early hype to more sober resilience, reflecting the classic Gartner Hype Cycle framework. Indeed, the performance of ESG investments has been quite volatile over the past 15 years, mostly for the same reasons as non-ESG portfolios. But overall, ESG funds have proven resilient, continuing to see inflows and sustained growth. This shift towards more stable assets shows that sustainable investing has matured, not disappeared.
• Europe dominates ESG investing. The extent to which ESG investing is prominent in portfolios varies widely by region..........

New eye-popping data shows what is not often cited in the nation’s labor force. Fresh numbers reveal that unemployment for Black workers this year is steadily rising, especially for Black women.

For perspective, the jump for Black women was among the highest of any group and much greater than the unchanged overall 4.2% nationwide unemployment rate last month. Black women saw their unemployment climb by 106,000 in April.

See: here and here

It shouldn’t be difficult, should it?!

• There are companies whose products and services deliver sustainable outcomes and support sustainable economic transitions.
• There are investors who want to invest their capital into these companies.

However, somehow, all manner of complexity, bureaucracy, smoke and mirrors appears to get in the way of the simple process of:

• Companies knowing which investors are interested in sustainability (product and service) companies
• Companies communicating their (sustainable) equity story to these investors
• Investors heading this story and being able to communicate directly with these companies … and then – investing in them

Much of the blame for this appears to lie with the ‘over-ESG-ification’ of what should be simple.

To redress the balance, we propose:

Five simple, quick, free steps for companies with positive sustainability exposure …

Rather than supplying hundreds of ESG datapoints with often limited and sometimes no relevance to the company’s operations, we encourage companies to keep it simple by articulating clearly their contribution to sustainability and ensuring that it reaches the relevant target audience (managers of sustainability-themed portfolios) by following the following five simple steps:

Step 1: Create and post to the IR pages of your website a short (10-12 slide) Powerpoint presentation

This presentation should describe:

• What your business does (nature and scope of activity, divisional breakdown, summary of growth plans etc)
• How your business activities contributes to mitigating environmental, social or economic (sustainability) challenges
• (Where possible) quantitative measures of the contribution (as a percentage of revenues, of CapEx, of R&D spend … or whatever measure you deem most descriptive of your activities)
• Data on any basic sustainability metrics that you already gather.  Keep it simple.  Just disclose those that are easy to gather and act as baseline qualifiers for SRI/ESG funds.  Don’t get dragged into ticking every box

Step 2: Identify investors likely to be interested in your story ... for free

Use this guide: Show me the (Sustainable) Money to find investment institutions and SRI-Connect’s Directory to find relevant individuals at these.  (The latter requires registration with SRI-Connect but this is free and only takes two minutes).

Step 3: Ensure the IR pages of your website are easy for sustainable investors to navigate

Read and apply lessons from SRI-C's benchmarking of companies' sustainable investor communications practice

Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for a free benchmarking of your practice vs peers

Step 4: Post a link to your latest CSR/sustainability report to SRI-Connect's Market Buzz ... for free

A link to your report will then be distributed to the 6,000+ sustainable investor / analyst users of SRI-Connect.

Step 5: Ignore the other demands

This is the hardest step.

Companies should be confident that – having disclosed the essential contribution of your core business to sustainability and a sufficient number (few) baseline metrics to demonstrate that you are acting in good faith – serious investors and efficient research providers will be satisfied with this.

You will be asked by others for 100 datapoints.  However, stay confident that 10 is probably the largest number that any investor or research provider can meaningfully use.  Actually only 1 or 2 are likely to be relevant ... but understandably they may want to monitor a few more. 

Don’t over complicate things

The worst enemy of sustainable capital allocation is over-complication.  This traps us all in a Kafka-esque maze of datapoints and ratios that everyone claims that someone else should use … but nobody actually does.

The (only) way for companies to escape the maze is to articulate clearly what they do and why it is sustainable and to ensure that this information (and people ready to answer any questions) are available to investors.

Other resources

Beyond this, companies can improve their visibility with sustainable investors by using the following resources:

• www.sri-connect.com
• www.sustainable-ir.com
• WBCSD: How to: Target investors & analysts
• WBCSD: How to: Organise ESG roadshows and capital markets days
• WBCSD: How to: Prepare messages and data for investors and analysts
• WBCSD: How to: Integrate sustainability into an equity story
• Free tips (for listed companies) on how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your communication on sustainability to investors and analysts.
• Sustainable Investor Relations Services from SRI-Connect.

1. The full list of banks selected for assessment by the TPI Centre in 2025,
2. A high-level timeline for the research process, including when the banks will be contacted for feedback, and
3. A description of the methodological expansion and enhancements.

For details, please visit our website

Launching Scrutiny Hub – a think tank advocating for greater capacity for in-depth company analysis, not just more disclosure and frameworks. The first report is The Scrutiny Deficit and alongside this is a database of 200+ non-profits producing research on company sustainability (download here).  

There is a critical lack of capacity for in-depth company analysis. Too often, regulators have assumed that if information is disclosed it will be meaningfully analysed, but that’s rarely true.

This leads to duplicated shallow analysis that cannot handle the complex relationship between sustainability and profit – and that’s fuelling the pushback against sustainability.

Instead, corporate accountability needs an ecosystem of organisations with the expertise, resources, and independence to produce in-depth analysis that can build toward consensus between companies, investors and governments on the solutions to market failures. Non-profit providers of corporate scrutiny are uniquely positioned to provide this.

The report reviews the corporate scrutiny ecosystem and outlines proposals to increase analytical capacity – from aggregating non-profit research to new funding streams for corporate scrutiny, sell-side reform, and empowering non-executive directors.

Impact investing, which aims to benefit the environment or society while also earning a financial return, has always been tricky to define for investors.

Proving that a positive impact has actually been achieved has often been difficult, along with the debate over whether public markets are an appropriate investment channel.

But this should not stop investors from trying to make a difference by utilizing equity and bond markets to direct capital towards impactful companies. In addition, shareholder engagement can be used as a means to have a more direct influence on companies’ sustainability practices.

In this white paper, we outline Robeco’s approach to impact investing; how we distinguish between impact-aligned and impact-generating investing; how the Robeco SDG Framework provides the backbone for identifying suitable companies; and how we apply engagement to generate a positive real-world impact.

Banks play a central role in economic activity, and as such they are important players in the energy transition. However, the banking sector has struggled to develop metrics that show how their financing activities align with a clean energy transition.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance has developed a metric called the Energy Supply Finance Ratio (ESFR) with the goal of clarifying the link between financing and the energy transition. Put simply, the ESFR is the ratio of a bank’s financing of low-carbon energy production to its financing of fossil fuel energy production. A bank with an ESFR ratio close to 1 invests equally in low-carbon and fossil energy; a bank with a lower ESFR invests mainly in fossil energy sources, while a higher ESFR indicates more active financing of clean energy solutions.

In this note we summarize what the ESFR is and how it evolved. 

Note:

The Combined Management Report of Merck KGaA and the Merck Group for fiscal 2024 includes a combined Sustainability Statement. The Combined Sustainability Statement was prepared in order to meet the requirements set forth in Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council dated December 14, 2022 (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSRD), in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 and in sections 289b to 289e, 315b and 315c of the German Commercial Code (HGB) regarding a Combined Non-financial Statement. The Combined Sustainability Statement comprises the Group Sustainability Statement and the Non-financial Statement of the parent company. When preparing the Group Sustainability Statement, the first set of European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) was implemented in full.

Focal Points;

Highlights available here

Parameters:

ESG Data Centre: here

Materiality Matrix: Report aligned with ESRS, so materiality noted throughout.

Highlights:

Sustainability highlights report is here

Focal Points: 

Published: March 2025, covers calendar year 2024

Materiality Matrix: here

ESG Data Centre: here

Systemic risks matter because:

• For diversified institutional investors with long time horizons, overall market growth (Beta) is the primary driver of investment returns
• Markets may misprice or not price systemic risks
• A complete interpretation of fiduciary duties includes responsibility for maintaining a well-functioning market

UKSIF, in partnership with Scottish Widows and Canbury, launches a new report responding to the growing recognition of the challenges systemic risks present to investors and the need for wider investment professionals, beyond stewardship teams, to consider them.

The report considers:

• Why systemic risks are particularly important for asset owners to consider
• How asset managers can tackle these risks despite operating within short-term performance horizons
• The practical steps UK-based asset owners can take to address systemic risks

By embedding systemic risk management as part of investment objectives and aligning teams, asset owners can enhance portfolio resilience.

The research is based on a qualitative analysis combining over 20 interviews, a roundtable discussion, and a literature review. The interviews and roundtable discussion covered key topics including defining systemic risk, challenges in addressing systemic risks, and the roles of different stakeholders. Participants included investment and stewardship experts representing a diversity of asset owners, asset managers, NGOs, consultants, and academia. The literature review examined four main areas: frameworks and background to systemic risk and systems-thinking, evidence of beta and its relationship to portfolio returns, market mis-valuation of systemic risks, and approaches investors are taking or could take to address systemic risks.

Dear sustainable investment value chain,

Many thanks for the business opportunity!

I'm happy to accept this for the short-term …

But, I'm not sure it is right for the long-term for me (or anyone else) to own this opportunity…

Still, if you're offering - I would like to be involved in a different opportunity that's good for us all …

Why do companies and investors make it so hard for each other to discuss sustainability issues?

So, it's the time of year when companies around the world publish their sustainability reports and hold their AGMs.  This means that it's the time of year when there should be lots of direct contact between investors, companies and research providers on sustainability and corporate governance issues.

In this reporting cycle, there is plenty to discuss - notably related to companies' strategies for carbon reductions and diversity, equity and inclusion practices and labour standards in shifting supply chains and social inclusion … in a world where political support for these has been muted or evaporated.

Direct contact matters

These issues are all nuanced and complicated and strategic … and certainly benefit from in-depth, contextualising discussions between investors and companies - discussions that go way beyond the simplistic datapoints of "have you got a policy on X?" or "what are your emissions of Y?"

Such discussions become even more important in a world in which companies are becoming more reluctant to declare their positions or report their progress on politically-contentious issues or to blazon progressive commitments across websites.

Of course, companies cannot and many investors do not (in spite of perceptions) function on the short-term cycles that politicians do.  Most environmental and social programmes need investment that develops and is sustained through multiple political cycles.  Such investment needs to be discussed and understood.

However, it clearly needs to be done privately* at the moment.

Within 'mainstream' investment investor relations, in-depth, direct, private discussion between companies and investors happens regularly … through webinars and conferences and roadshows.  Of course, these also happen around sustainability issues but they are somewhat harder to achieve.

How so?

In most practical respects, this communications process is exactly the same as it is for mainstream investors and involves targeting, invitations, scheduling of Zoom calls etc.

In one respect, however, it is harder for companies and investors to discuss sustainability issues:  For Organisation A to 'talk' to Organisation B, someone in Org A needs to be able to identify the relevant person in Org B or vice versa … and yet …

Companies are unhelpful

SRI-Connect has reviewed the direct sustainable investor communications practice of 222 companies (as part of a wider project to benchmark best practice in direct sustainable investor communications)**.

Only 25 of the 222 companies surveyed identify (on their website) a specific person within the investor relations team as being responsible for ESG / sustainable investor communications.

Are we honestly surprised that investor letters get sent directly to the Chairman?

Exceptions to this … that display good practice are:

• AstraZeneca - Link
• Barclays - Link
• BASF - Link
• BMW - Link
• Deutsche Telekom - Link 

Also … Adidas, Air Canada, HSBC, Lanxess, Lloyds Bank, Mercedes, Merck, OMV, Philips, Repsol, Sanofi, SAP, Shell, Siemens, Vestas, Vodafone & VW.

Through this simple practice, these companies make it easy for an investor interested in sustainability communications to know whom to contact with any questions or requests.

(** Companies, please DM if you would like a free copy of how your company benchmarks here.  These are supplied on a sectoral basis to companies only … to help them develop their own practices.  We're not in the 'name and shame' business)

Investors are worse

Similarly, we have reviewed the websites of investors to understand the size and shape of their SRI/ESG teams and the division of responsibilities within these.  (Which analyst covers the Transport sector?  Who is responsible for Biodiversity? Etc).

While many investors profess an interest in 'engagement' and - indeed - write long reports on the subject, they make it remarkably hard for a company that actively wants to engage to identify the relevant people to speak with.

There are a few notable exceptions *** that make the responsibilities and interests of their teams visible on their websites:

• Artemis - Link
• Calvert - Link
• Candriam - Link
• DWS - Link
• Impax - Link
• Mirova - Link
• Storebrand - Link
• Wheb - Link 

… and a number more that describe their teams within their ESG / sustainability / stewardship reports … which is helpful … but why bury this useful information in a 60 page .pdf?!

However, the large majority of investors do not share this information in a way that is readily accessible to companies.  Perhaps this is why engagement is such a time-consuming exercise?!

(*** Investors, please DM if you would like a free copy of how your company benchmarks here.  These are supplied to investment firms directly.  Again, we're not in the 'name and shame' business)

So, thanks! … in the short-term

Ultimately, this all works very nicely for SRI-CONNECT.

Our network (which is free for companies, investors and research providers to join via here and use) is designed to help companies, investors and research providers identify and communicate with relevant people across the sustainable investment value chain.

Also, we offer additional services that enable companies to communicate proactively and on their own terms with the relevant sustainable investors and analysts.

Essentially companies can use the network for free to do it themselves or they can pay us to support them.

All very nice …

… but no thanks … not for the long-term

While we are delighted to offer these services and will continue to do so as long as they are needed, we would also love the value chain to move beyond this … to a point where every company knows who the relevant sustainability managers and analysts are at firms and every investor knows who the relevant people are at companies …

… so we can all focus on the interesting questions of sustainability strategy, messaging, analysis and capital allocation.

Connecting A to B is important … but ultimately easy, low-margin, not very interesting work … and I have reached a stage in my career where interesting is becoming more important.

… and please …

… but the strategy and messaging work … and the research and analysis work to ensure that the conversations that happen lead to meaningful behavioural change and reallocation of capital.

Yes, please.  I'll definitely have some of that please!

Byline:

Mike Tyrrell is OpenToWork … on anything that improve the quality and efficiency of company <=> investor communications on sustainability … so that he can keep funding www.sri-connect.com as a free research, communications and networking resource for the whole sustainable investment value chain globally.

* … and before anyone jumps with concern on the word 'private', I am not for a second suggesting that such conversations include price sensitive information.  This is not allowed (for good reason) in 'mainstream' investment and it is not allowed in sustainable investment either.  Conversations are typically private because this enables them to focus efficiently on the specific aspects of the few parties involved.  In any case, most companies don't - as recent disclosures show - have a clue what their next quarter's earnings are going to be so aren't in a position to disclose it.

Focal points:

• "Our strategic initiatives have made substantial progress this year, notably achieving our 2025 targets for greenhouse gas emissions, water and waste reductions a year early.
• We have made progress against our biodiversity net gain targets, with our sites completing over 160 local biodiversity projects during the year and we have matured our approach to product design, through the development of an eco-design toolkit.
• We continued to embed sustainability into our supply chain management and supported our communities through colleague volunteering, charitable donations and our Spirax Group Education Fund.
• We also have maintained a focus on our Responsible Business Foundations, making investments in health and safety (H&S), supporting the professional development of our colleagues, and ensuring that we operate ethically and in line with our values"

Parameters:

Published: 8 April 2025 as part of annual report

Data: Covers calendar year 2024

ESG data centre: not found

Materiality matrix: "As part of our preparation for CSRD reporting, we finalised a double materiality assessment (DMA) in 2024, engaging with representatives from across our stakeholder groups. The DMA confirmed that our One Planet Sustainability Strategy remains relevant and appropriate for the Group..." (see p57)

Focal points

Short highlights document here

Parameters

Publication date: April 2025
Data to: Calendar year 2024
Materiality assessment: See page 20-21
Data centre: Not found

Posted by ValueEdge blog staff on May 5, 2025

Note: Obituary for industry CG pioneer Bob Monks may be read here

"Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP) has just released their Outcomes dataset, a new data solution that enables investors to track how investments are contributing to sustainable outcomes over time. We look back at how their work has evolved over the last decade when PGGM initially developed the SDI framework with APG to align investments with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The work has and continues to facilitate greater transparency and comparability among investors."

Features investment management data

This paper discusses the impact of high-frequency corporate reporting on long-term value creation from an asset manager's perspective. We argue that mandatory quarterly reporting, and the associated pressure on management to meet earnings guidance, can lead to short-term decision-making.

This hinders sustainable growth and innovation, and may deter companies from accessing public markets. The paper proposes a shift towards higher quality semi-annual reporting, supplemented by continuous disclosure of material information, to better align managerial and investor behaviour with long-term investment and value creation.

Schroders: Global developments in sustainability regulation and policy Q4 2024 

"We highlight the latest sustainability policy milestones that are shaping the investment industry."

Key Takeaways

1 - Focusing on Asset Classes with High Risks or OpportunitiesAn understanding of the specific climate attributes of each asset class can provide a roadmap for focusing efforts. A strategic starting point is where there is high risk exposure, substantial potential for capturing upside, or both.
2 - Optimizing Tracking Error BudgetsWe believe sustainable quantitative strategies are effective for diversified core allocations across various tracking error budgets. Green bonds and alternatives may be good tools to pursue thematic views given declining greenium and attractive opportunities in private markets.
3 - Toolkits to Improve Climate ResilienceWith minimal adjustments, a climate-resilient optimized allocation can serve as a valuable reference benchmark when developing strategic asset allocation (SAA).
4 - Defining the “North Star”We believe the “North Star” should center on achieving long-term risk-adjusted returns. Other stakeholder considerations should be integrated in a manner that does not detract from core financial objectives. In our view, governance should be set up with the appropriate structure, personnel, processes and metrics aligned with the long-term objective.

Time: 18:30 - 20:00 SGT | 11:30 - 13:00 BST
In-person venue: Gaia Auditorium, Gaia, 91 Nanyang Ave, Gaia South Academic Building, Singapore 639956
Online platform: Zoom

The NBS-PRI-ECGI Public Lecture Series is a new global joint initiative between Nanyang Business School (NBS), Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI) and European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) to facilitate the knowledge exchanges between academics, practitioners, and policymakers in sustainable business.

The series provides monthly in-person or online public lectures. Each lecture will feature a leading academic to present cutting-edge research of a specific topic, and an industry expert to moderate the session, sharing insights from the field and also tailoring audience questions in a way to better enable bridging the gap between research and practice.

In this lecture, Professor William Cong will discuss the broader impacts of environmental sustainability issues and related policies, such as those on extreme weather and biodiversity conservation, which can influence areas including scientific research, cost of public capital, and wealth redistribution in the real estate market. He will also discuss how financial, scientific, and technological innovations can help with sustainability policies and vice versa,  calling for greater collaboration between economists, policy makers and scientists to address societal challenges.

Carbon Tracker’s Flying Blind series examines whether companies and their auditors are providing evidence that they are assessing the financial impacts of climate change and energy transition – and whether these impacts are reflected in today’s financial statements and audits. 

This report, the latest in the series, throws the spotlight on the auditors. Auditors, as the independent verifiers of financial reporting, play a crucial role in maintaining transparency and therefore trust in capital markets.

And yet, the vast majority of audit reports assessed still lack transparency over whether and how the auditors addressed the impacts of climate risk and the energy transition on financial statements. This reduces investors’ abilities to engage, assess investment choices and, hence, to effectively allocate capital. 

The analysis focuses on over 140 “carbon exposed” companies’ audit reports for fiscal year 2022 financial statements, as well as 2021 and 2023 fiscal years. It highlights the urgent need for investors and regulators to push for improved transparency.  

Report has a focus on energy transition, eg:

".... Looking ahead, we see rare earth metals demand being sustained by the global clean energy transition, although prices will continue to stagnate due to geopolitical volatility. In the US, while EV, battery and recycling industries are slated to lose federal support through the IRA, Trump’s renewed focus on the US rare earth and critical minerals dominance will help drive momentum for the processing and recycling industries.

For our full report, read here"

"We have found in previous studies that stocks and bonds of companies that were more resilient to sustainability-related risks (as measured by MSCI ESG Ratings) exhibited lower market volatility, suggesting they could fare better during periods of market stress, as they did during the COVID-19-driven sell-off in March 2020. Through the initial market turmoil that followed the U.S. tariff announcements on April 2, we tested whether this resilience would hold true for corporate bonds.

Between March 31 and April 11, 2025, we found that the MSCI Investment Grade (IG) and High Yield (HY) ESG Leaders Corporate Bond Indexes outperformed their parent indexes — in both USD and EUR (except for USD HY). Relative spread movement against the benchmark was the primary positive contributor to the excess return in all indexes, however, underscoring sustainability strategies’ potential in managing downside risks during stress."

Key Insights:

• The exit from climate pledges by US banks suggests banks are tracking the shift in regulatory priorities under the new US administration. Sustainalytics’ historical data indicates that the trend may have commenced earlier for some banks. We note a dilution of the ESG programs in the loan portfolio of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, and a deterioration of ESG credit and loan standards at JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.
• Relaxed regulation in the US banking sector could mean some opportunities for banks in the short term. A reprieve from regulatory enforcement actions could improve the ESG risk profile of some banks (i.e., their risk rating exposure and management scores), shifting them from high to medium risk, with potential for a significant 20% reduction of overall ESG risk.
• Deregulation may improve banking profit margins in the short term, but a lapse in controls and unchecked misconduct may damage long-term shareholder returns.
• Fines and the termination of government contracts by state legislators for banks that refuse to lean into high-risk industry financing may bring an additional dimension of financial risk for investors.

The pace of global warming and its associated impacts continues to accelerate. Achieving the goal of limiting global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius will require speeding up decarbonization efforts and a massive scaling up of investment, particularly in emerging markets.  

This report offers institutional investors strategies to finance decarbonization activities in emerging markets, which are expected to be the largest source of future emissions growth.

Drawing on the Morningstar Emerging Markets Low Carbon Transition Leaders (EM LCTL) Index and the Morningstar Sustainalytics Low Carbon Transition Ratings (LCTR), the report also demonstrates how investors can increase their exposure to companies that outperform their peers in terms of low-carbon transition readiness and demonstrate strong climate action. 

The recent massive power outage in Spain and Portugal has led to discussions around renewables and grid inertia, so it's probably worth a deeper understanding

...

The outage raised critical questions about the resilience of modern electricity grids with high levels of renewable energy penetration. Specifically, the event prompted the crucial debate: could the high percentage of renewables like solar PV and wind have contributed to grid instability during the incident?

And if so, how are other countries with significant wind and solar power in their electricity mix (such as Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany) managing these challenges seemingly without experiencing similar widespread system collapses?

...

1. The ASCOR Explainer Series provides an overview of how sovereign climate targets and policies are assessed in the ASCOR framework. The series consists of 14 videos and accompanying slides. 
2. ASCOR in practice: Use cases and insights outlines applications of the ASCOR tool and is organised by two user types: investors and sovereign bond issuers.

Systemiq, a company focused on promoting systems change work, has released its “Blue Whale Inquiry” seeking to combine insights into the current challenges facing sustainability gathered from 50 leaders. The resulting report outlines a range of changes across business, governments, NGOs and the financial sector to reinvigorate sustainability for the next stage of advancement towards global goals. It also includes a frank discussion of the challenges, but also potential breakthrough areas where past efforts could bear fruit even in an environment full of headwinds.

For the financial sector, three of the key catalysts highlighted are breaking the hold of short-term financial returns on decision-making, leadership among the Global South countries through adoption and delivery on more sustainable economic models, and the use of technology including AI to avoid “being trapped in an acronym-heavy compliance regime” that has developed within ESG.

Many of the necessary changes have been identified before. It remains true that they need to be tackled, but there is significant inertia that slows progress in deviating from the paradigm where worldly wisdom often values conventional failure over unconventional success. Likewise, there have been recurrent examinations of the problem of the high cost of capital for climate & SDG action in emerging markets & developing economies, and the debt distress that many countries experience as a result, even while the problem continues to be perceived as intractable.

As has been experienced in Islamic finance, there are often times when the most effective approaches to scale up an alternative to the current system eventually run into the headwinds of trying to compete on the incumbents' playing field. The thesis of the Blue Whale Inquiry is that the points where progress seems most difficult to achieve can also be the most fortuitous place to be working in when unanticipated major shifts are underway, as they are today.

The current dynamics in the global system are characterised by rapid shifts in the standalone viability of new sustainable energy systems, a rapid unscheduled disassembly of the unipolar order, and the introduction of AI technology that can widely disperse information with few limitations on access or use, for good and bad. The slipping of tectonic plates in the global order, and the reflexive rush towards seeking out security, are producing contradictory movements but allow a much greater range of action than is typically seen. These shifts often impact issues where the deadlock appears strongest, where the most effort is concentrated on change and resisting change.

All of that is to say to the financial sector, and particularly institutions from emerging markets & developing economies, and within Islamic finance, that there is little to be lost from making a renewed push towards the changes that have long been sought out. Contradiction between a desired outcome and the value(s) that finance often elevates has produced a stalemate, but there is no reason to believe these problems will always remain hardest to unknot.

For financial institutions in OIC markets seeing recalibration of externally imposed sustainability disclosure standards, there may be value in concentrating efforts on practices that provide a better balance between investor expectations and other stakeholder needs. For Islamic finance, the greatest opportunity may lie in leaning into the discussion of ethics that other financial sector stakeholders are wary of tackling. It may be more advantageous to be able to talk authentically about ‘just’ outcomes as the economy-wide transition accelerates, as our planetary debts come due.

Many of these same hopes and aspirations were brought into the mainstream as Covid swept around the world, only to be seemingly dashed by the desire to resume ‘normal’ life as the economy reopened. Yet at the same time, many of the features which made that previous inflection point come and go may have left changes that will enable future change.

For example, climate impacts seem much more ‘here and now’ rather than in the distant future, as they did during the past decade. Electrification and clean energy have gained a significant foothold as being economically competitive if not outright advantageous. Technology – not least around AI – has become ubiquitous where it previously seemed distant.

This is no guarantee that we will look back at today as representing a positive inflection point on the road towards restoring the balance between humanity, nature and the climate. But there is still more to be gained by being ambitious in pursuing delivery rather than being hesitant and maintaining the path for responsible finance as a disclosure and compliance effort.

Want to stay updated about the implementation of responsible finance in OIC markets & Islamic finance? Subscribe to RFI’s free email newsletter today!

With the Commission short of a quorum, no fines or advisory opinions can be issued—yet disclosure data keep flowing.

Our latest post explains how Prime Directive Analytics is analyzing those raw filings to flag misalignment between corporate PAC activity and stated ESG policies, giving SRI practitioners fresh signals even while enforcement is frozen.

Parameters

Reporting period calendar year 2024

Materiality is discussed in the 2024 Sustainability Statement, a matrix is shown on p53.

A detailed sustainability data tool is available here.

Focal points

• Reduced emission intensity across direct, indirect and supply chain altogether 32% by end of 2024 from a 2016 baseline
• Energy efficiency run-rate improved 391 GWh by end of 2024 from January–September 2022 baseline

Signs of growth despite slower pace of policy support

• Green, sustainable and sustainability-linked labels dominate the labelled bond and loan markets in Australia and New Zealand, directing investment towards projects that advance environmental and social goals
• Renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean transportation, sustainable water management, pollution prevention and control were among most popular use of proceeds categories
• Sustainable Fitch believes more labelled debt transactions will emerge once both countries have developed and published their respective sustainable finance taxonomies

"The geopolitical shifts we’ve seen in recent months seem to have accelerated the backlash against Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices that had already been building up for some time. Are we witnessing a structural shift away from ESG principles or merely a temporary setback?

Experts Rosl Veltmeijer, Lewis Johnston and Joeri de Wilde examine the implications of this backlash and the future of sustainable investing...."

Key Highlights:

• The qualitative nature and inherent limitations of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) pose challenges in accurately measuring corporate contributions. Their design for sovereigns further complicates investors' ability to evaluate corporate sustainability efforts and increases the risk of greenwashing
• Third-party SDG data solutions often lack clarity and standardisation, leading to over-generalisations that obscure true corporate contributions and result in missed investment opportunities
• We propose reimagining SDGs as investment themes rather than mere reporting tools, to allow for a more nuanced approach. By leveraging AI technology to link granular company data to these themes, investors can create diversified thematic portfolios that align more effectively with sustainability objectives and adapt to evolving market trends

Ahold Delhaize (AD), a leading global food retailer, faces two significant environmental risks in its portfolio while generating high profits and handing back significant sums to shareholders. The environmental risks are two-fold:

1) AD’s CO2-equivalent (CO2e) emissions remain high, owing in large part (estimated at 35%) to animal-based protein food products like meat, dairy, and eggs.Consequently, AD is lagging behind its own CO2e reduction targets for 2030 as well as the 2030 climate targets derived from the Paris Agreement.

2) AD fails to take responsibility for sustainable food production as only 3% of its food revenues consist of organic food products, lagging behind 2030 targets for the Dutch agricultural area (15% to be organic) and the EU (25%)....

In a pivotal year for climate and nature, Global Canopy’s 11th annual Forest 500 report, “Companies profit, forests fall: everyone pays the price”, presents an unsettling reality: while a handful of companies have made strong commitments for all their forest risk commodities, the vast majority are still failing to act on deforestation risks in their supply chains.

Forest 500 identifies the companies most exposed to deforestation risk and annually assesses them on the strength and implementation of their commitments on deforestation, conversion of natural ecosystems and associated human rights.

This year, the scope of the assessments has expanded; the report now covers three new commodities, all forest types and an additional 150 companies. Global Canopy continues to assess the 150 financial institutions that provide funding to the Forest 500 companies, and will release the findings later this year.

Blogpost series on insurance innovation:

• How insurance innovation can drive decarbonization
• Insured solutions: How insurance-based tools can unlock climate tech
• Unlocking insurance to rebuild stronger and greener after disasters
• Insuring the transition: Underwriting as a tool on climate

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is increasingly under the spotlight, for geopolitical reasons, energy security and concerns around its greenhouse gas footprint

• LNG accounts for 14% of global gas demand and the market has grown at more than 6% per annum for more than 20 years, with the US the largest exporter since 2023
• Methane is a key source of greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas and LNG value chains, and methane leakages are the main cause of the high emission intensity of US LNG
• LNG can play a role in the energy transition, mostly to displace coal, if methane emissions are kept at a minimum
• Drastically reducing methane emissions is doable technically and economically
• We believe investors, insurers and lenders must ask companies to cut methane emissions to near zero, and only direct their capital towards those changing their practices and making progress in this aim

Parameters

HOUSTON, April 15, 2025 - LyondellBasell a global leader in the chemical industry, has released its 2024 Sustainability Report, demonstrating significant progress in circular and low-carbon solutions, climate action and operational excellence.

"At LYB, sustainability is an opportunity to reimagine the future and create long-term value," said Peter Vanacker, CEO of LyondellBasell. "Our 2024 report, ‘From Vision to Value,’ highlights how we are rethinking the status quo and accelerating progress towards a circular and low-carbon future by investing in innovative technologies, strengthening collaborations, and embedding sustainability into our core strategy."

Report here

Materialty p115. ESG data centre for investors here.

Focal Points

• Value Enhancement Program (VEP) success: The company’s employee-driven VEP initiative unlocked a cumulative $800 million in recurring annual EBITDA and generated estimated annual carbon emissions reductions of 310,000 metric tons.
• Advancing the circular economy: LYB increased volumes of recycled and renewable-based polymers by 65% to over 200,000 metric tons, progressing toward its 2030 goal of producing and marketing 2 million metric tons annually and capturing incremental EBITDA of more than $1 billion.
• MoReTec-1 construction underway: To meet the rising demand for circular polymers, the company broke ground on its first commercial-scale chemical recycling plant in Wesseling, Germany, to convert hard-to-recycle plastic waste into new raw materials, including for contact-sensitive packaging.
• Reducing carbon emissions: In Q1 2025, LYB safely completed the shutdown of refining operations at its Houston refinery. This will reduce annual Scope 3 emissions by approximately 40 million metric tons.
  Renewable energy expansion: New power purchase agreements (PPAs) secured in 2024 will enable LYB to meet its target of sourcing at least 50% of electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
• Safety excellence: Out of over 90+ LYB manufacturing sites, 70 achieved GoalZERO, 72 were injury-free and the company achieved its second lowest-ever total recordable incident rate (0.127).
• Strategic growth & investments: The company acquired APK AG, adding Newcycling technology to its portfolio for solution-based recycling of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) waste.
• Sustainability recognition: Ranked first among plastics producers in BloombergNEF’s 2024 circular economy company rankings and retained its AA ESG rating from MSCI.
  
  

Includes 2 sections on healthy diet and climate commitments:

Growing appetite for healthy food
Consumers, particularly Gen Z, increasingly seek healthy and functional foods—a growth opportunity for grocers.

The demand for healthy options is growing, especially for fresh, functional, and “clean” food.12 Healthy options and foods that offer additional health-related benefits, referred to as functional foods, are growing rapidly.

Sustainability: Scope 3—the challenge ahead
Reaching sustainability targets is no small feat. Implementing the right measures at the right time can lower costs and help meet evolving consumer demands.

According to our consumer survey, the share of consumers who want to buy products that are more sustainable has decreased. However, Gen Z shoppers and millennials have an approximately 1.8 times greater intent to purchase more sustainable products than Gen X and baby boomers, and their share of the total number of shoppers is increasing

Sustainability has always held different meanings for different people. As a global asset manager, Robeco is increasingly seeing significant variations in regional approaches to sustainability – particularly in climate investing – reflecting the diverse markets that we serve.

Summary

• Robeco remains committed to sustainable impact and generating alpha
• Engagement and voting activities outlined in 2024 Stewardship Report
• Human rights, labor practices and biodiversity core to active ownership

Volkswagen will host a virtual ESG Conference for Investors and Analysts on May 7, 2025, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. CEST.

The conference will be hosted by Rolf Woller (Head of Group Treasury & Investor Relations) with following topics:

• People Sustainability - Dr. Thymian Bussemer (Head of Volkswagen Group HR Strategy & Innovation)
• IT Security at Volkswagen Group – Mauro Pianezzola (Volkswagen Group Information Security Management), Saritha Authi (CARIAD, Global Chief Information Security Officer)
• Volkswagen Group Sustainability Strategy “regenerate+” – Dr. Dirk Voeste (Chief Sustainability Officer)

JobPost: PRI - Analyst, Multi-Asset, Guidance  (London | Closing: 8:00pm, 18th May 2025 BST)

Analyst, Multi-Asset, Guidance
Principles for Responsible Investment
 
Employment Type Full time 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   
 
Seniority Junior
Closing: 8:00pm, 18th May 2025 BST

JobPost: MSCI - Sustainability & Climate Sales Specialist - Riyadh (London, close unknown)

JobPost: M&G - Impact Investing Senior Associate (London, close 21 May)

JobPost: State Street - Sustainability Governance & Program , Assistant Vice President (London, close 31 May)

JobPost: Arcadis - Sustainability Specialist – Nature & Biodiversity (Various locations)

Arcadis is the world's leading company delivering sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets.

We are more than 36,000 people, in over 70 countries, dedicated to improving quality of life. Everyone has an important role to play. With the power of many curious minds, together we can solve the world’s most complex challenges and deliver more impact together.

Role description:

As a Sustainability Specialist in the Global Sustainability team, you will be responsible for conducting research and analysis and proposing solutions on a variety of sustainability-related topics to help the Global Sustainability Programs advance in alignment with external assurance requirements and commercial opportunities. As part of your role, you will be supporting the integration of the programs within the business, supporting pilot projects, testing innovative tools and approaches, preparing lighthouse examples, developing and facilitating trainings, and supporting the preparation of thought leadership on specific topics. 

JobPost: MSCI Real Assets - Sustainability & Climate Sales Specialist - Riyadh

JobPost: S&P Global - Associate Director, Global Carbon Markets (multiple locations, close unknown)

JobPost: Natixis - Business Analyst ESG & Green Weighting Factor (Paris)

Principles for Responsible Investment
 
Employment Type Full 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 Mid-level
Closing: 8:00pm, 27th Apr 2025 BST

S&P Global - Associate Director, Energy Transition Consulting (Multiple locations | close unknown)

JobPost: SSgA - Sustainability Reporting & Climate Policy Officer (London | Close 30 Apr)

JobPost: Goldman Sachs Alternatives - Sustainability & Impact, ESG Product Design, Senior Analyst (London |  Close unknown)

Jobpost: Merck - Associate Director, Sustainability Strategy & Engagement (US | close 7 Apr)

Senior Specialist Stewardship, Nature

Policy Specialist, Canada (12 Month Fixed Term Contract)

Specialist, Progression & Innovation

Associate, Sustainable Financial System

Digital Marketing Associate

Senior Policy Specialist, Africa

Senior Specialist, Sustainability Initiatives 18 Month Fixed Term Contract, (with possible extension)

Associate, Sustainability Initiatives (18 Month Fixed Term Contract)

Head of Human Rights, Social & Governance Issues

Project Manager, Events & Initiatives (12 Month Fixed Term Contract)

JobPost: Goldman Sachs - Asset & Wealth Management, Private Credit, Global Head of ESG, Vice President (NYC | Close unknown)

Senior Learning & Development Partner - People & Culture Team - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Senior Internal Communications & Engagement Business Partner - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Specialist, CRM Administrator - Solutions & Technology - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Growth Marketing Manager - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Specialist, Stewardship Climate Action 100+ (12 Month Fixed Term Contract) - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied