Sustainability Consulting
Are You Among This Year’s Sustainability Stars?
On 13th September 2018, RobecoSAM and S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the results of the annual Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) review. We are happy to announce that all our customers from eight different countries entered or continued their inclusion in the DJSI, of which four are now industry leaders. Among the companies that were newly added in this year’s Indices are Diageo, General Mills, Assicurazioni Generali, and BBVA whereas Henkel, BASF, and Bayer have been deleted from the index.
Using Vectoring to Fast-Forward Your ESG Activities
European temperatures in the past summer months were not as exceptional as some might think. According to the UN weather agency, CO2 levels are at their highest in the last 650,000 years, and so are the average temperatures, with the world’s nine warmest years all having occurred since 2005, and the five warmest since 2010. With the battle for sustainability heating up, companies and executives need to develop a new sense of urgency, moving it from the realm of compliance to that of a key driver of performance and innovation, which requires embedding it deeply into their core strategies.
Corporate Accelerators Spark Sustainable Innovation
Instead of innovating in isolation, multinationals are opening their doors and partner with startups to design solutions for their most pressing challenges. Coca-Cola, Google and Disney are only a few of the companies that have captured value of initiating these corporate accelerators. These accelerators increasingly focus on sustainability issues. One of the latest companies entering the stage is Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev). The global beer company has announced its 100+ Accelerator, aiming to address global challenges in line with the group’s 2025 Sustainability Goals.
RAPIDO: More tangible results from your sustainability strategy
The avalanche of reporting requirements, benchmarks and ratings calls for more focused and aligned disclosures, and smarter lean reporting solutions. In order to progress towards sustainability leadership, Finch & Beak believes the focus has to be on turning strategy into action. This is why RAPIDO was born: an integrated service platform for strategy development that promotes lean reporting and leaves time and budget available for transformative change and impact.
Get Ready and Prepare for the 2018 DJSI Questionnaire
On Thursday the 5th of April, RobecoSAM will once again open its annual Corporate Sustainability Assessment: the basis for selecting the best-performing companies for the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). This year, more than 3,500 eligible companies have received an invitation to participate in the 2018 DJSI assessment. Avoid surprises by checking out our summary of announced changes for this year's methodology, and start your required preparations now.
Digesting Davos: Actionable Insights
The 2018 World Economic Forum (WEF) has once again shown promising sustainability developments, with multinationals, governmental representatives and academics emphasizing rapid change is needed to meet the requirements from the Paris Agreement. However, now that everyone is back to work, the question remains how these nice words become reality and how companies will initiate change. Pricing negative impacts and designing them out through circular innovations could provide solutions.
Paying for Climate Change: Expensive Externalities
New York City is suing five major oil companies for their contribution to climate change. This new lawsuit highlights that the time for companies to pay for previously unaccounted externalities may come faster than expected. So it is increasingly important for companies to perform impact valuations in order to gain insights on their negative and positive externalities, and learn how to mitigate risks and leverage opportunities.
Accelerating Sustainability After Your Holidays
The Finch & Beak team wishes you a great Christmas and all the best for the new year ahead of us! Our first full year as Finch & Beak was a productive one, where we worked for great companies across nine European countries, and welcomed many others to our trainings in Amsterdam, Zurich and Barcelona. We are proud to have supported them to increase their impact, and we look forward to continuing on our mission to accelerate sustainability in 2018.
Creating Impact through Acceleration of Lean Reporting
The last two years have been defining for corporate non-financial reporting in Europe. The introduction of the EU Directive on the disclosure of non-financial and diversity information (Directive 2014/95/EU) has set a roadmap that is to lead to increased business transparency and accountability on social and environmental issues. And the 28 EU Member States have been turning the Directive into national legislations so companies are now expected to comply with the new disclosure requirements when reporting over fiscal year 2017.
