Paul Clements-Hunt, Head of UNEP FI writes: World's largest advertising agency backs UNEP FI in Cape Town I cannot tell you how pleased the UNEP FI team are at the wave of positive energy the Zoom Advertising team is generating for the concept of Cape Town Green Week (October 19-23). The Zoom campaign will be pitched to UNEP FI during the week of 17 September and then rolled out from the first weekend in October. An "edgy" internet element to the campaign will plant a viral take up of the Cape Town Green Week idea when the City will become the Greenest Business City on Earth for one week. For a look at Ogilvy/WPP's current campaign work related to climate change check out: http://www.hopenhagen.org. The UNEP FI team in Geneva will be working to secure corporate support to finance print and broadcast media space to "get the message out" and we hope that our partners will assist in this process. Cape Town News Centre We'll certainly be in touch to let you know how you can use this "News Centre" on the UNEP FI website and we look forward to publicizing all the Cape Town Green Business News. The UNEP FI team are really excited about the link up with Zoom Advertising/Ogilvy/WPP and we look forward to working with all of our partners to make the most of it.
UNEP FI Global Roundtable: Financing Change, Changing Finance Six weeks ahead of the momentous UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, UNEP FI is convening its biennial Global Roundtable in Cape Town, South Africa on 22-23 October. The Roundtable will see the largest gathering of global leaders from finance and investment communities, government and civil society who will meet to discuss the role of finance in environment, social and governance (ESG) issues. Within the current context of the global financial crisis and with the countdown to Copenhagen, thematic discussions during the Roundtable will build around research and genuine ideas on sustainable finance including proposals on financing climate change mitigation articulated in the Green Paper - Financing Global Deal on Climate Change, reality check and promotion of integration of ESG issues in asset management, insurance, pension funds articulated in the Fiduciary II report, showcasing real-life effective ESG risk identification and positive sustainability impact of fund management complied through Environmental and Social Responsibility Observatory from across the globe, and much more. Why participate?
Keynote Speakers include Terry Tamminen, the architect of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's green revolution in California, environmental advisor to the Obama and Chinese Administrations, and the former head of the State of California Environmental Protection Agency. For the full list of speakers view: http://www.unepfi.org/events/2009/roundtable/speakers/index.html Register now to help set the agenda for action on ESG issues for the financial services and investment sector. Also, be part of the effort to crystallize the global financial services message that will be taken to the historic climate change meeting in Denmark. For further information on how to participate please contact: roundtable@unepfi.org To see a television interview with Paul Clements-Hunt talking about the Global Roundtable at eNews Channel, please visit: http://www.unepfi.org/imgs/2009_global_roundtable/pch_tv_interview.html Sponsors: Roundtable Partner: The Banking Association South Africa Roundtable Supporters: Africa Investor, Sustainable Finance Geneva, Green Building Council, South Africa, National Business Initiative, Africa Geographic, Catlin Arctic Survey, Dot Eco, The GLOBE Foundation, Jetfin, Solar Impluse, Top to Top Media Partners: GreenMoney Journal, Japan for Sustainability, Syntao, Asria, Environmental Finance, Clear Profit, SRI World Group
UNEP FI welcomes three new Signatories Caledonia Wealth Management, Ltd. Caledonia Wealth Management's client-centric and consultative approach provides clients with a broad range of domestic and international customized sustainable investment opportunities. The firm, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, is rapidly gaining recognition as a leader in the sustainable investment movement. Caledonia's activities are focused on maximizing financial return through investments that embody best practices in environmental, social and corporate governance issues, and it provides actively managed investment solutions with an emphasis on low fees, liquidity and transparency within investment portfolios. The company's clients range from high net worth individuals to non-profits, business owners, charities and foundations. Caledonia is a full service firm, providing expertise in retirement planning, insurance, tax planning, estate planning, cash flow and business management services, and international cross-border planning as well as sustainable asset management. For further information, please visit: http://www.caledoniawealth.com/ Members Equity Group The Australian-based Members Equity Group, trading as Industry Super Holdings Pty Ltd, is comprised of Members Equity Bank Pty Ltd, Industry Funds Management Pty Ltd (IFM) and Industry Funds Services Pty Ltd (IFS). The organization employs over 1,000 staff across Australia, and has offices in London and New York. Members Equity Group offers a range of financial products and services, including retail and commercial banking, insurance broking and fund management activities. Members Equity Group is committed to building its business around the needs of its customers and other stakeholders. The principles of equitable, sustainable growth are embedded in what the Company does. Corporate responsibility at Members Equity Group addresses four areas of action: its people, its community, the Company and the planet. For further information, please visit: http://www.membersequity.com.au/ The Commonwealth Bank The Commonwealth Bank, one of Australia’s leading providers of integrated financial services, includes retail, premium, business and institutional banking, funds management, superannuation, insurance, and investment and sharebroking products and services among its activities. It is one of the largest listed companies on the Australian Stock Exchange and is included in the Morgan Stanley Capital Global Index. The Commonwealth Bank’s key financial objective is to have Total Shareholder Return in the top quartile of its Australian-listed peers over each rolling five-year period and its strategic strengths include its brand, its scale of operations, and its diversified business mix. The Commonwealth Bank brand is the most recognized brand in the Australian financial services industry. Other award-winning brands within the Group include the wealth management business, Colonial First State, and the online broking service, CommSec. The Group has a strong domestic presence with the largest customer base of any Australian bank and operates the largest financial services distribution network with the most points of access in the country. For further information, please visit: http://www.commbank.com.au/ What our Signatories are Doing... VicSuper wins ACCA's top sustainability reporting awards Melbourne, 6 August, 2009: UNEP FI Signatory VicSuper was awarded the top spot in this year's annual Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Sustainability Reporting Awards with prizes in three categories - Best Sustainability Report, Best SME Report and Best Report in the Financial Services Sector. The awards, which recognize excellence in environmental, social and sustainability financial reporting, attracted submissions from 77 organizations across Australia and New Zealand. Companies are judged on transparency in their reporting and how well they communicate their corporate performance with stakeholders.
Environmental and Social Responsibility Observatory (ESRO): What's in it for you? Do you still need proof that a green economy doesn't mean numbers in the red? Evidence that there is money to be made and saved in environmental and social risk management? ESRO - a new online database of real-life stories compiled jointly by UNEP FI and the Ecobanking Project - shows how financial institutions are successfully managing to align financial and sustainability performance either by channelling funds into activities that have a positive sustainability impact, or by effectively identifying and mitigating ESG risks faced by companies and project developers. ESRO, which will be launched publicly at UNEP FI's Cape Town Global Roundtable in October, can provide you with all the evidence you need, but goes one step better by assisting you in your financial decision-making by providing the real-life illustrations that traditional guidelines and tools lack. For more information, please contact: observatory@unepfi.org Environmental and Social Risk Analysis (ESRA) E-Learning Programme Contaminated land...endangered species... water scarcity.... health and safety hazards... indigenous land. So many risks, so many potential losses. Learn to identify environmental and social risk and stay clear of the damage with this e-learning programme designed for risk managers and analysts in commercial, corporate, investment and retail banking in, or dealing with, developing countries and emerging markets. Up-coming courses: The ESRA E-Learning Programme is a product of UNEP FI, Capacity Building International (InWent), and the INCAE Business School, and is supported by Ecobanking Project. Since its inception in 2006 over 20 courses have been delivered in English and Spanish. For further information, please visit: http://www.unepfi.org/training/risk_training/index.html E-Learning Programme on Corporate Eco-Efficiency for Financial Institutions (CEFI) Runs from Location: Online 1.5 million euros saved after five years by reducing the use of paper, water, and energy. $15 million saved in three years by implementing measures of eco-efficiency in printing. How much could your financial institution save if it applied corporate eco-efficiency practices? Discover how your institution can make real savings while at the same time helping the environment with this Spanish language CEFI E-Learning Programme running on-line from 7 September - 2 October. The programme is designed to train representatives of the financial sector on how to make efficient use of the resources involved in the daily internal operations of financial institutions (FIs) and so reduce their environmental footprint. Each course guides participants through five key areas in which FIs have a direct impact on the environment:
Training is delivered in a highly personalized format, with lots of exchanges between participants and with the tutor. Activities are undertaken over a four-week period and involve a variety of assignments, including readings, exercises, debates and a one-week in-house activity, in which participants are invited to develop a set of eco-efficiency measures for implementation within their institutions. For further information, please visit: http://www.unepfi.org/training/risk_training/index.html
Latin America and the Caribbean Breakfast Meeting on finance and sustainability in the Caribbean financial sector 29 June, 2009, Bridgetown, Barbados: UNEP FI and the Barbados Sustainable Finance Group organized a Regional CEO Breakfast, held under the auspices of the Barbados Ministry of Environment, Water Resources and Drainage, and the Barbados Bankers’ Association, in order to engage with the wider Caribbean financial sector. The meeting, which attracted high-level financial sector representatives and a variety of other stakeholders, was opened by Senator Haynesley Benn, then Acting Minister of the Environment. Jerry Blenman, Managing Director of Calidad Investment & Financial Services, then presented the key findings of a survey involving both the major banks and the leading corporations of Barbados. A panel discussion on “Sustainable Finance in the Caribbean-Building the Business Case and Next Steps” followed. Panellists included Sandra Odendahl-Chair, Chair of UNEP FI’s North American Task Force and Director Corporate Environmental Affairs, RBC Toronto; Laura Mendez, Co-Chair of UNEP FI’s Latin American Task Force and Advisor to the Director General, FIRA, Mexico; Rey Royer-Chair, Chair of the Barbados Sustainable Finance Group and Vice President and Country Manager, RBC Barbados; and Lionel Weekes, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of the Environment. The debate was moderated by Careen Abb, Regions Coordinator at UNEP FI. UNEP FI’s Latin American Task Force launches advanced risk training workshop 22-23 September, 2009, Bogota, Colombia: UNEP FI’s Latin American Task Force and its partner, the Ecobanking Project, is now launching a brand new training workshop which seeks to build on the success of the Environmental and Risk Analysis (ESRA) Training Programme developed since 2005. The UNEP FI/Ecobanking Advanced ESRA Training Workshop is aimed exclusively at risk managers and analysts who already have a basic understanding and/or experience of environmental risk management and are now seeking to step up their ESRM systems. Over the one-and-a-half day workshop participants will effectively be in a “risk lab”. Under the guidance of two tutors and other resource persons, they will undertake live research, using highly specialized analysis tools and present a simulated environmental risk report before a central risk committee. The first session of this Advanced Workshop is being organized with the collaboration and support of Fundación Social, Colombia. Places are limited to 25 persons. For more information, please contact: la@unepfi.org UNEP FI LATF peer-to-peer breakfast meeting on Environmental and Social Risk 24 September, 2009, Lima, Peru: This breakfast meeting, organized in collaboration with BBVA Banco Continental under the auspices of the Peruvian Banking Association (ASBANC), will provide the country’s risk managers with an opportunity for collective reflection on the adoption and implementation of environmental and social risk management policies and practices. They will be assisted by environmental and social risk experts from UNEP FI’s Latin American Task Force (LATF). For contact details and further information about LATF and its activities, visit: http://www.unepfi.org/regional_activities/latin_america/index.html
UNEP FI Asset Management Working Group launches the report "Fiduciary responsibility - Legal and practical aspects of integrating environmental, social and governance issues into institutional investment" 14 July, 2009, Geneva, Nairobi, Sydney: The UNEP FI Asset Management Working Group has launched the much-awaited sequel to its landmark 2005 "Freshfields Report" which, until now, has arguably been the single most effective document for promoting the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues into institutional investment. The report provides a legal roadmap for fiduciaries looking for concrete steps to operationalize their commitment to responsible investment. One of its major contributors is internationally-recognized fiduciary law expert, Paul Watchman, the principal author of the Freshfields Report. The report includes forewords from UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner, and the Norwegian Minister of Finance, Kristin Halvorsen. Download the report "Fiduciary responsibility - Legal and practical aspects of integrating environmental, social and governance issues into institutional investment" from: http://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/documents/fiduciaryII.pdf For the official UNEP press release visit: http://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/documents/fiduciaryIIpress.pdf The launch was extensively covered by international media and professional journals including Financial Times, Financial Advisor, Wall Street Journal, Alternative Asset Adviser and Institutional Shareowner. To read the full press coverage, please visit: http://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/documents/fiduciaryIImedia.pdf For further information, please contact investment@unepfi.org UNEP FI Asset Management Working Group launches the latest in its Materiality Series: "The materiality of climate change - How finance copes with the ticking clock" 16 July, 2009, Sydney: Climate change is the subject of the third report in the UNEP FI Asset Management Working Group's ground-breaking "Materiality Series". The report, launched in July 2009 at the Principles for Responsible Investment Annual Event in Sydney, Australia, comes just months before the critical UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December, which will determine the post-Kyoto Protocol regime. The report provides a comprehensive review of key financial analyst research on climate change in order to accelerate the integration of climate change risks and opportunities into fundamental financial analysis and practice. It demonstrates yet another robust example of why it is vital for the financial markets that policymakers seal an effective, efficient and equitable global deal in Copenhagen. The Materiality Series started in 2004 with "The Materiality of Social, Environmental and Corporate Governance Issues to Equity Pricing" and was followed in 2006 by "Show Me The Money: Linking Environmental, Social and Governance Issues to Company Value". Download the executive summary and methodology: http://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/documents/MatIII_executive_summary.pdf For further information, contact investment@unepfi.org
Launch of the Forest Footprint Disclosure The Forest Footprint Disclosure Project (FFD) is a new UK government-supported initiative, created to help investors identify how an organization’s activities and supply chains contribute to deforestation, and potentially link this "forest footprint" to its value. For those investors who are a signatory to UN PRI (and who will know that Principle No 3 says "We will seek appropriate disclosure on ESG issues by the entities in which we invest") FFD will additionally enable them to obtain disclosure on the environmental and social issue of deforestation. Launched on 15 June at the UK government’s DFID headquarters the project has so far obtained support from 25 institutional investors with combined assets under management of over US $2.8 trillion. It is now receiving returns from the 218 major companies canvassed in July on their management of the forest impact of their supply chains. With the support of UNEP FI, FFD now seeks to engage with additional asset owners and managers. For more information, please visit: http://www.forestdisclosure.com. Conference on Boosting investments in biodiversity and ecosystem services 11-12 November 2009, Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Nyenrode Business University, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Netherlands, and the European Centre for Nature Conservation (ECNC) invite you to participate in an international working conference “Boosting investments in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BES)”, to be held in Amsterdam, 11 and 12 November 2009. Innovative investment opportunities will be presented during the conference, which will include recommendations on further action to foster development of these markets. For more information, please visit: http://www.nyenrode.nl/biodiversityfinance
2009 Investor Statement on a global agreement on climate change The 2009 investor statement on a global agreement on climate change has been produced by an international collaboration of four investor and finance sector associations – Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), the Investor Group on Climate Change/Australia and New Zealand (IGCC Australia/New Zealand) and UNEP FI. The statement sets out the investor perspective on climate change and the key elements of a global agreement that will be needed to drive the financial flows necessary to address climate change. The statement now needs to be signed by as many organizations as possible to demonstrate the importance that investors attach to a strong, credible and effective global agreement on climate change being reached at the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference in December. Should your organisation be interested in signing this Statement, please get in touch with climate@unepfi.org for more information.
Responsible property investment – Similar aims, different manifestations 22 September, 2009, UNEP FI/PRI webinar: The aim of this webinar is to help property and non-property professionals understand the nature and scope for responsible property investment. The webinar will comprise of two presentations. First, Paul McNamara, Head of Research for PRUPIM, will review the concept of Responsible Property Investment and, through an examination of the nature of property as an investment asset, describe the main ways in which responsible property investment practices might be implemented. This will be followed by Cate Collins, Head of Sustainability, Asia-Pacific for Lend Lease in Sydney, who will present a variety of case studies of such practices in action. Duration: 1 hour For dial-in details, speaker bios, and registration, please contact Lauren Miller, lauren.miller@unpri.org
Four new UNEP FI Signatory sustainability reports RBS Sustainability Report 2008 ARrlA, The time to Lead is Now: The Adoption of ESG Analysis by Asian Government Pension Funds: The 2008 Achmea Corporate Social Responsibility Report - Doing it State Street, Corporate Social Responsibility 2008 Do not reply to the ebulletin email address. For information on UNEP-FI and its activities, email fi@unep.ch. To unsubscribe: The UNEP FI e-bulletin is a monthly publication of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. Chief Editor: Paul Clements-Hunt Disclaimer: |
