Events

UNEP FI 2003 Global Roundtable

Sustaining Value: A Meeting on Finance and Sustainability

20-21 October, 2003 | Tokyo, Japan

Agenda: Understanding Sustainability: Characteristics of sustainable finance

What would a sustainable financial institution look like?

• How would its banking, investment and insurance products and services differ?
• How would its internal operations change?
• What would be required from regulators to bring this about?

Speakers:

Mr. Yotaro Kobayashi, Chairman of the Board, Fuji Xerox
Presentation (PDF: 158 KB)

Mr. Tony Juniper, Executive Director, Friends of the Earth (England, Wales, and Northern Ireland)
Presentation (PDF: 564 KB)

Mr. Bob Welsh, Chief Executive, VicSuper
Presentation (PDF: 1.1 MB)

with panelists

Ms. Gabrielle McCorkell, Strategic Adviser, EPA Victoria

Chair
Mr. Brian Pearce, Director, Centre for Sustainable Investment, Forum for the Future
Presentation (PDF: 105 KB)

Speaker biographies

Tony Juniper, Executive Director, Friends of the Earth (England, Wales, and Northern Ireland)

Tony Juniper has been an environmental campaigner for nearly 20 years. Since 2003 he has been the Executive Director of Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland and from 2000 has been the Vice Chair of Friends of the Earth International, the global federation of 68 national Friends of the Earth organisations.

Tony has worked with Friends of the Earth since 1990 and played a prominent role in many of its most high-profile campaigns. He led the Policy and Campaigns team of about 40 campaigners and researchers on the organisation's energy, biodiversity, transport, industrial pollution, food / biotechnology campaigns and sustainable development policy. Tony has been very active in successfully changing the policies and practices of international companies, among others Rio Tinto, BP, Shell and Balfour Beatty. He is now active in the Friends of the Earth campaign to change UK and international law so as to promote more sustainable companies. Tony has been closely involved with the international campaigns on globalisation, climate change and GM crops. He is also a Director of the Ilisu Dam campaign, which successfully prevailed in persuading Balfour Beatty to withdraw from the controversial Ilisu dam project in Turkey (2001).

Tony is a leading commentator on environmental issues and has co-authored an award-winning guide to the parrots of the world. He co-authored the award-winning Parrots (1998) and wrote the acclaimed story of Spix's Macaw (2002).

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Bob Welsh, Chief Executive, VicSuper Proprietary Limited

Bob is chief executive of VicSuper Proprietary Limited, a private company formed in Melbourne, Australia, for the purpose of acting as trustee and manager of the Victorian Superannuation Fund (pension fund).

The Fund is a relatively new and rapidly growing pension fund with assets of AUD2 billion. Any working or retired citizen can join the Fund. The company administers the Fund and is fund manager for 50% of the Fund's assets.

Bob has 14 years experience in managing superannuation funds. Prior to joining the superannuation industry he held senior finance positions in several large service industries including 7 years as director of finance for Australia's largest rural water authority.

Bob is a chartered accountant and holds a degree in economics and politics from Monash University, Melbourne and a diploma in financial planning.

Bob is the driving force behind the integration of sustainability into VicSuper's decision support systems and investment strategies.

VicSuper's leadership in this area was recently recognised by the sustainability community through VicSuper's success in winning three environmental awards from the Banksia Environmental Foundation and the United Nations Association of Australia for both investments and operations - an unprecedented achievement in the Australian superannuation (pension) industry.

Through integrating sustainability into the investment strategy and operations of VicSuper, Bob has challenged long-entrenched norms and introduced many organisations in the Australian financial services sector to the benefits of addressing sustainability in day-to-day business.

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Mr. Brian Pearce, Director, Centre for Sustainable Investment, Forum for the Future

Brian Pearce is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Investment (CSI) at Forum for the Future. An experienced financial, international macro and environmental economist, he was formerly head of global economic research at SBC Warburg in Tokyo and London, Chief Economist at Ernst & Young's ITEM economic forecasting group, and technical director and head of environmental economics at the leading consultancy Environmental Resources Management.

Brian has Masters degrees in Economics and in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics from the University of London. He has advised investors, central banks, governments and corporations in over twenty companies, has published numerous reports and papers and is an experienced broadcaster on radio and television.

The CSI provides high quality analysis demonstrating why financial institutions should take issues of sustainability - environmental, economic and social - into account, and advice as to how they can most effectively do this.

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