Lessons from DSM’s Winning Sustainability Strategy

The roots of global specialty chemicals company Royal DSM are as a Dutch state-owned coal mining company that started in 1902. The company’s future, however, is far removed from its past. DSM’s Strategy 2021 describes how the company plans to drive above-market growth through developing innovative solutions addressing Nutrition & Health, Climate & Energy and Resources & Circularity, together with increased customer-centricity and large innovation projects. In this article, DSM’s approach is decomposed by looking at the elements of its sustainability strategy, and we provide tips how to replicate this.

How to Assess Your Own ESG Performance

ESG index funds are proving to be more crisis-proof than their less sustainable peers: with the average ESG fund falling by a mere 12.2% in 2020, almost half the decline of the S&P 500 according to Bloomberg. With the 2019 net money flows into these funds estimated to have almost quadrupled compared to 2018, companies are well-advised to advance their ESG performance. To help you do just that, this article provides four elementary questions and gives access to a newly launched online self-assessment, the ESG Acceleration Scan.

ESG Acceleration Webinar: Impact Valuation

Impact measurement and valuation bring sustainability into the arena of strategic decision making, as it enables companies to manage risks, optimise costs and seize opportunities. However, many executives do not yet understand what impact valuation means, or fail to recognise its application beyond a theoretical exercise for reporting. In partnership with PRé Sustainability, this webinar explains the potential that the approach brings for integrating environmental and social impacts into business cases and strategic planning.

Paving the Impact Measurement & Valuation Pathway

To really make changes based on sustainability information, companies need to know how to value that information. Today, top management of two sustainability consultancies – Eric Mieras of PRé and Jan van der Kaaij of Finch & Beak – share their united vision of the way forward.

Summary of SAM's Webcast on Sustainable Finance

On the 12th of November, SAM conducted its fourth webinar on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) 2019 results. This webcast zoomed in on the criterion of Sustainable Finance which was introduced to the 2019 assessment for the banking, diversified financial services, and insurance industries. The criterion replaced the former criteria Business Risks & Opportunities and Controversial Issues, Dilemmas in Lending & Financing. Download our free summary of the highlights in the attachment of the article.

Junior Consultant Sustainable Business for the French Market

Due to continued growth, Finch & Beak is currently searching for a Junior Consultant Sustainable Business to join our team in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. If you are passionate about accelerating corporate sustainability performance and are looking to develop sustainability as an essential part of business, we would love to meet you!

ESG & Benchmarking

Project Management

Finch & Beak Nests across Europe

We are proud as a peacock, or rather as a finch, to announce our two new nests in Rotterdam and Barcelona.

How Investors See Culture and Purpose as Keys to Profit

As over a quarter of assets under management across the globe are now being invested according to ESG principles, companies are well advised to maximize their ESG performance. However, straight-forward short-term improvement interventions will fall flat when your company is lacking a culture of sustainability that advances performance over the long-term. Investors are understanding this more and more, and are looking to understand what your company is doing to foster and cultivate a corporate culture that is aligned with the company’s strategy and purpose.