The UNEP FI Regional Roundtable North America was held on 1 March 2023 in Toronto, Canada. The event gathered over 200 UNEP FI members and supporting institutions, as well as the wider sustainable finance community including regulators, civil society, policymakers and academia to discuss the state of play and define the future of sustainable finance in the region.

  • Watch event recordings here.
  • View photos from the event here.

The Roundtable was held as part of the GlobexChange Destination Net-Zero event with Globe Series.

Contact us for any questions or comments at: roundtable@unepfi.org.

Watch event recordings here.

Time (EST)
 Sessions on 1 March
09:00 Opening Remarks

  • Liesel van Ast, UNEP FI
09:05 Opening Keynote

  • Christine Bergeron, CEO and President, Vancity
09:15 Regulatory developments for ESG in North America

  • Grant Vingoe, CEO, Ontario Securities Commission
  • Kathleen A. Birrane, Insurance Commissioner of Maryland
  • Moderator: David Carlin, Climate Risk Lead, UNEP FI
10:00 Break
10:30 Next steps to net zero for financial institutions

  • Joy Williams, Executive Director, Financial Institution Transition Planning, GFANZ
  • John Stackhouse, Senior Vice-President, RBC
  • Sheri Wilbanks, Head of GRM P&C Climate and Sustainability, AXA
  • Moderator: Sarah Kemmitt, Lead Secretariat, Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), UNEP FI
11:15 Implementing sustainable practices in banking

  • Yasmina Vucina Banjanin, Chief Sustainability Officer, SVP Strategic Partnerships, Areti Bank
  • Ivan Frishberg, Senior Vice President, Chief Sustainability Officer, Amalgamated Bank
  • Maud Zénidé, Senior Advisor, Sustainable Development – ESG, National Bank of Canada
  • Moderator: Johanna Dichtl, PRB Implementation Lead, UNEP FI
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Plenary sessions (in collaboration with Globe Series)

  • Barbara Zvan, CEO, President and Chief Executive Officer of the University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP) 
  • Catherine McKenna, Chair UN High-Level Expert Group on Net Zero
  • Guy Cormier, CEO and President, Desjardins Group
  • Jane Ambachtsheer, Global Head of Sustainability, BNP Paribas Asset Management
  • Mindy Lubber, CEO, Ceres
  • Liesel van Ast, UNEP FI
14:00 Nature is next: integrating biodiversity risks into financial decision making

  • Adam Kanzer, Head of Stewardship, Americas, BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM)
  • Huma Pabani, Director, Environment & National Issues, Environment, Government & Industry Relations, TD Insurance
  • Anton Tabuns, Senior Counsel, Sustainability, BMO Financial Group
  • Romie Goedicke, Nature-related risk and disclosure Lead, UNEP FI
14:45 Addressing social risks of climate change

  • Jonathan Fowlie, Chief External Relations Officer, Vancity
  • Chad Park, Vice-President, Sustainability & Citizenship, The Co-operators Group
  • Ashleigh Owens, Deputy Director, Financial Institutions Lead, Shift 
  • Moderator: Joana Pedro, Social Lead, UNEP FI
15:30 Break
16:00 Developing sustainable insurance roadmaps across North America

  • Ricardo Lara, Insurance Commissioner, California Department of Insurance
  • Moira Gill, Associate Vice President, Government and Industry Relations, TD Insurance
  • Moderator: Liesel van Ast, UNEP FI
16:50 A Legal Framework for Impact: making the case for sustainability impact goals

  • Kelly Krauter, Senior Policy Analyst, Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
16:55 Closing Remarks
17:00 End of Day 1

 

March 2 – private workshops for UNEP FI members. Please contact us for registrations.

Headline Sponsor:

Vancity is Canada’s largest community credit union with more than 560,000 member-owners and $33 billion in assets plus assets under administration. As a financial co-operative, Vancity and its members use finance as a force for change to build a clean and fair world.

With a deep-rooted focus on financial inclusion and a long-standing commitment to environmental leadership in the finance sector, Vancity uses the tools of banking to reduce barriers to broaden economic participation, improve the well-being of the communities it serves and support a fair climate transition. Vancity aims to be net-zero by 2040 across all mortgages and loans.

 

Panel and workshop sponsor:

Co-operators exists to strengthen the financial security of Canadians and their communities. This is their mission and their social purpose. As a leading Canadian financial services co-operative, Co-operators offers multi-line insurance and investment products, services, and advice to build financial strength and security.

With over $56 billion in assets under management, Co-operators provides financial solutions and security through property and casualty (P&C) insurance, life insurance, investment management, institutional asset management, and brokerage operations. 

 

Panel sponsor:

Areti Bank is a purpose-driven team of experts in finance united by a shared mission of creating a more sustainable world for the generation to come. We are a bank for people who care about the role their money plays in the world. We strongly believe in offering a new kind of bank with a focus on partnering with our clients to create a more sustainable future. At Areti Bank we are aware of the challenges that the planet faces today.  We are invited to be part of the solution, to create a more sustainable world through banking. We want to make sure the generation to come inherits a more livable planet.

 

Networking sponsor

Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with more than 90,000 employees around the world, the Toronto-Dominion Bank and its subsidiaries are collectively known as TD Bank Group (TD). TD offers a full range of financial products and services to over 27 million customers worldwide. TD Group is recognised for sustainability leadership, and since 2014, TD Bank Group remains the only Canadian bank listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.

 

Workshop sponsors

CIBC is a leading Canadian-based global financial institution. Through its four strategic business units — Canadian Personal and Small Business Banking, Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, and Capital Markets — CIBC provides a full range of financial products and services to 11 million individual, small business, commercial, corporate and institutional clients in Canada, the U.S. and around the world.

CIBC summarises their sustainability strategy to include aspiring to be a leader in environmental performance, understanding stakeholders are engaged and impacted by the critical issues related to the environment and engaging all stakeholders to focus efforts on initiatives where they can have a positive impact, and which are consistent with their client-focused strategy including responsible financing and investing, green products and Services and managing their footprint.

TD Insurance is part of the TD Bank Group, one of Canada’s largest financial services organizations. We work in two sectors: general insurance and life and health insurance.

We’ve earned our place as the largest direct-response home and auto insurance group and one of the top three personal home and auto insurance groups in Canada. We’re also the national leader in critical illness insurance and a pioneer in affinity marketing, where we work jointly with groups to market insurance to their members.

As part of our ongoing commitment to helping you make informed property and casualty insurance choices, we at TD Insurance put together an insurance disclosure document on our compensation to duly licensed and fixed salaried representatives.