Managing the ESG

Ecosystem
Mike Wallace, Partner, ERM
Interim Executive Director, Social & Human
Capital Coalition

June 2019

© Copyright 2019 by ERM Worldwide Group Limited and/or its affiliates (‘ERM’). All Rights Reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior
written permission of ERM.

The business of sustainability

Agenda

 Stakeholder Expectations

 Investor Momentum

 Evolving Interests

 ESG Ecosystem

 ESG Due Diligence: Tech Sector

 Emerging Issues:

o Task Force on Climate Related Financial

Disclosures (TCFD)
o Human Capital

 Corporate Resources

o Case Study

 Active ESG Management

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Stakeholder
Expectations
Stakeholder Interest

Stakeholder pressure that customers receive from the groups listed below drives the need for
sustainability management. As pressure from these groups increases, customers enhance
their management across their value chains, and the pressure transfers upstream to
suppliers.

Investors
Industry
Associations
Employees

Activists/
Advocacy Consumers
Groups Transparency
on
Local
Sustainability
Communities Customers

Boards of
Suppliers
Directors
Regulators/
Legislators

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Investor Momentum
 Investor Interests
Investors are increasingly asking companies to disclose strategies for long-term value
creation and incorporation of ESG into business strategies.

“Unnerved by fundamental economic changes and

“Researchers have documented that in the
the failure of government to provide lasting
U.S. and U.K. now, more value is driven “Shareholders rely on a strong board to oversee
solutions, society is increasingly looking to the strategy for realizing opportunities and
by intangible, rather than tangible, assets.
companies, both public and private, to address mitigating risks. Thorough disclosure of
However, through engagement we have
pressing social and economic issues. These relevant and material risks enables share
found that few directors can adequately
issues range from protecting the environment to prices to fully reflect all significant known risks
articulate their company’s culture or
retirement to gender and racial inequality … and opportunities… Climate risk is an example
demonstrate how they assess, monitor
Companies that fulfill their purpose and of a slowly developing and highly uncertain
and influence change when necessary…
responsibilities to stakeholders reap rewards over risk—the kind that tests the strength of a
we do believe that this is a material issue
the long-term. Companies that ignore them
that must be addressed by companies and board’s oversight and risk governance.”
stumble and fail. This dynamic is becoming
investors.” – F. William McNabb III, Vanguard Letter to
increasingly apparent as the public holds Directors, 2017
– Cyrus Taraporevala, State Street Letter
companies to more exacting standards.”
to Board Members, 2019
– Larry Fink, BlackRock Letter to CEOs, 2019

Further Reading: Why the world’s largest asset managers are pushing long-term thinking, Mark Tulay, Director, Strategic Investor Initiative, CECP

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World’s Largest Asset Manager Encourages Long-
Term Focus on Creating Sustainable Value

In his annual letter to the CEOs of the S&P 500 on

January 12, 2019, Larry Fink once again highlighted
the importance of understanding the impacts that will
enable long-term financial growth.
BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship engagement
priorities for 2019 are:
 governance, including . . . board diversity;

 corporate strategy and capital allocation;

 compensation that promotes long-termism;

 environmental risks and opportunities; and

 human capital management.

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 Investor Coalitions and Networks

2015
2002 2006 Nearly $100
1972
$100 trillion $80 trillion trillion
$400 billion
900 signatories 1,900 signatories 785 signatories
300 members

2001 2003 2013 2017

$20 trillion $25 trillion $4 trillion $13 trillion
150 members 150 members 67 investors 120 investors

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UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
The United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment is an international network of
investors working together to understand the implications of sustainability for investors and support
signatories to incorporate these issues into their investment decision making and ownership
practices.
 2006: 63 investment companies with $6.5 trillion in assets under management (AUM)
 2018: 1,961 signatories with $81.7 trillion in AUM (21 percent increase in 12 months)
UN PRI Growth Over Time
1,961
$100 2,000
1,714
$90 1,800
$80
1,501 1,600
1,384
$70 1,251 $82 1,400
1,186
$60 1,050 $68 1,200
$50
890 $59 $62 1,000
734
$40 800
523 $45
$30 361 600
$32 $34
$20 185 400
63 $21 $24
$10 $7 $10 $13 $18 200
$- -
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Assets under management (US$ trillion) Number of Signatories
Source: http://www.unpri.org/
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UN PRI Signatories
(sample)

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Shareholders Voting with Values
According to the latest ISS data, 2019 E&S proposals outnumber governance proposals for the third year in a
row. Climate-related and political activity account for the two largest 2019 themes.

Sources: ISS Early Look at 2019 Shareholder Proposals 2019 Proxy Preview. As You Sow, Ceres
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Evolving Interests
GRI (1997) – Globally Crowdsourced ESG Issues

Environmental Human Rights Labor Practices

 Materials  Non-discrimination & Decent Work
 Energy  Freedom of Association &  Training and Education
 Water Collective Bargaining  Employment
 Biodiversity  Child Labor  Labor/Management Relations
 Emissions  Forced /Compulsory Labor  Occupational Health & Safety
 Effluents and Waste  Security Practices  Diversity & Equal Opportunity
 Products and Services  Indigenous Rights  Equal Remuneration for Men
 Environmental Compliance  Supplier Human Rights and Women
 Transport Assessment  Supplier Assessment for
 Supplier Environmental  Human Rights Grievance Labor Practices
Assessment Mechanisms  Labor Practices Grievance
 Environmental Grievance Mechanisms
Mechanisms

Economic Society Product Responsibility

 Economic Performance  Anti-Corruption  Customer Health & Safety
 Philanthropy  Public Policy  Product & Service Labeling
 Market Presence  Anti-competitive Behavior  Marketing Communications
 Indirect Economic Impacts  Local Communities  Customer Privacy
 Economic Inclusion  Supplier Assessment for Impacts  Product Compliance
 Procurement Practices on Society
 Grievance Mechanisms for
Impacts on Society

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GHG Protocol (1997)

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IIRC (2009 / 2010) – Six Capitals
Six Capitals:
• Financial
• Manufactured
• Intellectual
• Human
• Social and relationship
• Natural

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SASB (2010 / 2011)

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Natural Capital Coalition & Protocol (2012 / 2014)

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Task Force on Climate-Related Financial
Disclosures (2015)

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SDGs (2015 / 2016)

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Social & Human Capital Coalition (2016 / 2019)

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20+ Years of Compounding Interest

2011 2015 2017

1997 2000 2005 2010 2012 2014 2016 2019

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ESG Ecosystem
Who makes up the ESG Ecosystem?
Based on sustainability reporting standards and frameworks, there are 100+ organizations producing lists,
rankings, ratings, and scorecards of the “top companies” and “most sustainable” companies.

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 ESG Merger & Acquisition Activity
Significant interest among traditional investment research firms and ESG specialty shops.

Morningstar buys
40% of
GMI and Sustainalytics
Sustainalytics
Thomson Reuters The Corporate buys certain assets
Vigeo and July 2017 from Solaron
buys Asset 4 Library merge EIRIS merge Sustainability
November 2009 Bloomberg July 2010 Services
October 2015
RiskMetrics buys New Energy MSCI acquires ISS buys IW
Group buys March 2018
Finance GMI Ratings Financial
Innovest
December 2009 June 2014 January 2017
February 2009

November 2009 October 2016

June 2012 April 2019
RiskMetrics Standard & Poor’s
Group buys KLD Sustainalytics acquires Moody’s set to acquire
buys Trucost
September 2009 Responsible Research Vigeo EIRIS research
March 2010 September 2015 June 2017
Sustainalytics and March 2018
MSCI buys ISS acquires South Pole
Jantzi Research ISS acquires Ethix ISS acquires
RiskMetrics Group’s Investment
Inc. merge SRI Advisors oekom research
Group Climate Data Division

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ESG Due Diligence:
Tech Sector
ESG Scores & Comparisons (sample)

Source: Bloomberg data accessed 06/10/19

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Environmental Metrics (sample)

Source: Bloomberg data accessed 06/10/19

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Social Metrics (sample)

Source: Bloomberg data accessed 06/10/19

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Governance Metrics (sample)

Source: Bloomberg data accessed 06/10/19

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Emerging Issues:
Task Force on Climate
Related Financial
Disclosures (TCFD)
What is the TCFD?

The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) is an industry-led task force produced
recommendations designed to bridge the gap between how companies currently disclose information and
how investors would prefer that information be presented.

 The TCFD seeks to improve market understanding and analysis of

climate-related risks and opportunities by establishing a set of
recommendations to “provide a common set of principles” and “guide
disclosure to help financial markets assess and price climate-related
risks and opportunities.”
 The TCFD recommendations established a method for standardizing
climate-related financial disclosures in a way that would be useful for
investors, lenders, and insurance underwriters in understanding
material risks posed by climate change.
 TCFD’s recommendations “will help companies understand what
financial markets want from disclosure in order to measure and
respond to climate change risks, and encourage firms to align their
disclosures with investors’ needs.”
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Who Sits on the Task Force?

The Task Force is made up of 32 member

organizations from around the world, including:
 Large banks

 Insurance companies

 Asset managers

 Pension funds

 Large non-financial companies

 Accounting and consulting firms

 Credit ratings agencies

Support for the TCFD has grown to 785

organizations as of June 2019.

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Notable Signatories as of June 2017

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Notable Signatories as of December 2017

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Notable Signatories as of September 2018

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Notable Signatories as of June 2019

Support for the TCFD has grown to 785 organizations as of June 2019

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Emerging Issues:
Human Capital
Human Capital Investor Perspective
Evolution of concepts

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

fair labor workforce total headcount, gender diversity; workforce workforce

practices; health demographics; “broken down by the employment type, composition, composition,
and safety; workforce stability; division between full- such as full-time, part- unionization, worker worker welfare,
responsible workforce time and part-time time or agency participation in investment in
contracting and composition; employees, gender, and workers; staff decision-making, skills and worker
diversity workforce skills and diversity”; Annual turnover; accidents, OHS practices, representation.
capabilities; workforce turnover—including injuries and workplace training and
culture and both planned and illnesses; investment development and
empowerment; regrettable turnover; in training and employee
workforce health and Investment in training, development; pay compensation
safety; workforce skills, and professional ratios between the policies.
productivity; human development; highest paid and
rights; workforce Employee engagement median and lowest
compensation and score quartile workers
incentives across the company;
and employee
engagement scores.

Sources: Corporate Disclosure of Human Capital Metrics. October 2017. Retrieved from: https://lwp.law.harvard.edu/files/lwp/files/pension_paper_corporate_disclosure_of_human_capital_metrics_102317.pdf
CSHS Human Capital Project. http://www.centershs.org/human-capital.php

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 BlackRock: Human Capital Management

January 2019
Research has consistently shown the importance of human capital to company performance. Companies
included in Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” lists earned, over the long-term, excess
risk-adjusted returns of 3.5%.
When engaging boards on HCM we are likely to discuss: When engaging management teams, the topics covered
may include:
 Oversight of policies meant to protect employees (e.g.,
whistleblowing, codes of conduct, EEO policies) and the level of  Policies to encourage employee engagement outcomes and key
reporting the board receives from management to assess their drivers (e.g., wellness programs, support of employee networks,
implementation training and development programs, and stock participation
programs)
 Process to oversee that the many components of a company’s HCM
strategy align themselves to create a healthy culture and prevent  Process for ensuring employee health and safety and
unwanted behaviors complying with occupational health and safety policies
 Reporting to the board on the integration of HCM risks into risk  Voluntary and involuntary turnover on various dimensions (e.g.,
management processes seniority of roles, tenure, gender, and ethnicity)
 Current board and employee composition as it relates to diversity  Statistics on gender and other diversity characteristics as well as
promotion rates for and compensation gaps across different
 Consideration of linking HCM performance to executive employee demographics
compensation to promote board accountability
 Programs to engage organized labor and their representatives,
 Board member visits to establishments or factories to independently where relevant
assess the culture and operations of the company
 Systems to oversee matters related to the supply chain
(including contingent workers, contractors and subcontractors)
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Center for Safety & Health Sustainability – Human
Capital Project

The Harvard research study looked at disclosure on  Training Hours

twelve topics selected from the Human Capital
 Training Cost
section of RobecoSAM’s Corporate Sustainability
Assessment (CSA).  Return on Training

 Employee Development

 Employee Development Business

Benefits
 Employee Development Qualitative

 Operating Profit per Employee

 OHS Framework

 OHS Oversight

 OHS Work Environment

Link to Harvard Research Report

 Lost-Time Injuries
Link: CSHS Website

 Fatalities
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WBCSD’s Social & Human Capital Coalition and Protocol

 WBCSD is a global CEO-led organization of over 200 leading

businesses working together to accelerate the transition to a
sustainable world.
 The Social & Human Capital Coalition is an initiative which aims
to mainstream the measurement of social & human impacts for
business – shifting the improvement of social & human
performance from an optional extra to a core part of business
decision making.

The Protocol serves two purposes:

 It provides a consistent process to guide companies through the
journey of measuring, valuing and better managing social and
human capital.
 It provides a framework for collaboration to harmonize the
currently fragmented landscape of social & human impact
measurement and valuation, and to move towards standardized
approaches for business.
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Social & Human Capital Protocol

The Protocol, published in February 2019, is

a framework for businesses to measure and
value their impacts and dependencies on
people and society.
 It supports effective business decision-making
and communication of the full value business
generates for society.
 It includes more than 20 company case studies,
feedback from an extensive 2018 public
consultation and is streamlined for use alongside
the Natural Capital Protocol.

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Corporate Resources
What can companies do to manage ESG?

https://brownflynn.com/resources/brownflynn-wbcsd/ http://www.societycorpgov.org/governanceprofessionals/curren http://sustainability.com/rate-the-raters/

ttopiclandingpages/sustainability/esg-briefs

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ESG Ratings & Rankings Survey

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ESG Ratings & Rankings Survey

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ESG Rate the Raters Results - Quality

 Survey of 319 sustainability

professionals in the fall of 2018
 Second report forthcoming in 2019
focused on investor perspectives on
ratings

 2018 Top 5

 CDP

 RobecoSAM / DJSI

 Sustainalytics

 MSCI

 Bloomberg

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ESG Rate the Raters Results - Usefulness

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Case Study:
Strategic ESG Disclosure
Edwards Lifesciences

50
Edwards Lifesciences Case Study: Strategic ESG
Disclosure

https://www.edwards.com/sustainability/our-approach/materiality-stakeholder-engagement/
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Edwards Lifesciences Case Study: Strategic ESG
Disclosure

https://www.edwards.com/sustainability/our-approach/materiality-stakeholder-engagement/

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Edwards Lifesciences Case Study: Strategic ESG
Disclosure

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Single Security Data
Company-reported ESG data is available at a single security level. Ratios and third-party
scores are also available, offering complete transparency.
ESG Company data,
disclosure scores,
ratios and third party
data

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ESG Peer Analysis
Analyze a company’s ESG performance to assess current and historical risks and
opportunities

ESG Performance and

peer comparisons
including ESG scores

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Edwards Lifesciences Case Study: Strategic ESG
Disclosure
Edwards Lifesciences
Materiality Assessment
 Engaged more than 60
stakeholders to identify, prioritize
and validate the Company’s
most significant sustainability
impacts, risks, and opportunities,
driving the Company’s strategy
and goals, management
approach, and reporting.
 Interactive matrix published
on Edwards.com.

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Edwards Lifesciences Case Study: Strategic ESG
Disclosure

Environment Social Governance

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Active ESG Management

58
Is it time to create your own ESG narrative?
…Or are you going to let others do that for you?

Step 1: Understand the ESG Ecosystem Step 3: Strategic and Integrated Disclosure
 What does the ESG ratings and rankings ecosystem  What do we already have in-house that we’re not
look like today? disclosing?
 Are your competitors disclosing things you are not?  What are our most important (material) ESG issues?

 Can you disclose these things?  Who are the internal SMEs that can help measure,
manage and disclose ESG information?
 Do we want to connect the internal dots and do a report,
or fill the immediate gaps?

Step 2: ESG Research Firm, Shareholder

Mapping & Assessment
 Who is already looking at you and contacting you?

 Which of your largest owners have an interest in ESG?

 How important are those ESG research firms and

owners to you? (Prioritize)

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Thank you Mike Wallace Nat Vanitchyangkul Rebecca Green Steve Duckworth
Partner Commercial Director Partner Sales and Business Development
North America Asia Pacific Asia Pacific Director
+14243203501 +6626795200; x121 +81456403780 Asia Pacific
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] +85222713110
[email protected]

The business of sustainability