Europas Datenbank für nachhaltige ESG-Kapitalanlagen heißt „Arabesque“

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(Picture: Igor Flek on Unsplash)

Nachhaltiger Kapitalanlagen sind ein Megatrend. Spätestens seitdem die EU die ESG-Spielregeln und Taxonomie fixiert. Gewaltige Geldströme werden künftig umgelenkt. Doch wer liefert die seriöse Datenbasis, klare Kriterien und vor allem Instrumente, hohe Ethik mit hohen Renditen zu verknüpfen? Das deutsch-britisches Fintech Arabesque macht dabei auf sich aufmerksam.
 
Für die Europäische Union und die neue Ampelregierung in Berlin ist es eine Herzensangelegenheit. Für Millionen von Anlegern auch. Sie wollen ihr Geld nicht nur gut anlegen, sondern auch mit gutem Gewissen. In der Finanzwelt hat sich dafür das Kürzel ESG eingebürgert, das für die englischen Begriffe „Environment, Social, Governance“ steht. Nachhaltige Kapitalanlage wird zum Topthema des Jahrzehnts. Das Problem dabei ist allerdings: Wie findet man seriöse Anbieter nachhaltiger Anlagen? Wer definiert  nachprüfbare Kriterien ? Wer liefert belastbare Daten dazu? Und vor allem - wie verknüpft man nachhaltige Kapitalanlagen mit guten Renditen? Und kann man das über künstliche Intelligenz automatisieren?
Genau auf die Lösung dieser Probleme hat sich ein deutsch-britisches Fintech „Arabesque“ spezialisiert, das derzeit London und Frankfurt die großen Kapitalsammelstellen beeindruckt.

Arabesque ist eine Mischung aus Datenbank, Ratingagentur und KI-Investmentfonds. Wie eine bilanzielles Ökotest der Finanzindustrie liefert das Fintech die Instrumente der grünen Revolution an den Börsen. Die größten und besten Anlegeradressen holen sich inzwischen die Daten und Instrumente von Arabesque. Von der Commerzbank über die Swiss Life, von der Allianz und der DWS bis zu den Finanzbehörden Singapurs reicht der rasch wachsende Kundenkreis. Hessens grüner Wirtschaftsminister Tarek Al-Wazir will, dass Frankfurt beim Thema Green Finance „vorne mitspielt“.

In Kooperation mit führenden Professoren der Universitäten in Stanford, Cambridge, Oxford und Maastricht sowie dem Jet Propulsion Lab in den USA (NASA) versucht das Arabesque-Team, ESG-Informationen in einen quantitativen Portfolioansatz zu integrieren. Arabesque wurde 2013 nach einem Management-Buyout aus der Barclays Bank gegründet. Das Team um Gründer Omar Selim nutzt ESG und KI, die Faktoren der modernen Finanzwirtschaft, um neue, nachhaltige und transparente Finanzlösungen bereitzustellen. Philipp Rösler, der ehemalige Bundesminister für Wirtschaft und Technologie, unterstützt das Fintech ebenso aktiv wie Georg Kell, Gründungsgeschäftsführer des Global Compact der Vereinten Nationen.
Selim, Rösler oder Kell und ihr Team sind keine Ökos, die die Welt auf Dollar komm raus begrünen oder Anleger mit Taxonomie-Regeln nerven wollen. Aus den Milliarden von Einzeldaten haben sie über die Jahre erkannt, dass Unternehmen, die sozial und ökologisch besser agieren als andere, über die Zeit auch wirtschaftlich erfolgreicher sind. Deswegen haben sie den Schritt zur Einbindung ihrer Systeme in das Portfoliomanagement gewagt.

Anfangs nannte man sie die „grüne Ratingagentur“ oder das „Öko-Moodys“. Heute weiß man in London, Frankfurt und Singapur, dass Arabesque jenseits der Daten auch die Instrumente zur nachhaltigen Kapitalanlage liefert. So hat das Unternehmen einen der weltweit ersten vollständig KI-gesteuerten Portfoliomanager auf den Markt gebracht, der maßgeschneiderte Strategien mit Nachhaltigkeitszielen berücksichtigt. In der Selbsterklärung des Unternehmens heißt es: „Unsere Mission besteht darin, Nachhaltigkeit auf allen Kapitalmärkten zu etablieren. Wir glauben, dass wirtschaftliche Wertschöpfung eng mit ökologischer Verantwortung, sozialer Gerechtigkeit und exzellenter Corporate Governance verschmolzen sein muss. Denn Nachhaltigkeitsfaktoren sind mehr als nur zusätzliche finanzielle Erwägungen für Investoren – sie bilden die Grundlage erfolgreicher Märkte. Wir wollen diesen Ansatz durch unsere Asset Management-Dienstleistungen und die ESG-Datenplattform S-Ray® für alle zugänglich machen. Finanzen sind dann ein Katalysator für nachhaltige Veränderungen und ermöglichen uns, unsere Werte zu leben.“ Das „ESG Book“ macht Nachhaltigkeitsdaten für alle Stakeholder besser verfügbar und vergleichbar, ermöglicht es den Unternehmen, über eine digitale Plattform ihre eigenen Daten zu verwalten, stellt rahmenneutrale ESG-Informationen in Echtzeit bereit und fördert die Transparenz.

Die von Arabesque gegründet „ESG-Book“-Allianz fordert einen neuen, koordinierten Ansatz für ESG-Daten, bei dem die Nachhaltigkeitsinformationen von Unternehmen allgemein zugänglich, vergleichbar und transparent sind. Dies wiederum kann zu einer drastischen Veränderung der Art und Weise führen, wie ESG-Daten auf globaler Ebene integriert und gemessen werden. Denn damit würden ESG-Daten zum öffentlichen Gut.

Tembusu Partners launches its first Sustainable Future Fund in collaboration with Eco-Business

Singapore, 28 October 2021  – Tembusu Partners in collaboration with Eco-Business today announced the launch of the Sustainable Future Fund (SFF), an inaugural platform that will deploy purpose-driven capital into solving the most urgent sustainable development challenges across Asia. 

The targeted USD 100 million fund will pursue high impact growth stage opportunities across the region that focuses on addressing the climate crisis and reducing social inequalities. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report issued recently — described as “a code red for humanity” by the UN Secretary General António Guterres — warns that rising temperatures will lead to dangerous weather extremes and rising sea levels in the coming years, and Asia is particularly vulnerable to its effects.

With the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference set to take place next week in Glasgow, Scotland, Guterres has stressed that more ambition is needed with respect to climate mitigation, adaptation, and finance. 

For Southeast Asia in particular, sea levels are rising faster than elsewhere, and shorelines are retreating in coastal areas where 450 million people live. At the same time, the region is also home to the world’s most rapidly developing markets with huge infrastructural needs. 

A recent UNESCAP report reveals that even before the pandemic, the Asia-Pacific region was not on track to meet any of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The SDGs are an investment pathway that can help the region overcome economic uncertainty and tap into a trillion-dollar opportunity for new businesses, products and services that help achieve a sustainable and equitable future. 

The Sustainable Future Fund is uniquely positioned to take advantage of these opportunities and drive change in the region with its impact-driven investment strategy and proprietary framework for ESG assessment that will ensure its portfolio companies deliver not just financial returns but demonstrable impact. 

It will take a broad sector approach and focus on the five high opportunity areas it has identified: energy transition, climate action, sustainable cities and circular economy, sustainable food and agriculture, and inclusion.

The Sustainable Future Fund will tap on the vast, combined networks of Tembusu Partners and Eco-Business which provide an inside track to a strong deal pipeline, and will seek family offices and investors who are aligned in values and committed to supporting this mission to create impact in Asia.

The fund is pleased to welcome its first overseas investment partner, Horizon Family Partners, who have committed to raise up to US$20 million from a number of prominent international family offices.  Horizon Family Partners was created to bring together like-minded multi-generational families to deliberate innovative ideas relating to global sustainability.

In addition, the Fund is delighted to welcome family office Rumah Group and its philanthropic arm Rumah Foundation, as a limited partner. Led by established philanthropist Stanley Tan, who is co-founder of the Asia Philanthropy Circle, the Group has committed to investing S$5million and will play an active role in exploring market-based solutions for sustainable development.

The fund today also announced the international advisory board members joining its team. They include:

  • Georg Kell, founding executive director of the United Nations Global Compact and chairman of Arabesque;

  • Michael Meehan, chairman of the UK Sustainable Investment & Finance Association (UKSIF) and former CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI);

  • Nicholas Parker, impact entrepreneur, founder of The Cleantech Group and former chair of Corporate Knights;

  • and chaired by Lim Hwee Hua, Former Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister of Singapore and Second Minister for Finance and Transport

“The themes we are focusing on in this fund target founders and companies which solve some of the biggest issues of our era. Together with Eco-Business, we aim to support the scaling up of new and growing impact-driven businesses in Asia, towards building a sustainable future. We are also delighted that KPMG will be supporting the Fund by providing insights on ESG developments,” said Andy Lim, chairman of Tembusu Partners.

Mr Ong Pang Thye, Managing Partner, KPMG in Singapore said: “Investing in companies that have a clear roadmap on how to help countries and societies achieve sustainability will shift the needle for global climate change. Ultimately, lending financial support is about seeding the best insights into the ecosystem, so that deep-seated change can really happen.

“KPMG in Singapore welcomes working alongside Tembusu Partners to make sustainability a reality, as we provide insights on ESG trends that impact the near and longer-term of Asia’s future, while encouraging companies to consider ESG transformation efforts that can make that difference for environment, economy and enterprise growth”, he added.

The Sustainable Future Fund has a robust pipeline of quality deals and has already invested in an Indonesian start-up in the financial inclusion space. It is in the midst of investing into another three opportunities in the region involved in areas such as mental health, energy transition and sustainable cities.

The Fund features General Partners Andy Lim, Jessica Cheam and Brandon Courban; and a seasoned investment team comprising Jonathan Ang, Jen Loong and Venture Partners Tharani Prakash and Junice Yeo. 

“This unique fund will be well-positioned to tap the growth of the ESG and impact investing space in Asia. By helping to facilitate capital into the most promising companies in the region, we will be able to further scale our sustainable development impact,” said Cheam, managing partner of the fund and founder of Eco-Business. 

Lim Hwee Hua, advisory chair, added: “The urgency of the climate crisis is finally becoming the mainstream concern that it should be. The good news is that ESG and finance are becoming more closely intertwined – and there is growing evidence today to show that investors can see better, more sustainable returns through ESG investing. There is a huge opportunity here for capital to be deployed in game-changing solutions across Asia.”

For more details visit www.tembusupartners.com or email sff@tembusupartners.com

About Tembusu Partners

Tembusu Partners is a boutique private equity investment firm that invests in promising early and growth-stage companies with a view to generate sustainable returns for both investee companies and investors. Besides supporting companies through mezzanine and equity financing, it also contributes operational expertise to help them grow. Headquartered in Singapore, its primary geographical markets are within Emerging Asia – comprising China, India and Southeast Asia. For more information, please visit www.tembusupartners.com.

About Eco-Business   

Established in 2009, Eco-Business is an independent media and business intelligence company dedicated to sustainable development and ESG performance. It publishes high quality, trusted news and views in multimedia formats on business and policy developments around the world with a sustainability and ESG-focused lens. Eco-Business provides research and consulting on a wide range of issues which create strategic value for our partners and clients. It owns and creates thought-leadership platforms which inform policymaking, improve business practices and foster collaboration among different sectors. Eco-Business is headquartered in Singapore, with a presence in Manila, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Zurich, New York, and correspondents in major cities across the world. Visit us at www.eco-business.com

It also hosts a new global sustainability innovation platform called The SDG Co (www.thesdg.co.) This tech-driven platform connects start-ups, corporates, governments and investors working on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provide a global community space where people and businesses across the globe can network, learn, meet experts, partner and share innovations.

In Memory of John G. Ruggie

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of John G. Ruggie, at the age of 76.

John Ruggie touched many minds and hearts, and leaves behind a towering legacy of thought leadership in human rights and social innovation. As an intellectual, he greatly influenced global affairs at the intersection of a globalizing world, with a particular concern for societal implications. As a social innovator, and as policy advisor to former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, John played a critical role in launching the UN Global Compact in 2000, which has since become the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative. He was also a driving force behind successful institutional reform and renewal at the UN, for which the United Nations as a whole were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.

That same year, John left the United Nations for the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he served as Berthold Beitz Research Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs, although he kept in close touch with the UN organization. In 2005, Annan appointed Ruggie as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Business and Human Rights, tasked with proposing measures to strengthen the human rights performance of the global business sector. In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council, in an unprecedented step, unanimously endorsed the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” that John developed through extensive consultations, pilot projects and research. The ‘Ruggie Principles’ have since made their way into numerous national legislations and have helped shape the progress of human rights in business in the 21st century.

John was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and received numerous awards from academic and professional societies for his contributions to social science, public policy, and the development of international law. During the last years of his life, John chaired the board of the non-profit organization Shift, and served on the Board of Arabesque where his wit and principles-based approach to markets guided strategies and operations.

Georg Kell, Chairman of Arabesque and founding Executive Director of the UN Global Compact, today said:

“John Ruggie was my mentor and friend for nearly three decades. I can think of no other person whose mind and heart could span so many geographies and disciplines. During his years at the UN, it was not difficult to locate him in the building – one had to just follow the sound of his unique laughter, which cheered up diplomats and bureaucrats alike! And more recently, it was energizing to engage with John on the role of new technologies for a more sustainable world. He had a beautiful and curious mind, but most of all a kind heart.”

“John’s career as an academic and a social innovator is an inspiration to all young people who look for purpose. His principles-based approach to all matters of decision-making is a role model for us all.”

John, you will be greatly missed. We will not forget you, and we will continue to grow your legacy. The good fight for fairness, respect, understanding and reason will go on.

UN Global Compact 15th Anniversary. John - a great friend, a great mentor

Volkswagen Board meeting with Sustainability Council discusses the end of the internal combustion engine

Herbert Diess, CEO Volkswagen Group (left), and Georg Kell, Sustainability Council.

The Sustainability Council called for an even stronger discussion on Volkswagen Group’s corporate purpose to provide CO2 neutral mobility for all, together with a clearly defined end date for internal combustion engines. During the discussion, both sides agreed on a more thorough ESG (Environmental Social Governance) reporting system, and to commission an additional study on socially responsible workforce transition.

The firm commitment of Volkswagen to the EU Green Deal includes the demand for more green energy, faster exit from fossil energy production, rapid expansion of charging infrastructure, and new rules for state aid to strengthen the transformation and decarbonisation of industry and production sites. The nine-member Sustainability Council has been advising Volkswagen on strategic issues relating to sustainability and social responsibility since 2016.

Investment criteria will increasingly centre on ESG aspects, making it necessary for Volkswagen to strengthen its ESG reporting, ensuring transparency and measurability.

“Volkswagen has the opportunity to set itself apart from the competition with its global sustainability agenda” said Georg Kell, Founding Director of the UN Global Compact and Spokesperson for the Sustainability Council. To operationalise an even more systematic ESG management, the Council recommended building up a proprietary data system.

On a political level, former EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard emphasised the need for strong collaboration between CEOs and European policymakers to demonstrate that European businesses support the target to reduce EU greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030 versus the 1990 levels. Volkswagen is a founding member of the “CEO Alliance for Europe’s Recovery, Reform and Resilience” and as such has been fostering the dialogue between politics and business to help implement the European Green Deal to underline the commitment to the demanding climate targets of the European Union. Ottmar Edenhofer, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, pointed out the challenges of a carbon border adjustment mechanism that will require international cooperation as well as the need for industry to invest in pilot projects on negative emission technologies (carbon capture). The Council members also called on Volkswagen to set decarbonisation goals in line with the ambition to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees

Regarding a concrete date for the end of the internal combustion engine, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess explained that switching to battery-electric vehicles only makes sense from a climate perspective in countries with adequate green energy supplies.

“We’re fully committed to becoming climate- neutral” Diess reiterated. “It’s important to acknowledge that our story is a transition story and we expect the transformation to take two car model lifecycles.” In the EU the end of combustion engine might come earlier after 2030 than in Latin America. Overall, the effectiveness of e-mobility as a driver for climate protection depends on primary energy use..

The top priorities of the Council for the next two years include supporting Volkswagen to become a purpose-driven company, which in the Council’s view is crucial to guaranteeing employees’ buy-in for the transformation.

“It’s the reason that makes employees get out of bed every morning” said Magdalena Gerger, CEO and President of Systembolaget AB. Encouraged by the Council’s recommendation, Volkswagen decided to include the purpose discussion in its “Strategy 2030,” which will be presented later this year.

The transition to e-mobility and digitalisation will also have an impact on employment and workforces. A study by Fraunhofer Institute for Organisation and Industrial Engineering IAO commissioned by the Sustainability Council emphasises that e-mobility and digitalisation will cause a smaller decline in the workforce at Volkswagen than research studies had previously indicated. At the meeting, Michael Sommer, former President of the Confederation of German Trade Unions, presented the plan for a new research project on work and qualification in 2030.

The current five-year plan in China and its impact on Volkswagen were also discussed. Council Member Ye Qi, Professor of Environmental Policy and Management at Tsinghua University Beijing highlighted that the implementation of the plan is expected to require more ambitious decarbonisation measures. Volkswagen Group China already announced that all production sites for the fully electric MEB- platform are to be powered exclusively by green energy.

Companies are crucial to solving the climate crisis. 75% are falling short

By Hanna Ziady, CNN Business

London(CNN Business)Less than a quarter of the world's big public companies are doing their part to address the climate crisis, according to new research highlighting the shortcomings of corporate climate pledges.

In an analysis published on Thursday, sustainable finance firm Arabesque assigned companies in 14 of the world's largest stock indexes a "temperature score" based on publicly reported emissions data between 2015 and 2019.

It found that less than 25% of companies are on track to achieve the goals of the Paris agreement by 2050, which aims to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Despite growing commitments by companies to tackle the climate crisis, emissions have continued to rise since 2015 and initial data shows there was a decrease in global Paris-alignment last year, according to Arabesque, which uses data to assess corporate sustainability performance.

The company's chairman, Georg Kell, said the research confirms that voluntary measures taken by companies "have made a difference here and there, but they don't add up to systemic change."

"This is a critical year," Kell, who is founding director of the UN Global Compact, told CNN Business. "Time is running out. We need to significantly step up, we have only a few years left."

Arabesque's research found that flagship indexes in Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Finland and Japan have the largest number of listed companies on course to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius target by 2050. The figure is lower for London's FTSE 100 (UKX) and the US S&P 100 (OEX), and drops even further for Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and Australia's ASX 50.

The study covered emissions generated directly and indirectly by companies, known as scope 1 and scope 2 emissions, but did not cover emissions from the products they sell, known as scope 3, due to difficulties obtaining this data.

Arabesque's data also shows that 15% of companies, with a combined market value of $5 trillion, are not publicly disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions. That's an improvement on 2014, but "has yet to translate into corporate climate action at scale," said Rebecca Thomas, who led the research.

"While overall progress is encouraging, a lot more needs to be done to keep the 1.5-degree goal within reach," she added.


Putting a price on carbon


The report coincides with the start of a two-day virtual summit on the climate crisis convened by US President Joe Biden, which dozens of world leaders are expected to attend. The summit will "underscore the urgency — and the economic benefits — of stronger climate action," according to a statement issued by The White House last month.

While governments around the world are including environmental projects in their coronavirus recovery plans, the International Energy Agency warned earlier this week of a surge in global carbon dioxide emissions as economies bounce back from the pandemic.

Kell said that governments have been slow to act on the climate crisis, particularly when it comes to carbon pricing, which effectively taxes companies for carbon pollution and is widely viewed as the most effective way for countries to reduce emissions. "We have to price carbon significantly higher across the board in order to have systemic change," he added.

Given relatively little government intervention, Kell said it was "not a small thing" that a quarter of companies are aligned with the Paris goals.

"The fact that many European former oil and gas companies are exploring renewables and electrification should be welcome," he added, pointing to the shift towards electric vehicles among car manufacturers as another sign of progress that was "unthinkable" just a few years ago.

"The imperative to decarbonize is increasingly urgent and it will be forced upon corporations ready or not," Kell said. "Those that think ahead and anticipate a higher carbon price in the future will clearly be much better positioned."

A third of top UK firms' CO2 emissions not in line with global climate goals

theguardian.com, Jasper Jolly

The mining sector performed poorly in terms of reducing CO2 emissions by 2050 in research by climate data investment research firm Arabesque. Photograph: Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters

The mining sector performed poorly in terms of reducing CO2 emissions by 2050 in research by climate data investment research firm Arabesque. Photograph: Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters

Analysis shows emissions from 31 FTSE 100 companies are well above what’s needed to hit Paris targets

Three out of 10 of the UK’s biggest public companies emit carbon dioxide at a rate that would contribute significantly to the climate crisis, according to analysis that shows the scale of the challenge for corporate Britain to cut emissions to zero.

Thirty-one members of the FTSE 100, the index of Britain’s largest listed companies, are emitting carbon dioxide at a rate consistent with global temperature increases of 2.7C or more by 2050, according to analysis by Arabesque, a company that provides climate data to investors.

Highlighting the mounting risks to the planet, the rise would be above the target set under the 2015 Paris climate accords to limit global heating to below 2C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C. A temperature rise of 2.7C is thought to be likely to lead to severe damage to the environment and to human life.

Oil companies including BP and Royal Dutch Shell are among those that produce carbon dioxide emissions consistent with temperature rises of more than 2.7C, even without taking into account the emissions related to the fossil fuels they dig up and sell, known as scope 3 emissions.

The mining sector also performed poorly, with Anglo American, Antofagasta, BHP, Evraz, Fresnillo and Polymetal all among the companies scored at above 2.7C.

Georg Kell, Arabesque’s chair, said he believed the momentum has turned decisively in favour of decarbonisation in recent years, although investors were only starting to consider climate risks as financial risks. However, he added that there were still issues with companies’ disclosures of their emissions.

“Too many companies are playing the benchmarks to look good,” Kell said. “Our current system does not adequately price the good and the bad. Our old systems still do valuations based on past experiences.”

Kell, who previously founded the United Nations Global Compact, a voluntary pact between business leaders hoping to cut emissions, said he hoped that the UN’s Cop26 climate meeting, to be hosted by the UK this year, could prove to be as important a landmark moment as the Paris agreement in the push for decarbonisation.

Goals for the summit, a key event for the UK government, might include forcing laggards to catch up or even moving towards a regime of enforcement of enforcement of decarbonisation targets, as well as opening the way to further collaboration efforts.

“I’m very optimistic now because we have an historical alignment – the politics is aligned,” he said.

The push to green the UK economy has gained momentum as well. Many of the companies at the 2.7C or higher level on current emissions have recently committed to setting science-based targets, which are based on United Nations benchmarks and are viewed by environmentalists as the gold standard of audited plans to cut emissions.

They included packaging company Smurfit Kappa, property company British Land and water companies Severn Trent and United Utilities. Decarbonisation technology does not yet exist at scale for airlines, but International Airlines Group, the owner of British Airways, has committed to setting a science-based target once parameters for airlines are agreed, which is likely to be this year. Building materials company CRH disputed Arabesque’s findings, saying it has a science-based target at a 2C scenario that has been independently verified to be aligned with the Paris climate goals.

Arabesque assigned scores to most of the FTSE 100 by calculating their greenhouse gas emissions per dollar of revenue, a measure based on the latest disclosed emissions that allows comparisons between companies of different sizes. The scores only took account of scope 1 and 2 emissions, which are those directly under the companies’ operational control or resulting from their use of electricity, steam and energy.

Some large polluters on the FTSE 100, including Anglo American, BP, Evraz and Glencore, have said they will cut emissions to net zero before 2050, but have given little detail on how they will achieve this.

Some 27 of the 83 companies analysed have already reduced their emissions intensity at a rate that is compatible with keeping temperature increases to 2C or lower.

Arabesque’s analysis does not cover the entire FTSE 100 as data from some companies is not up to date. Those companies not included are mainly services companies, which tend to have smaller direct carbon emissions, although some of those companies including banks have been criticised for funding other polluting companies.


Companies consistent with 2.7C heating or more: Admiral Group (insurance), Anglo American (mining), Antofagasta (mining), Ashtead (equipment rental), Associated British Foods (food and retail), BHP (mining), BP (oil), Bunzl (packaging), DS Smith (packaging), Evraz (mining), Ferguson (heating products), Fresnillo (mining), Glencore (mining), Intertek (product testing), Morrisons (supermarket), National Grid (electricity), Next (retail), Pennon Group (water), Polymetal (mining), Rentokil Initial (pest control and cleaning), Rio Tinto (mining), Royal Dutch Shell (oil), Smith & Nephew (medical equipment), and Whitbread (hospitality)

Companies at 2.7C, but committed to science-based targets: British Land (property), CRH (building materials), Croda (chemicals), International Airlines Group (airline), Smurfit Kappa (packaging), Severn Trent (water), and United Utilities (water)

All of the companies that responded to requests for comment said they were working to cut their carbon emissions by 2050.

Growing ESG data and tech markets becoming integral to sustainable finance

By Aaran Fronda | Published in Bobsguide on 3 February 2021

Technology will drive “radical transparency” in sustainable finance and ensure coherence on the road to net-zero

Global inflows into sustainable funds were up 88 percent in Q4 2020 to $152.3bn compared with the same period in 2019, with Europe continuing to dominate the space, accounting for 80 percent of these inflows, while the US took in 13.4 percent, up slightly from 12 percent in the last quarter, according to a recent report by Morningstar.

But while statistics show investors’ appetite for firms with a strong ESG track record, if sustainable finance is to effectively play its role in the decarbonisation movement, financial markets must embrace new technologies capable of analysing raw data to limit greenwashing and ensuring businesses transition to long-term sustainable practices.

“One key development we have seen in the past year is the rise of sustainability-linked bonds,” says Lili Hocke, product manager, sustainable finance opinion services at Sustainalytics, a provider of ESG research and ratings for investors. “The green bond market has developed a lot over the last decade, but there are still signs that, in some parts of the market, the issuing of a green bonds doesn’t necessarily mean that it will lead to a reduction in carbon emissions.”

In January, reports surfaced about institutional investors divesting green bonds issued by the State Bank of India after it came to light that the lender intended to use some of the proceeds to finance the Adani Carmichael coal mine in Australia – a project that is estimated to generate 4.7 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over its lifetime. For some, the story raised questions around how serious financial institutions are about sustainable financing, and the need for more data to shape portfolio management.

“I don’t think greenwashing will ever be avoided fully,” says Georg Kell, chairman of Arabesque, a technology company that uses AI and big data to assess sustainability performance relevant for investment analysis and decision making. “The good news is that ESG data can increasingly be benchmarked against actual performance and thereby minimise the risk of investors being tricked.”

“We need to use technology to drive radical transparency to ensure coherence.”

The ESG data market is thriving, with an expected annual growth rate of 20 percent for ESG data and 35 percent for ESG indices, while the overall market could approach $1bn in 2021. Data providers like Sustainalytics and Arabesque are developing a range of ESG products that include everything from raw data to aggregated scores and second-party opinions of green bond issuers frameworks to ensure financial instruments are in line with market expectations and industry best practices.

“Bond issuers and fund managers need to be clear with their investors about whether the fund is doing positive or negative screening,” says Sam Robinson, deputy treasurer at Hitachi Capital UK, a leading provider of financial solutions for retail, motor, business and consumers. “Investors need to take a holistic view of the companies and projects they invest in, rather than simply looking at a green bond or ESG fund as hitting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to avoid sustainable financing becoming just a box ticking exercise.”

This rising trend resulted in Morningstar acquiring Sustainalytics in April 2020, with the Chicago-based firm’s CEO acknowledging that modern investors in public and private markets are demanding ESG data, research, ratings, and solutions to make informed, meaningful investment decisions.

In turn, as socially responsible investing grows increasingly important to investors and AI-driven data analysis empowers them to effectively assess the “greenness” of various sustainable financing options it is prompting businesses to bolster their ESG reporting to provide tangible data or risk losing access to cheaper funding.

“Previously in our ESG reports we had talked a lot about sustainability initiatives, but I think investors really want to see that stuff quantified,” says Robinson. “What investors really want to see is how many ‘green’ vehicles we are financing? How much CO2 is your EV/ hybrid fleet or ESG project saving per year?

“A key point that investors want to see in corporate ESG reports is targets and a clear roadmap to track and ensure a company hits those targets.”

Finance chiefs face pressure to get to grips with sustainability

By Sarah Murray for the Financial Times

Bird’s-eye view: satellite imaging that tracks environmental impact is growing in relevance for CFOs © PlanetScope

Bird’s-eye view: satellite imaging that tracks environmental impact is growing in relevance for CFOs © PlanetScope

CFOs must weigh environmental impact alongside shareholder value when determining business priorities


If presented with bird’s-eye views of oceans, forests or deserts, many chief financial officers might struggle to connect them to financial planning or cash flow management. But with pressure for companies to demonstrate their sustainability credentials, satellite imaging and other technologies are becoming increasingly relevant to the work of the CFO.

The technologies are evolving at a rapid pace. Remote sensors and artificial intelligence tools now make it possible to track everything from water pollution and deforestation to “dark fleets” of vessels whose fishing practices breach environmental or human rights regulations.

These are issues to which finance functions must pay close attention, says André Haag, chief financial officer at Triodos Bank, an ethically focused Dutch financial institution.

“The CFO plays an important role in creating value, and that’s now much more than traditional financial value — it’s about sustainability and creating impact.”

Ultimately, technology will make measuring and managing all this much easier. With unprecedented amounts of data being generated, the application of AI and data analytics can enable far more accurate evaluations of companies’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance than was previously possible.

“For sustainability it’s phenomenal,” says Georg Kell, chairman of Arabesque, an ESG quantitative asset manager that uses AI and big data to assess the performance of globally listed companies. “Interpretive power is multiplied [by technology] in its ability to assess investment risks and opportunities.”

The pressure for CFOs to be able to understand and assess ESG-related risks and opportunities is coming from many quarters. Improving the company’s financial position is one incentive.

“CFOs have discovered that for debt financing, they can get preferential conditions if they choose green bonds” - Georg Kell

“They have discovered that for debt financing, whether through bonds or loans, they can get preferential conditions if they choose green or sustainability bonds,” says Mr Kell. “So it’s a market-led inducement that has brought many to this agenda.”

Meanwhile, more investors want to build portfolios that contain companies that are addressing issues such as human rights and climate change.

This means chief financial officers need to understand how to use technology and data to demonstrate their company’s ESG performance and communicate it — whether that be through reporting and disclosures or direct contact — to asset managers and investors such as pension funds and sovereign wealth funds.

The UK accounting watchdog is pushing for companies to provide investors with more information on climate risks © PlanetSc

The UK accounting watchdog is pushing for companies to provide investors with more information on climate risks © PlanetSc

A further driver is the shifting regulatory landscape. In the UK, for example, the Financial Reporting Council, the accounting watchdog, is pushing for companies to provide investors with more information on climate risks. And Mr Kell cites the ambitious package of policies known as the European Green Deal, as well as pledges by China, South Korea and Japan of becoming carbon-neutral economies.

“There’s wide agreement, especially after the Biden election, that we’re back to a race to the top on decarbonisation,” he says.

Beyond this, however, finance chiefs also need to respond to changes in corporate strategy, as chief executives recognise the risks and opportunities ESG presents to their companies.

“The financial return element has shifted this from being simply about sustainability in terms of the benefits conferred on the environment and society, to what impact this has on companies and their performance,” says Colin Mayer, professor of management studies at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.

For finance chiefs, the shift will not be easy. For a start, they need to understand how money spent on new technologies will provide a return on investment. “Unless you can do that, it’s hard to fund and adopt those technologies,” says Ankur Agrawal, a partner in the strategy and corporate finance practice at McKinsey.

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The focus on technology will also demand investments into new kinds of talent. “Whether it’s accounting tools, advanced analytics or natural language processing, you need a different set of finance professionals to work with those technologies,” says Mr Agrawal.

Technology alone will not enable CFOs to make the right decisions with respect to social and environmental impact. This, says Prof Mayer, is because tools such as AI and machine learning behave in the way humans design them to behave — whether that is prioritising profit and shareholder value, or ESG goals.
“The key is who is programming the AI algorithms and for what purpose,” he says. “It raises fundamental issues about whose interests [CFOs] are serving.”

Mr Haag argues that, as well as adopting new technologies, finance professionals need to make a cultural shift. “Most are in the traditional CFO role, maximising shareholder value and profit, and the new profile is shifting to a broader stakeholder model focused on establishing a sustainable economy,” he says.

This inevitably expands the role of the finance function. “Technology and decarbonisation are here to stay,” says Arabesque’s Mr Kell. “CFOs need a more holistic understanding of the market system, and not just of the narrow field of finance.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2020. All rights reserved.

New Book Reflects on the State of Responsible Investing

by Filipe Wallin Albuquerque for Nordsip

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Stockholm (NordSIP) – As more and more investors seek to understand and navigate the world of sustainable investments, the demand for reliable manuals and guides to assist them in the process continues to increase. On September 24, NordSIP had the privilege of attending the presentation of “Sustainable Investing – A Path to a New Horizon”, a book that collects the views of experienced academics as well as executives from both the corporate as well as the investment world reflecting on the current state of sustainable investing and its future prospects.

The book is edited by Herman Brill, Director of the Office of Investment Management at the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF), Georg Kell (Pictured) Chairman of Arabesque, an ESG Quant fund manager and Andreas Rasche, Professor of Business in Society at the Centre for Sustainability at Copenhagen Business School (CBS). According to Kell, who led the launch presentation, the volume collects views on the changing context of sustainable investing, rethinking sustainable finance and leadership and sustainable investment and the roles of technology and data.

“We aim for this book to be a resource for interested practitioners, but we also aim to produce something that can be used in the classroom,” Rasche commented at the start of the book launch.

In his foreword, Mark Carney, who served as the Governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 until 2013 and the Governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020, praises the timely relevance of the book. “This book demonstrates steps finance professionals can take to build a virtuous circle of better management of climate risks by banks and insurers, better pricing of transition risks and opportunities by investors, better decisions by policymakers, and ultimately a smoother transition to a net zero-carbon economy for all. It represents an important advance towards building the skills needed to bring us to a new horizon that is both more sustainable and more prosperous.”

The contributors highlight three main insights from the volume. On the one hand, conditions for market success have been changing at an accelerating pace, both in terms of policy, as well as regulation, which impacts both businesses as well as their investors.  Next, the book shows that there is an emerging consensus that technology, digitalisation, artificial intelligence and machine learning are key drivers for the future of sustainable investing and are shaping the way ESG factors are used. Lastly, the book also agrees that sustainable investing promotes business resilience. However, because the book was submitted in March 2020, it does not specifically consider the implications of COVID-19.

The book launch counted with contributions from PRI CEO Fiona Reynolds, Metter Morsing, Head of Principles for Responsible Management (PRIME), Martin Reeves, Chairman of BCG Henderson Institute and Omar Selim, Founder and CEO of Arabesque Group.

“It’s a great honour to contribute to this great book. We have learned so much about sustainability. But as fields progress, they also fragment. I see this book as a synthesis of the governance perspective as well as the strategy, investor and the measurement perspective. It’s important to navigate,” says Reeves. “Our contribution is in the field of corporate strategy, which is evolving very fast due to sustainability pressures but also because technology is moving very fast. Our focus is on sustainability and sustainable competitive advantage. They sound the same, but in recent years they have not had very much to do with each other, which are not but should become the same thing. Of course, for truly powerful self-interested sustainable strategies, they need to become the same thing. In recent years businesses have discovered that a successful strategy is dynamic. It needs to be more biological and adaptable. They are serial and more focused on temporary advantage than static. They are more collaborative and going beyond the borders of the company.”

The book goes beyond standard economic theory approaches to sustainable investing and emphasizes that capitalism founded on more real-world (complex) economics and cooperation can strengthen ESG integration. Aimed at both investment professionals and academics, this book gives the reader access to more practitioner-relevant information and it also discusses implementation issues. The reader will gain insights into how “mainstream” financial actors relate to sustainable investing.

“I attempted to convey an investment perspective in my contribution,” Selim says.“My assumption is that finance will be significantly disrupted,” he adds, before explaining that sustainability and AI will be the main sources of this disruption. “Don’t be surprised if the biggest banks in five years are Google, Facebook or Amazon.”

For more information on the book, please consult Amazon.


F.A.Z.-Institut ehrt auf der Responsible Leadership Conference 2020 Unternehmen und Akteure

Frankfurter Rundschau

Dirk Beichert BusinessPhoto © obs/F.A.Z.-Institut/Dirk Beichert

Dirk Beichert BusinessPhoto © obs/F.A.Z.-Institut/Dirk Beichert

Jeder, der auf Responsible Leadership Conference 2020 Preise erhielt, zeichnet sich durch verantwortungsvolles und nachhaltiges Handeln in der Krise aus.

Frankfurt am Main (ots)

Unter dem Motto „Wie Unternehmen in den Zeiten nach der aktuellen Krise wirtschaftlichen Erfolg, Nachhaltigkeit und Verantwortung zusammenbringen“ fand am 15. und 16. September 2020 die Responsible Leadership Conference zum 9. Mal in Folge statt. Insgesamt haben sich über 400 Teilnehmer aus einer Vielzahl von Nationen zu der in diesem Jahr als Digitalevent durchgeführten Konferenz eingeloggt. 

Eingeladen hatten das F.A.Z.-Institut und die F.A.Z., um gemeinsam mit renommierten Rednern und hochkarätigen Teilnehmern über Fragen des Zusammenspiels von nachhaltigem Handeln und geschäftlichem Erfolg in Zeiten der Krise und darüber hinaus zu diskutieren. Wissenschaftlich wurde die Konferenz durch Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Schwalbach (Gründer der Veranstaltung und emeritierter Professor der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) und Prof. Dr. Schmidpeter (Dr. Jürgen Meyer Stiftungslehrstuhl für Wirtschaftsethik und CSR an der CBS, Köln) begleitet. 

Im Rahmen der Auftaktveranstaltung mit Preisverleihung am Vorabend wurden folgende Auszeichnungen an vorbildlich agierende Unternehmen und Akteure verliehen: „Exzellente Nachhaltigkeit“„Helden der Krise“„Green Ranking Champion“ und zum Höhepunkt des Abends der „Lifetime Achievement CSR Award“. Letzterer würdigte das Lebenswerk von Georg Kell, Gründerdirektor des Global Compact der Vereinten Nationen, Vorsitzender des Vermögensverwalters Arabesque und Sprecher des VW Nachhaltigkeitsbeirats. 

Exzellente Nachhaltigkeit 

Mit der Auszeichnung „Exzellente Nachhaltigkeit“ erhielt Schneider Electric eine Ehrung seines nachhaltigen Handelns. 

Die Auszeichnung „Exzellente Nachhaltigkeit“ ist das Ergebnis einer Social-Listening-Analyse, im Rahmen derer das IMWF - Institut für Management- und Wirtschaftsforschung im Auftrag des F.A.Z.-Instituts die Nachhaltigkeitsreputation von 21.000 Unternehmen auf Basis von 61,4 Mio. Aussagen im deutschsprachigen Internet in Bezug auf deren ökologische, ökonomische und soziale Nachhaltigkeit untersucht hatte. 

Schneider Electric bietet Energie- und Automatisierungslösungen an und verspricht dabei seinen Kunden Effizienz und Nachhaltigkeit. Nachhaltigkeit ist damit Teil des Geschäftsmodells und des Mehrwerts, den die Firma verspricht: „Wir helfen unseren Kunden, ihre Umweltleistung zu verbessern.“ 

Helden in der Krise 

Die Deutsche Telekom, die Aktion Deutschland hilft und der Sportler Jan Frodeno wurden als „Helden in der Krise“ geehrt. Sie stehen exemplarisch für viele tausend weitere Unternehmen, Institutionen und Einzelpersonen, die sich in Zeiten der Coronakrise durch beispielhaftes und engagiertes Verhalten hervorgetan haben. 

Mit der Aktion „Helden in der Krise“ möchten sich die Initiatoren, das F.A.Z.-Institut und IMWF - Institut für Management- und Wirtschaftsforschung sowie deren Förderer, Hansgrohe, Beekeeper, Signal Iduna und news aktuell, bei den Helfern direkt bedanken. Basierend auf einer Social Listening Analyse wurden dazu Unternehmen, Institutionen und Einzelpersonen in Bezug auf ihr Engagement in Zeiten der Krisen untersucht. Dabei konnten mehr als 1.000 Akteure in der Krise ermittelt werden. Auf der Responsible Leadership Conference wurden nun drei Akteure exemplarisch geehrt, die sich durch ihr bedonders starkes Engagement hervorgetan haben. 

Als Spitzensportler beschloss Jan Frodeno einen Ironman in seinen „eigenen vier Wänden“ zu absolvieren und nutzte den sportlichen Einsatz, um Spenden in Höhe von rund 200.000 Euro für die Corona-Hilfe zu sammeln. Solidarisches Engagement beweist auch das Hilfsbündnis Aktion Deutschland Hilft in Form einer sehr breiten Unterstützung im In- und Ausland - angefangen von der Zuwendung zu Pflegeheimbewohnern in der Isolation über die Versorgung in Not Geratener bis hin zum Lieferservice für Risikogruppen, die ihr Zuhause nicht verlassen sollten. Auch die Deutsche Telekom zeichnet sich durch vorbildliches Verhalten in der Krise aus und hat durch zahlreiche Aktivitäten zur Verbesserung der Situation beigetragen. 

Green Ranking Champion 

Microsoft wurde auf der Responsible Leadership Konferenz als „Green Ranking Champion“ geehrt. Das Unternehmen schnitt in über 60 internationalen Nachhaltigkeitsrankings am besten ab. 

Erhoben wurde die Studie durch das auf Rankings- und Awards-Management spezialisierte Beratungsunternehmen R.A.T.E. in Kooperation mit dem F.A.Z.-Institut und basiert auf einer quantitativen Analyse der 60 bedeutendsten industrieübergreifenden Nachhaltigkeitsrankings weltweit. Neben der globalen Multi-Ebene werden zusätzlich die wichtigsten lokalen Nachhaltigkeitsrankings der zehn größten Volkswirtschaften in die Analyse einbezogen. 

Der diesjährige Green-Ranking-Champion-Gewinner Microsoft zeigte eine besonders hohe Präsenz und Visibilität in den Nachhaltigkeits-Rankings. In vier wichtigen Rankings landete das Unternehmen auf der Top-Platzierung, beispielsweise ist es seit über zehn Jahren auf der Liste der ethischsten Unternehmen der Welt von Ethisphere und wurde zum sechsten Mal in Folge auf der A-Liste des Carbon Disclosure Projects geführt. Auch für die Zukunft setzt sich Microsoft herausfordernde und inspirierende Ziele und möchte u. a. bis 2030 mehr CO2 aus der Atmosphäre binden als es mit seinen Aktivitäten verursacht. 

Lifetime Achievement CSR Award 

Zum Höhepunkt des Abends wurde der Arabesque Chairman und Gründungsdirektor des Global Compacts der Vereinten Nationen Georg Kell für sein Lebenswerk gewürdigt und mit dem Lifetime Achievement CSR Award ausgezeichnet. Der Preis ehrt herausragende Wissenschaftler und Praktiker für ihren Beitrag zur Entwicklung und Gestaltung der gesellschaftlichen Verantwortung von Unternehmen. 

Anlässlich der Preisverleihung hob Professor Dr. Dr. h. c. Joachim Schwalbach, Initiator der CSR-Konferenzreihe und des Preises, Georg Kell als die führende Autorität für die Integration von Umwelt-, Sozial- und Governance-Faktoren (ESG) in unternehmerische Entscheidungen hervor. 

Georg Kell betonte in seiner Dankesrede: „Ich bin sehr dankbar für diese großartige Auszeichnung. Ich bin fest davon überzeugt, dass die Kapitalmärkte der Schlüssel zur nachhaltigen Entwicklung sind, und der Schwerpunkt meiner Arbeit liegt darin, sie so weit wie möglich zu befähigen. Dies erfordert ein Engagement von Unternehmen, Investoren und der öffentlichen Hand.“ 

Ein spannendes Programm mit hochkarätigen Rednern und topaktuellen Themen kennzeichnete auch den zweiten Tag der Responsible Leadership Conference. Die Teilnehmer profitierten von einer Vielzahl von Inspirationen und Best Practice Beispielen. Insgesamt hat die Konferenz gezeigt, dass Nachhaltigkeit weiter an Bedeutung gewinnt und den Unternehmen eine immer größere Verantwortung zugewiesen wird. 

Mehr Informationen und die Aufzeichnungen zur Responsible Leadership Conference 2020 finden Sie unter: https://www.responsibleleadership.de/

Positioning portfolios for a shift to sustainable capitalism

By Elena Johansson, Expert Investor

Book review: Reaching a new horizon by embracing change and long-term investing

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Investors have embarked on a paradigm shift, argues Sustainable Investing: A Path to a New Horizon – and that is the transition to a more sustainable financial and corporate system.

Published tomorrow by Routledge, with a foreword by former Bank of England and Bank of Canada governor and current UN special envoy on climate action and finance Mark Carney, the book sets out to help people build sustainable investment skills, and seeks to change outdated mindsets and economic theories that have blocked financial market participants from embracing sustainability.

Given the need to create a climate-resilient financial system that finances net zero carbon by 2050, Carney writes: “A more sustainable financial system is being built. But the task is large, the window of opportunity is short, and the risks are existential.

“Firms that align their business models with the transition will be rewarded handsomely. Those that fail will cease to exist.”

Comprising contributions from numerous leading sustainable professionals from the corporate and investment worlds, the book is written and edited by Herman Bril, director of the office of investment management at the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund; Georg Kell, founder and former executive director of the United Nations Global Compact and chairman of Arabesque; and Andreas Rasche, professor of business in society at the Centre for Corporate Sustainability at Copenhagen Business School.

Kell explains to Expert Investor that responsible business and sustainable investing are now converging, adding: “We thought it was time to write a new book that postulates this systemic change.”

The books seeks to help decision-makers to find confidence in modernising and transforming and not stick to the old dogmas, he explains.

Balancing short and long term 

Sustainable Investing offers answers on how to simultaneously manage the short and the long term while considering evolving environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.

Short-term incentives, such as fossil fuel subsidies, pose barriers to companies and investors who set out on a path to sustainable, long-term change. Balancing such short-term incentives while securing long-term profitability and positive investment returns is key.

Kell highlights the risk of stranded assets that investors are facing in the transition. “It’s basically the risk of being stranded with an old model, with assets that are depreciating rapidly,” he says.

“The combination of climate imperatives, carbon pricing and consumer preferences make such technology shifts [from environmental and social imperatives] much faster. If you’re not ready and well-positioned for the future, you may end up with the wrong technology and then you are locked in the wrong pathway.”

‘Future-fit mindsets’

To avoid being overthrown by the shift, believes Kell, investors must open their minds to change.

“We still are vested in the old way of thinking and much of our training and education is based on that – the efficient market hypothesis, price signals, everything.

“What is needed, however, is a big transformation from industrial-era mindsets to future-fit ones. Basically, change management has become very important – along with the willingness to embrace change,” he says.

According to Sustainable Investing, there is growing evidence that companies which invest for the longer term outperform those that focus on the short term – yet not every company is able to set out on a path to a sustainable transition.

“Unfortunately, in the real world, for very large corporations that have an established brand, it’s very hard to reinvent themselves,” says Kell.

“They need a shock. They need a crisis or they need really outstanding leadership that has the courage and the support of the shareholders to reinvent themselves.”

As an example, he cites Volkswagen’s Diesel crisis, which led to an investment of more than €30bn in e-mobility. “Out of the Diesel crisis, they were willing to change the fundamentals. They committed to major investments in e-mobility because of the crisis,” he continues.

While still catching up with Tesla, VW is now well-positioned in the e-mobility race, he says.

Sustainable shift

Investors place a premium on companies with “future-proof investment strategies”, Kell argues.

He points out that one reason for why Tesla has the highest valuation in the automotive industry is that investors have bought into its strategy of electricity-powered transportation.

“It’s a totally radical shift for a very important industry,” he says. “And we can now see that shift happening across all sectors.”

On the subject of sustainable investment strategies, Kell says he favours a ‘soft’ divestment approach, which overweights winners in strategies and enables the real economy to adapt.

“We cannot just write off entire sectors,” he explains. “It would cause unemployment and social upheaval. We need socially acceptable transition pathways.”

While the direction of the sustainability journey looks clear, however, the end-destination is less so. “Maybe there will never be an end-destination,” says Kell.

“Maybe it will be a case of permanent change management – that’s my feeling. There are so many more disruptions ahead of us – climate disruptions, civil unrest, mass migration, humanitarian crisis situations – we had better get prepared.”

Sustainable Investing – A Path to a New Horizon (Routledge, £29.99 in paperback) will be published on 25 September 2020. You can find out more information here

How can we mobilize finance to build back a resilient, sustainable post-Covid economy?

Eco-Business

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Singapore — In the wake of a pandemic-induced regional economic downturn, financial institutions are vital to building a more resilient, sustainable future for Asia, said business and finance leaders at this year’s Unlocking capital for sustainability

The annual conference was held virtually for the first time, enabling participants in multiple countries to convene online. More than 100 senior bankers and investors, finance and business leaders gathered to discuss how the finance industry can contribute to long-term economic recovery by aligning their investment decisions with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

This third edition of the forum is organised by Eco-Business, a Singapore-headquartered media organisation dedicated to sustainable development, in partnership with United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment Programme). 

“This year’s forum comes at a critical time as countries all over the world are grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic while trying to jumpstart their stalled economies. Amid this recovery, we must look at how to tie these fiscal stimulus measures and recovery policies to positive sustainable development outcomes,” said Eco-Business’s Managing Director, Jessica Cheam. 

She added: “Covid-19 has revealed how important environmental, social and governance (ESG) and sustainability issues are to the health and well-being of people and the planet. So the key question we will discuss throughout this conference is: How do we guide finance and business to build back better?” 

While the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked economic havoc and pushed some industries to the brink, it has also created opportunities and incentives for sustainable financing, said leaders from multilateral agencies and the finance sector at the event. 

They highlighted the numerous investment opportunities in sustainable development in the region, particularly in resource management, green infrastructure, and renewable energy, among others. 

“Players in the financial industry have a crucial role to play in supporting economic activity that enhances rather than damages the environment, sustains rather than erodes livelihoods, and contributes to, rather than undermines, economic stability,” said Yeoh El Lynn, Head of Ethics, Prudential Assurance Company Singapore, which has committed S$200 million of total assets under management into ESG-related products by 2021. 

“To fulfil this role, sustainable finance and responsible investment has become not only a prerequisite, but a staple for the resilience and stability of the financial industry,” said Yeoh. 

The UN predicts that the pandemic will have a severe impact on the achievement of the SDGs by 2030, particularly in less developed countries.  

According to UN projections, the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to shrink the world economy by 3.2 per cent in 2020, resulting in the loss of $8.5 trillion in global output.  

The collaboration of international financial institutions, governments, international organisations, and the private sector is crucial to ensure that these systems are able to withstand future economic shocks caused by environmental and public health risks. By aligning with the SDGs, companies and organisations can mitigate these risks to aid long-term profitability. 

At the event, regional non-profit organisation Fair Finance Asia also launched a new study, The Asian Web: Tracking Regional Financial Flows, which is aimed at encouraging key stakeholders to track and assess whether financial institutions operating in the region are banking on our shared commitments towards a sustainable future.. 

Bernadette Victorio, Regional Programme Lead, Fair Finance Asia, who spoke at the event, said: “Asian financial institutions have the potential to be key levers of change by encouraging responsible business practices through their financing and investment activities. However, the change needs to begin within their own institutions.”  

Other highlights from the event included a keynote address by United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development and Chief Economist, Elliott Harris, plenary discussions about the regulation of sustainable finance, the role of Asian banks in the energy transition, corporate leadership in ESG integration, and investing in the circular economy. 

In advance of the publication of his book, Sustainable Investing: A Path to a New Horizon, founding Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Georg Kell gave a special address at the conference.  

The book, which features contributions from a number of global thought-leaders, academics, and practitioners, details the rise of sustainable investing and corporate sustainability and outlines the transformation needed to accelerate change. 

Kell observed: “The idea and practice of corporate sustainability is no longer a niche movement. ESG represents the next growth frontier in asset management, and the integration of sustainability factors in investment decisions is impacting global markets on a large scale. However, the continued shift to sustainable investing and its implementation will require leadership, a culture of innovation, and effective engagement with all stakeholders.”  

Volkswagen presents Green Finance Framework

Wolfsburg – WEBWIRE – Thursday, March 5, 2020

  • Document defines framework for sustainable financial instruments

  • Funds to target environmentally compatible projects such as e-mobility

  • Regular reporting and independent auditing create transparency

  • Group CFO Frank Witter: “The Green Finance Framework consistently links our corporate objective of carbon neutrality in 2050 with our financing strategy.”

  • Sustainability Council Spokesman Georg Kell: “It is a most welcome development that Volkswagen will use the power of finance to accelerate investments that will lead to reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.”

With the Green Finance Framework (GFF), the Volkswagen Group today presented further guidelines for sustainable financial instruments. In future, it will therefore be possible for investors to invest in a targeted fashion in sustainability projects of the Volkswagen Group such as e-mobility. A new corporate body, the Green Finance Committee, will select appropriate projects and can adapt the GFF to reflect changing requirements. Furthermore, regular reporting will ensure transparency in the use of funds. The objective is to ensure independent external verification of the use of funds.

Frank Witter, Member of the Group Board of Management responsible for Finance and IT, said: “In order to become one of the world’s leading providers of sustainable mobility, significant investments will be needed. The Green Finance Framework consistently links our corporate objective of carbon neutrality in 2050 with our financing strategy. This way, we will be able to diversify our investor basis and offer existing investors further investment alternatives.”

Georg Kell, Spokesman of the Volkswagen Group Sustainability Council, said: “As climate risks are increasingly urgent, it is a most welcome development that Volkswagen will use the power of finance to accelerate investments that will lead to reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.”

The GFF covers the following types of financing: green bonds, green Schuldscheindarlehen, green private placements and green loans. From the beginning, two types of sustainability projects will be integrated in the GFF: electric vehicles based on the modular electric drive toolkit (MEB) and charging infrastructure. In future, other categories may be added to the GFF.

With the Green Finance Committee, a new corporate body for the GFF has been established. The committee is responsible for the selection and assessment of appropriate sustainability projects including monitoring the use of funds for the designated projects. In addition, the committee will be able to adapt the GFF to changing requirements and to add new projects to the portfolio.

For Volkswagen’s GFF, Sustainalytics, a renowned independent rating institute, has given a second party opinion in order to verify compliance with the Green Bond Principles of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and the Green Loan Principles of the Loan Market Association (LMA). Volkswagen also aims to secure certification by the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) for the financial instruments to be issued within the GFF.

Volkswagen will report at least once per year on the projects financed within the GFF. Reports are also to be issued on the environmental impact of the projects funded.

In 2018, the Volkswagen Group was the first automaker to commit to the Paris climate goals. Last year, the Group presented its new environmental mission statement “goTOzero”. The aim of the mission statement is to operate the company as environmentally compatible as possible and to achieve a neutral CO2 balance by 2050. The four main areas of activity under the mission statement are climate change, resources, air quality and environmental compliance.



VW Sustainable E-Mobility: The ID - VW's carbon-neutral electric car model

Dresden, 15 February 2015

VW Press Conference: The carbon-neutral, electric ID

At a press conference in Dresden on 15 February 2019, Volkswagen provided insights to international journalists with regard to its strategy for sustainable e-mobiliy. The ID will be Volkswagen’s trailblazer in terms os sustainable e-mobility. It is the first electric car of the Group which, on balance, will be CO2-neutral throughout its lifetime if charged with green energy.

Georg Kell:

“The decision by Volkswagen to massively invest in e-mobility and related infrastructure has enormous implication for the entire industry and beyond.

If Volkswagen decides to become carbon-neutral in its production, as is happening here, right now, today, as Volkswagen decides to bet on e-mobility, there is a huge probability that the entire industry will accelerate its shift in that direction”

Herkömmliches Geschäftsmodell als Risikofaktor

Börsen-Zeitung, 8.1.2019; by Timm Bastian, Köln

Investoren bevorzugen immer öfter Unternehmen, die Nachhaltigkeit im Kerngeschäft verankern – ,,Wer nicht kommuniziert, verschenkt Bewertungspotenzial‘‘

Nachhaltige Geschäftsmodelle und wirtschaftlicher Erfolg bilden keineGegensätze. Wenn nachhaltiges Management in das unternehmerische Kerngeschäft integriert ist, wird Nachhaltigkeit ein Treiber zur finanziellen Outperformance, sagt Ren Schmidpeter von der Cologne Business School. Der Leiter des dortigen Center for Advanced Sustainable Management (CASM) verweist auf zahlreiche Studien u. a. von der Harvard und Oxford University, die dies unstrittig empirisch belegten. Eine Studie der Harvard Business School zeigt zudem, dass erfolgreiche, nachhaltig wirtschaftende Unternehmen, die dies nicht stark genug nach außen kommunizierten, an der Börse unterbewertet werden. Mit anderen Worten: CEOs und CFOs, die die erfolgreiche Nachhaltigkeitsperformance des Unternehmens nicht offensiv als Asset verkaufen, schaden ihren Aktionären und ihrem Unternehmen. Der Autor der Studie, George Serafeim, belegt mit einem Datenpool von 1 900 Unternehmen über einen Zeitraum von neun Jahren einen Zusammenhang zwischen der ǫ̈ffentlichen Meinung über die ESG-Performance (Environmental, Social, Governance) eines Unternehmens und seiner Bewertung am Kapitalmarkt. 2018 waren der Studie zufolge bereits 80 Bill. Dollar verwaltetes Vermögen an ESG-Kriterien geknüpft.


Das Investoreninteresse an Unternehmen mit nachhaltigem Track Record steigt stetig an, wie Georg Kell Vorsitzender des auf Nachhaltigkeit spezialisierten englisch-deutschen Vermögensverwalters Arabesque Partners, bestätigt. Der Gründungsdirektor des United Nations Global Compact, der weltgrǫ̈ßten freiwilligen Nachhaltigkeitsinitiative von Unternehmen, sagt, dass sich Nachhaltigkeit zum größten Trend der Finanzgeschichte der letzten Jahrzehnte entwickelt habe. Die Herausforderung für Investoren: Es gibt noch nicht viele Unternehmen, die konsequent auf ein nachhaltiges Geschäftsmodell setzen bzw. Dabei sind, Nachhaltigkeit ins Kerngeschäft zu implementieren. Unterbewertete, nachhaltig Unternehmen zu identifizieren, ist komplex und erfordert neue Analysemodelle.


Mit herkömmlichen Geschäftsmodellen könne man natürlich ebenfalls Gewinne erzielen, jedoch zu einem höheren Risiko und dafür eigentlich zu geringer Rendite, sagt Schmidpeter. Im November hat er Europas größte CSR-Konferenz unter dem Motto ,,Responsible Leadership in Times of Transformation‘‘ in Köln organisiert, an der unter den 500 Teilnehmern auch zahlreiche Investoren zugegen waren. Big Data und künstliche Intelligenz helfen Analysten und Investoren, diese Zusammenhänge besser zu erkennen. Die steigende Nachfrage bei Investoren nach Unternehmen mit nachhaltigen Geschäftsmodellen sei die logische Folge.


Erwartungen übertroffen

Eine Folge, die Georg Kell von Arabesque Partners hautnah zu spüren bekommt. Die Nachfrage der Finanzindustrie nach der eigenen Datenanalyseplattform habe alle Erwartungen ˇbertroffen. Man habe bereits im ersten Jahr langfristige Partnerschaften mit großen Banken wie Citibank, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America und auch Staatsfonds aus Japan und Schweden abgeschlossen. Mit Hilfe von Big Data und künstlicher Intelligenz durchleuchten die Arabesque-Algorithmen mittlerweile rund 7 000 der grǫ̈ßten Unternehmen in 70 Ländern systematisch nach Nachhaltigkeitskriterien anhand von ESG-Daten. Dabei verarbeiten sie nach eigenen Angaben mehr als 100 Milliarden Datenpunkte. So würden beispielsweise täglich mehr als 30 000 Zeitungsartikel in 15 verschiedenen Sprachen ausgewertet.


Für Kell, der ebenso für die Initiativen der Principles for Responsible Investment, der Sustainable Stock Exchange und der Principles for Responsible Management unter dem Dach der UN verantwortlich war, steht fest: ,,Technologie wird die Finanzbranche im nächsten Jahrzehnt nachhaltig verändern. Investoren, die sich auf traditionelle Analysemodelle fokussieren, werden dauerhaft keine Chance am Markt haben.‘‘


Bleibt die Frage zu klären, warum das Thema Nachhaltigkeit bei vielen Unternehmen noch immer eher stiefmütterlich behandelt wird und nicht mit dem Kerngeschäft verknüpft ist? Kell sieht hierfür mehrere Gründe. Zum einen übten Teile der Finanzwelt nach wie vor Druck aus, um kurzfristig Gewinne zu erzielen, wenngleich sie dadurch mittel- und langfristig Chancen verpassten. Zum anderen gebe es echte Barrieren auf der Unternehmensebene. Viele Aufsichtsräte etwa seien mit den Themen der Nachhaltigkeit nicht vertraut und agierten nach wie vor unter der Voraussetzung des klassischen Industriezeitalters.


Neuer Managementansatz


Diese Unternehmen denken die Gegenwart aus der Vergangenheit, sagt Schmidpeter, der für einen Paradigmenwechsel in der Wirtschaft kämpft. Seine Vision: ein integratives, wirkungsorientiertes Nachhaltigkeitsdenken mit neuem Managementansatz. Dafür schmiedet er Allianzen zwischen Wissenschaft, Zivilgesellschaft, Finanzindustrie und Realwirtschaft. Dass Investoren jetzt zunehmend auf Nachhaltigkeitskonferenzen in Europa, Nordamerika und Asien präsent sind und Unternehmen Druck vom Kapitalmarkt bekommen, ihre Nachhaltigkeits Performance zu verbessern, freut ihn. Jüngste Initiativen wie die Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism und das Global Investor Statement von 414 institutionellen Investoren, mehr zu tun, um die in Paris verabschiedeten UN-Klimaziele zu erreichen, seien ermutigende Schritte.


Der ,,Vater‘‘ der Stakeholder-Theorie, Edward Freeman, Professor für Business Ethics an der Darden School der University of Virginia, glaubt, dass es eine Managergeneration dauern könnte, bis Unternehmen ihr Kerngeschäft vǫ̈llig nachhaltig betreiben und es nicht mehr um reine Profitmaximierung gehe. Derzeit arbeitet er an einem neuen Buch mit dem Titel ,,Business – the new story‘‘, in dem er seine Analysen zusammenfügt und erklärt, wieso Leadership und Ethik aus seiner Sicht zwingend zusammengehǫ̈ren. Er wüsche sich, dass seine Enkelkinder die Wirtschaft einmal mit anderen Augen sähen: ,,Sie sollen Business als Chance sehen, die Welt zu verändern‘‘, sagt Freeman im Gespräch am Rande der Nachhaltigkeitskonferenz in Köln. Freeman arbeitet eng mit Conscious Capitalism zusammen, die nach seinen Angaben mittlerweile 1 Bill. Dollar in ausgewählte nachhaltige Unternehmen investierten.


Kell blickt ebenfalls optimistisch nach vorn: Der technologische Wandel und die zunehmende Bedeutung der Nachhaltigkeit seien irreversibel. Beide Megatrends rüttelten am Gerüst des Industriezeitalters. Sich dem zu widersetzen bedeute den Verlust der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit. Es ist Zeit, die gegenwärtigen Geschäftsmodelle von der Zukunft zu denken!


VW-Dieselkrise

Welt.de, PS Welt, Auto News

Georg Kell, Gesche Joost, and Michael Sommer are among the members of the Volkswagen Sustainability Council

Source: VW

Two years ago, Volkswagen created a Sustainability Council to help the company become future-fit. The Council’s first interim report was just released.



Arabesque brings AI to the investment world

By Beverly Chandler, AlphaQ.world

Dr Yasin Rosowsky is Head of Artificial Intelligence Research at Arabesque, the ESG asset management firm that uses machine learning and big data to evaluate the performance and sustainability of listed companies.

Arabesque featured in an interview in AlphaQ with its founder and CEO, Omar Selim, back in 2015. At the time, he spoke about the firm’s proprietary technology Arabesque S-Ray, a tool that allows investors to monitor the sustainability performance of approximately 7,000 listed corporations worldwide.

By leveraging machine learning and big data, S-Ray’s technology systematically combines over 200 ESG metrics with news signals from over 50,000 sources across 15 languages enabling greater transparency into corporate behaviour and management.

“S-Ray takes the inspiration of its name from the impact the X-Ray had on medicine”, says Rosowsky. “It’s our way of looking beneath the surface of a company, and analysing its non-financial information.”

Arabesque S-Ray is the first tool of its kind to rate companies on the normative principles of the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative established by the late UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2000 with Georg Kell, who is now Arabesque’s Chairman.

One of the main features of S-Ray is that the tool works in almost real time, updating scores and incorporating news-based information through over 30,000 media articles daily.

“Our mission as a firm has always been to mainstream sustainable investment, so we took a decision two years ago to make our S-Ray technology available to the market.  We opened it up,” Rosowsky says. “We now provide the scores to other institutional investors and managers who want aggregated, streamlined ESG data at the touch of a button, and to corporations who want to integrate sustainability information into their decision-making processes.”

The firm licenses its S-Ray data scores to a wide range of clients across the global financial landscape, including State Street, BNY Mellon, the Japanese Government Pension Fund and FactSet.

 “The integration of sustainability across all of our investment processes is in part aimed at minimising tail risk events,” Rosowsky says. “It’s not necessarily a generator of short term price behaviour, but can be a good indicator of issues within a company and long-term risk-adjusted returns. Some of the biggest corporate scandals in recent years have been picked up by S-Ray, therefore eliminating those companies automatically from our investment universe.”

Another key component of Arabesque’s flagship Systematic strategy is a sophisticated portfolio optimisation method where 1,600 signals per stock are analysed to determine its strength, together with market momentum. A risk management system is built in, which allocates between cash and equity to balance exposure to fluctuations in the market.
“The quantitative, rules-based strategy looks at momentum, with our technology able to extract a good indication of where the trends lie. The risk management system helps us to minimise drawdowns,” he says.

The long-only Arabesque Systematic, a UCITS fund, has returned +10.22 per cent per annum since inception in 2014, and has been awarded a 5-star Morningstar Rating. Last year, the firm also launched Arabesque Systematic USA, a 40 Act fund that applies the same investment strategy to listed US equities.

The last couple of years have seen Arabesque working on building a new artificial intelligence (AI) engine, with the aim of launching a new fund based on that engine.

“At its core, it is a massively distributed network, which connects many different data sources with algorithmic models and machine learning algorithms. Its focus is to answer a single question: ‘should we invest in this stock or not?’ We ask our engine to look at the vast array of complex relationships exhibited within the financial markets and come up with investment decisions.”

The network has over a billion nodes, and engrained within each node are fundamental data, market data, analysts’ reports, and price information. All nodes are connected and are constantly processing.

“It’s computing in six different data centres around Europe to come up with the investment decisions,” Rosowsky explains. “Currently, this represents 1,000 machines working concurrently but we have capacity for 10,000 plus due to its seamlessly scalable architecture.”

“This is new,” Rosowsky says. “It is an evolving and adapting system. Our long-term goal is general AI.”

Narrow AI is the type of machine learning algorithms that solve a very specific problem, but general AI is what many people first think of when you say ‘artificial intelligence’, with computers approaching human intelligence.

 “Many people are now embracing AI and entrusting it in their own lives, whether it is in transportation, security or infrastructure, or at home through something like Alexa or Google Home. And we are seeing the beginnings of this now in the investment world too.”



Un foro de ideas para mujeres del siglo XXI (A think tank for women in the 21st Century)

Nace el primer 'think tank' para impulsar el talento femenino en el ámbito económico: Woman Forward

Woman Forward, the first think tank for boosting the talent of women in the business born.

El Pais, 19 July 2018

EVG PEXELS

Este miércoles 18 de julio ha empezado a andar el primer think tank para impulsar el talento femenino en el ámbito económico, como lo denomina la presidenta y fundadora de la Fundación Woman Forward, Mirian Izquierdo. Los objetivos de este foro de pensamiento en el que participan cerca de una treintena de directivos son sensibilizar a los líderes empresariales de la necesidad de promover la presencia de la mujer en los puestos de máxima responsabilidad en las empresas españolas y así poder cumplir con la cuota del 30% que marca la Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) para 2020.

Wednesday, July 18th, marked the inception of Woman Forward, a think tank for boosting the talents of women in business, with Mirian Izquierdo as President and Founder. The objective of this new think tank, in which about thirty executives participate, is to sensitize business leaders to the need for promoting women to top leadership positions in Spanish companies, and thus be able to comply with the 30% quota set for 2020 by the National Securities Market Commission, a Spanish government agency responsible for the financial regulation of the securities markets.

Para empezar, “los Principios para el Empoderamiento de las Mujeres están asociados al lema La igualdad es un negocio”, tal y como recuerda frecuentemente el director del Pacto Global de Naciones Unidas, Georg Kell. De hecho, España podría mejorar entre un 15% su PIB hasta 2025 con la incorporación paritaria del talento femenino, según las investigaciones de McKinsey, obteniendo 110.000 millones de euros adicionales hasta 2025, explica Ana Guzmán, consejera delegada de Aberdeen Management para el sur de Europa.

For starters, "The Principles for the Empowerment of Women go hand-in-hand with the slogan 'Equality Means Business", as often mentioned by Georg Kell, Founder of the United Nations Global Compact. In fact, Spain could improve its GDP by 15% until 2025 with the equal participation of female talent, according to studies by McKinesy, thus gaining an additional 110,000 million Euros until 2025, explains Ana Guzman, CEO of Aberdeen Management for Southern Europe.

The article is in Spanish