This half-day, invitation-only working session will address the disconnect between publicly held companies and their investors regarding environmental, social and governance metrics, and how to ensure disclosure is decision-useful and relevant to stakeholders to successfully manage risks and seize opportunities in investment decision-making. Trucost, part of S&P Global, and GreenBiz Group are pleased to join forces to create the Summit, bringing together publicly traded companies, mainstream investors and other to align their understanding and use of ESG data.

Since the inception of the SDGs, CSOs have grappled with how best to address these goals in their sustainability strategies. This conversation will explore emerging trends, best practices, standards, and stakeholder expectations, highlighting the efforts that both corporates and investors are making to integrate the SDGs into their strategic thinking. In addition, SDG metrics are becoming increasingly material to the investor community. How are investors working to integrate the SDGs into their analysis – and what trends are we likely to see moving forward? Are companies giving stakeholders, including investors, the information they need on the SDGs? And how should companies be communicating their efforts to fully capture their impacts and give an accurate and comparable demonstration of their efforts? Hear how businesses and investors can come together to most effectively advance this agenda.

Companies that integrate environmental, social and governance issues into how they operate can benefit from lower risks, lower costs, and the ability to drive higher returns. How can companies lead with their values to drive success, both financially and reputationally? What are the drivers of the shift towards sustainable investing? What role can companies have in capital investment that creates true positive impact? Hear from Audrey Choi, Morgan Stanley’s Chief Marketing Officer and first Chief Sustainability Officer on harnessing finance to address global challenges and deliver social and environmental benefits.

Organizations today are shifting their focus from just measuring outputs to better understanding the outcomes that they are creating for stakeholders and the impacts they are creating for society. This shift is providing valuable input for reporting, but perhaps more importantly, for goal setting and decision making. Join this session to learn about methods for impact measurement and examples of how leading financial organizations use impact measurement every day.

Sustainability is increasingly been seen as a differentiator for corporates and investors alike. To demonstrate this, we need robust, relevant, comparable and forward-looking measurement, management and reporting of data, as well as the assurance of such data. Keryn James, CEO of ERM, the world’s largest pure-play sustainability consulting firm, will share a global perspective on what it will take for corporates and investors to succeed in this evolving context.

Business leaders are facing the rising importance of measuring and disclosing climate risks. The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommends that companies and investors publish forward-looking information on the financial implications of the direct physical risks and indirect transition impacts of climate change in annual reports and financial filings. Adopting these recommendations presents organizations with a number of challenges, including questions around how climate-economic scenarios can be interpreted in useful financial terms and how to link top-down scenario impacts to future business performance. Join this session to learn practical steps to move forward from the team that helped the UN and leading banks develop critical elements for an actionable framework for assessing climate risks and opportunities that supports strategic and executive-level decision-making.

Green and ESG-linked loans are relative newcomers to sustainable finance but their rapid growth has made a mark, with over $32B financed for corporate sustainability programs in 2018.  What has caught the eye of corporate finance and treasury departments is that these loans are often tied to a lower lending rate for companies that can improve their performance on sustainability measures. Join this session to learn about this exciting trend, how companies and investors are using green and ESG-linked loans, and why some say that corporate sustainability performance as a path to lower borrowing costs could be a game changer.