Category: News

Speakers:
Monique Mathys-Graaff, Senior Advisor and Public Markets Lead, Impact Management Project
Sean Gilbert, Director, Member Engagement, Global Impact Investing Network
Jory Cohen, Director of Finance and Impact Investment, Inspirit Foundation
Diane Young, Senior Portfolio Manager, Fixed Income & Co-Head, Corporate Bonds, Addenda Capital

Over the years, there’s been a turning point in understanding the term fiduciary duty in the institutional and pension fund space, said Diane Young, Senior Portfolio Manager, Fixed Income and Co-Head of Corporate Bonds at Addenda Capital at the Responsible Investment Conference on Thursday.

“Plans are now not just looking at the returns on their assets, but the underlying assets themselves. There is this idea of sacrificing returns that pension plans were wary about [when it came to impact investing], but I think that’s been largely dispelled with the most recent philosophy.” she said.

“Pension plans are looking more broadly at what their duty is to their beneficiaries.”

Young, along with moderator Jory Cohen, Director of Finance and Impact Investment at Inspirit Foundation, and fellow panelists Sean Gilbert, Director of Member Engagement at Global Impact Investing Network, and Monique Mathys-Graaff, Senior Advisor and Public Markets Lead at the Impact Management Project, discussed the evolve nature of impact investing in public markets.

“From a regulation perspective, we’ve been seeing policy standard sectors mainstreaming,” Mathys-Graaff added.

“Particularly, I think you could look at the IFRS [The International Financial Reporting Standards] foundation’s announcement of the Sustainability Standards Board. It speaks to more deliberate consistency in the data that we can expect to see that will only benefit the great momentum we have in ensuring that impact management practices and performance can scale for public markets.”

Gilbert added that the industry is trying now to focus more on intentionality and measurement, and noted three key changes when it comes to impact funds:

1. Articulation of impact objectives

Companies are doing a better job of specifying the sort of change they want to see in the world. For instance, funds are articulating purpose, such as “to invest in the companies that are developing solutions specifically for X, Y and Z,” Gilbert said. “That would play over into the types of specific companies that would go into their portfolio.”

2. The types of data being used

Funds are trying to take information about a company’s outputs and translate into what it means for a particular objective. “And, more importantly,” Gilbert said, “for the stakeholders that make the world around the company. What does it mean for places, things, people, and particular changes that the fund felt was important in the real world?” he asked.

3. The nature of engagements

“Shareholder engagement has been around for 40 to 50 years and has contributed a lot in terms of making a difference,” Gilbert said. “For some impact funds, we can see that the types of topics they choose to focus on are much more closely tied to the impact thesis that they put into the strategy of their fund.”

Looking to the future

To close the session, Cohen asked the panelists what impact investing in the public market will look like five years from now.

“Trends over the last few years make it very clear that investors want financial returns but they also want financial returns done in a way that delivers returns to the real economy and the places they live in,” Gilbert said.

“I think the challenge for the industry is if people want multiple kinds of returns, like financial returns and returns for the real economy. How do we deliver the products that do that with authenticity? It will have to involve innovating how we go about our investment processes because simply repacking the products that we’ve been offering and the investment processes we’ve been offering for the last 15 or 20 years in response to the kind of demand that’s emerging will probably fall short of expectation.”

Young noted that there will be an “explosion of supply of at least fixed income opportunities.”

Speakers:
Muska Frackowiak, Manager, Operations and Programs, Responsible Investment Association
Alexa Blain, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Deetken Impact
Kate Murray, Director, Impact Management, Rally Assets
Belissa Rojas, Impact Measurement and Management Lead, SDG Impact Team, UNDP

The pandemic has brought to light the interdependence of social, environmental and economic connections, and has shown the urgency to act much faster, said Belissa Rojas, Impact Measurement and Management Lead of the SDG Impact Team at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), at the RIA conference session “Achieving the SDGs by 2030: Leading Practices for Impact Measurement.”

“Before the pandemic, we really knew that action was needed. After the pandemic, we saw the magnitude of huge inequalities and how a crisis, like COVID-19, really affects communities in different ways.”

Rojas noted that interest in ESG investing has grown, but further action is still needed.

“Although there’s an intention, we’re seeing a gap between intention and actual results. Furthermore, we don’t even know what the results are because only 1% are really reporting on what they did that’s measured, and specific metrics,” Rojas said.

“They say what’s not measured is not managed, but many things that are measured are not managed either.”

To change this, the UNDP believes that the private sector needs to shift their mindset and behaviours so that ESG or impact is embedded as a core philosophy, rather than considered an add-on.

The five dimensions of the Impact Management Project

Kate Murray, Director of Impact Management at Rally Management, shared with the audience some of the more credible tools and frameworks available for fund managers to measure and report on their impacts. One particular framework Murray highlighted was the Impact Management Project, which contextualizes the five dimensions of impact by proposing the following five questions:

1. What is the impact?
2. Who is benefiting? Are the beneficiaries well-served or underserved?
3. How much? What is the scale of impact?
4. What is the contribution or change that is occurring?
5. What is the risk? More specifically, what is the risk that the impact is going to be different than anticipated?

“Ultimately, this all boils down into an assessment as to whether an investment is avoiding harm, which is reducing harmful practices,” Murray said.

Industry wary of impact washing

Conversations around greenwashing and impact washing are on the rise, leading some in the industry to wonder if greater discernment is needed when it comes to impact investing.

“There’s tremendous interest in impact investing right now and I think that can lead people to want to jump on the bandwagon,” said Alexa Blain, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at fund manager Deetken Impact.

“There has been a lot of concern around impact washing,” she added. Impact washing is basically when a company or fund tries to benefit by overstating or falsely making impact-focused claims.

“I think we need to be a little bit careful when we talk about impact washing so that we’re not creating barriers to entry to the industry or kind of gatekeeping impact. We want this to be a big tent and there’s going to be different approaches to impact,” Blain said.

“What I think is really important is transparency and accountability so that you’re saying what you’re going to do and we’re not misleading or misrepresenting investment approaches to investors, which certainly would be quite damaging to the impact industry as a whole.”

When evaluating an impact fund or opportunity, Blain recommends asking what their impact management process is, and inquiring whether there is a team or professional — and this doesn’t have to be a full-time person — who is responsible for impact management.

“You want to make sure that they’re able to articulate their impact process very clearly, that they love talking about it, that they can show clear results, and that they’re being consistent in the way they communicate their impact.”

Speakers:
Jennifer Coulson, Vice President, ESG, BCI
Lindsey Walton, Head of Canada, Principles for Responsible Investment
Jamie Bonham, Director, Corporate Engagement, NEI
Sarah Couturier-Tanoh, Senior Shareholder Engagement and Policy Analyst, SHARE

Conversations around active ownership have evolved toward broader stewardship, making this an exciting time in the industry, said Lindsey Walton, Head of Canada at Principles for Responsible Investment at the RIA’s conference session “Masterclass: Case Studies in Canadian Investor Stewardship.”

“Canada has a uniquely collaborative financial industry that’s well positioned to influence sustainability at scale,” she said.

Walton, along with Jennifer Coulson, vice president of ESG at BCI, Jamie Bonham, Director of Corporate Engagement at NEI, and Sarah Couturier-Tanoh, Senior Shareholder Engagement and Policy Analyst at SHARE, shared with the audience some effective strategies for engaging with Canadian companies.

“The perception that investors have on human capital management is changing,” Couturier-Tanoh said while explaining how SHARE has been working to encourage better company practices. “Because of that, companies are more receptive to shareholder engagement.”

Before SHARE begins engaging with a company, they conduct a deep analysis exploring the risks and challenges the company might be facing, as well as what gaps may exist.

“We look for opportunities to drive changes that would positively contribute to shareholder long-term value,” Couturier-Tanoh said. “These gaps can be identified at a company level. For instance, when a company lags behind its peers in adopting certain policies and practices.” But, gaps can also occur at the sector level, she added.

The panel also emphasized the importance of getting clear on your message when filing a resolution, which is especially important given the 500 maximum word count.

“Filing a resolution is the easy part,” Bonham added. “It is the follow up where all the work comes in to get a vote out.”

Bonham shared that engagement is not always a speedy process, but every effort counts. “Perseverance is really important,” Bonham said. “Staying at it, as well as being able to pivot when things don’t work out the way you want them to. Even if it does feel like you’re banging your head against a wall, it is still likely to have an impact.”

Working with others can also help to achieve great things. “With complex and challenging dialogues, there is great value in collaboration. It’s a big time commitment to do that, but it’s really useful,” Bonham said.

For instance, the panelists spoke of Climate Action 100+, which is an investor-led initiative to encourage necessary climate action from the world’s largest global greenhouse gas emitters.

There can be potential roadblocks in collaborative agreements like Climate Action 100+, however. For instance, some investors may want to move faster than others. The upside is that this can encourage valuable discussion.

“It’s great for investors, like myself, who maybe want to push something faster to hear the rebuttal of why investors aren’t comfortable with that path,” Bonham said. “If you think about it, these are investors who have signed a collaborative engagement on climate change and are saying they’re not comfortable. Think of the other investors who aren’t even at the table and what their reluctance might be. There’s a lot to learn from that.”

Coulson added that it’s important to understand differences. “We can’t assume all investors are the same. We all have different mandates, different legal structures, different portfolios,” she said.

“But, if we don’t ultimately get to a Paris aligned economy, it’s going to be very hard for us to generate any kind of returns given the economic impacts that are predicted.”

Speakers:
Anuj A. Shah, Partner, Head of US & UK, KKS Advisors
Bérénice Lasfargues, ESG Specialist, BNP Paribas Asset Management
Bruce Duguid, Director, Head of Stewardship, EOS, Federated Hermes
Rosalie Vendette, Sustainable Finance Expert

Many people in the market are now using the terms “stewardship” and “engagement” interchangeably, which begs the question: what does “stewardship” mean exactly?

According to leading researchers and practitioners, stewardship goes far beyond proxy voting and engagement to include factors such as collaboration, education, and more.

In Wednesday’s RIA conference session, “The Rise of Investor Stewardship: A Global Perspective,” Sustainable Finance Expert Rosalie Vendette spoke with Bérénice Lasfargues, ESG Specialist at BNP Paribas Asset Management, Bruce Duguid, Director of Stewardship at Federated Hermes’s EOS, and Anuj A. Shah, Partner and Head of US and UK at KKS Advisors, to share their insights on the current and future role of stewardship.

When KKS Advisors started their own research on stewardship, there was no set definition. Different firms and organizations were describing stewardship in unique ways.

“Broadly speaking, stewardship reflects the role of investors as stewards of the assets entrusted to them by their clients and it’s the responsibility of investment professionals to carefully protect and enhance the value of those assets,” Shah explained.

“It embodies the notion that investors are influential market players and have the power to shape markets. Within ESG, specifically, stewardship is a core concept and it’s deeply linked to fiduciary duty and inherently encompasses the entirety of all of the definitions of stewardship and fiduciary duty.

Shah broke down the key components of stewardship as:

 Slides presented by Anuj A. Shah

“Stewardship is linked to greater financial performance and improved ESG performance,” he added.

It’s shown to have many benefits, such as reducing exposure to downside risk, creating an informational advantage, leading to higher firm market value, lowering stock price volatility, and positively affecting sales growth and returns.

Slide presented by Anuj A. Shah

Lasfargues added to the conversation by sharing BNP Paribas Asset Management’s approach to stewardship, which they group into three broad categories: voting, corporate engagement and public advocacy.

Slide presented by Bérénice Lasfargues

Stewardship and active ownership are key to helping the asset manager gather data to gain insight into company performance, as well as educate issuers on ESG issues, drive disclosure and improve performance on a range of issues, Lasfargues said. Stewardship also plays an important role in helping to contribute to policies and regulations.

“One distinction that we like to make is a distinction between investors that are future takers or future makers. And as a future maker, it is our belief that we’ll protect future performance by using our influence with companies to advocate for a low carbon economy.”

Shareholder resolutions on the rise

Coming off the heels of a climate win for ExxonMobil’s shareholder activists, most participants at the conference felt strongly that there will be more shareholder resolutions in the future.

Audience poll

Lasfargues agreed that the market might be going in that direction, but noted that “ideally a good dialogue would yield the same outcome.”

“A lot of good things happen behind the scenes without us having to file a shareholder proposal,” she added. “It’s somewhat of an escalation strategy when you feel the issuer is not being responsible or not paying sufficient attention to the issue or you feel voting down the board will not be enough.”

Duguid also predicted that engagement will escalate in the future. “We’re probably going to see more votes on transition plans, and more proxy access and more shareholder resolutions,” he said.

“So many investors are committing either publicly or privately to a net zero investment strategy. To do that and not be forced into mass divestment, it really does mean changing the nature of the company’s underlying portfolio. And that’s driven by asset owners. I think that’s going to carry on and make stewardship extremely interesting over this decade.”

Speakers:
Bertrand Millot, Head of Climate Risk and Issues, CDPQ
Sarah Keyes, Principal, ESG Global Advisors
Peter Richardson, Climate Strategist, Manifest Climate
Marie-Justine Labelle, Head of Responsible Investment, Desjardins Investments

There’s a growing impetus for investors to set and achieve targets that are going to lead them to net zero portfolios by 2050. In the meantime, investors are setting interim targets to measure and report on their progress.

During the conference session, “The Net Zero Portfolio: Strategies and Practices for Investors to Align their Portfolios with Net Zero,” moderator Sarah Keyes, Principal at ESG Global Advisors, dove into a discussion of opportunities and challenges of transitioning investors’ portfolios to net zero.

“Ultimately net zero emissions are achieved when greenhouse gases (GHG) that are emitted into the atmosphere are balanced by an equal number of GHG removals,” said Keyes, using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s definition of net zero.

There are three key elements when it comes to transitioning to net zero. “Choosing the right tool for the job, understanding the difference between leading and lagging indicators, and knowing how to tell the most effective story,” said Peter Richardson, Climate Strategist at Manifest Climate.

“If you’re driving a car and can look out the rear-view window, that’s a lagging indicator because it’s what’s been going on in the past. Looking out the windshield is a leading indicator. Historically, we’ve been driving along, looking in the rear view mirror. . . But, thanks to folks, like some of the folks on this webinar, we’re starting to see leading indicators, like the establishment of plans, the link between executive compensation and financial performance, and meaningful engagement at all levels.”

Engagement top priority for reaching net zero

During the session, most audience members agreed during a live poll that engagement with portfolio companies on decarbonization pathways was important for investors in achieving net zero, followed by engagement with industry sectors to develop GHG emission reduction solutions.

Audience poll

“Engagement is a critical tool. We need to understand where companies are going from a strategy point of view. We need to know what companies are thinking about and that occurs through engagement,” said Bertrand Millot, Head of Climate Risks and Issues at CDPQ.

“If we feel that a company is not going anywhere fast or anywhere as fast as we want to go, then we make decisions.”

Marie-Justine Labelle, Head of Responsible Investments at Desjardins Investments, added: “Not all engagement is created equal.” Engagement has to be strategic and go beyond ticking a box.

When it comes to using carbon offsets to reduce portfolio emissions, the audience voted this as the least important tactic, and the panelists agreed.

“Buying the right to emit from somebody else does not reduce anything at the planetary level and should be avoided. It is the cheap way out. Buying offsets that are certified is better today but I think where we’re going collectively is a world where carbon capture and sequestration, whether it is through natural solutions or industrial solutions, will be certified properly, Millot said.

“Carbon offsets might have a role in a certain situation at a certain point in time, but it’s a slippery slope if presented as something that’s equal to the reduction of emissions,” Labelle added.

Retail clients want to know more

Financial advisors have an opportunity to bridge a knowledge gap, especially as retail investors are increasingly interested in ESG and net zero.

“When we talk to retail investors, they want to hear about this. We even hear them say they’re a bit frustrated that they’re not hearing about it [from their advisors] and they’re not bringing up this conversation themselves,” Labelle said.

Her advice: “Be transparent about the state of things, and what each product is doing, what it’s not doing, and what it’s trying to achieve.”

Speakers:
Brent Bergeron, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, Pan American Silver Corp.
Susan Uthayakumar, President, Sustainability Business Division, Schneider Electric
John Coyne, Vice-President External Affairs and Sustainability, Unilever Canada
Michelle Edkins, Managing Director, Investment Stewardship, BlackRock

To halt climate change and prevent further catastrophe, it’s imperative to limit the average global temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels.

That’s why both the public and private sector are working towards net zero emissions by the year 2050.

Corporations are a key part of this transition, and every company must do its part, said Michelle Edkins, Managing Director of Investment Stewardship at BlackRock, while speaking with panelists Brent Bergeron, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Pan American Silver Corp., Susan Uthayakumar, President of the Sustainability Business Division at Schneider Electric, and John Coyne, Vice-President of External Affairs and Sustainability at Unilever Canada, at the RIA conference session “The Net Zero Corporation: Strategies and Practices for Corporations to Align their Operations with Net Zero.”

“[Sustainability] cannot be a parallel initiative within the corporation,” Uthayakumar said. “It has to be driven from the top with full conviction and full investment to drive the right decision.”

If companies use less resources, they will, by default, have lower emissions and greater profitability. It’s been proven that companies who operate sustainably have better margins and customer satisfaction, she added.

Schneider Electric sets an ambition and measures against that ambition every quarter. The company reports results publicly to keep themselves accountable and encourage and influence others in the industry to do the same.

“Today, sustainability is not a nice to have,” Uthayakumar said. “It’s a must because there is  brand reputation at stake. Your stakeholders — whether they’re investors, employees or customers — demand it.”

Collaboration is key

When it comes to achieving net zero, all stakeholders, governments, companies, and communities are driven by the same objective.

“We want to be able to improve the way we are moving toward decarbonization and toward net zero. We have to do this together,” Bergeron said.

Policy needs to work alongside company efforts to enable new technologies and sustainability objectives, he added.

“Climate change is a global issue and it requires a global solution by the private sector and public sector, hand-in-hand.” Uthayakumar said.

Schneider Electric, for instance, has been working with a number of administrations, such as the U.S. and Canadian governments to discuss how to accelerate the transition to net zero.

In the discussion, Coyne proposed that it’s actually up to the private sector to call for more action from the public sector.

“Climate change and the transition to a zero carbon economic and environmental structure can’t be brought to us by operating in the way we’ve operated up to this point,” Coyne said.

“The private sector needs to demand what policy makers should put forward as the right kind of policies to help workers, to help develop innovation, and to help companies with new products and new services.”

If we don’t put in stronger input, we can’t expect changes because they don’t know what we know, he added.

Material risk versus opportunity

During the live poll, audience members were asked if the energy transition is a material risk, an opportunity or both. The vast majority (81.6%) said both.

Audience poll

Coyne asked everyone to rethink the framing of the question, noting that it’s always positioned as opportunity versus risk when that’s not exactly the case.

“The problem that we’ve got isn’t that it’s either an opportunity or a risk,” he said. “This transition is either inevitable or we fail.”

Speakers:
Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance
Doug Guzman, Group Head, RBC Wealth Management, RBC Insurance RBC Investor & Treasury Services

Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance and Vice Chair and Head of ESG and Impact Fund Investing at Brookfield Asset Management shared his expertise on the private finance strategy for COP26 during his keynote address.

That strategy, he said, plans to put in place information, tools and markets so that every professional finance decision can take climate change into account.

The four pillars of this strategy are reporting, risk, returns and mobilisation, and he broke them down as follows:

1. Reporting

Information about climate-related risks is essential and starts with metrics and the carbon footprint of an entity, but it also includes risk management governance and a forward look at strategic resilience, Carney said. This is best expressed by the Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which was developed by the private sector for the private sector.

These recommendations were delivered to the G20 Leaders Summit three years ago, and have been taken up by a wide range of firms. Over 2000 companies representing over $17 trillion of market cap are currently reporting against the TCFD standards.

Carney said the private sector has taken the TCFD as far as it can and now it’s time for the public sector to make it mandatory to ensure comprehensive, comparable and reliable information within and across jurisdictions.

2. Risk

The second pillar is about developing capabilities in the public and private sectors for managing climate-related risks that are unprecedented in nature. We need to look forward when it comes to risk, but also develop a risk capacity, Carney said.

This is currently being worked on in partnership between various institutions in the public and private sector. In a number of jurisdictions, climate stress tests are being used, testing whether boards and senior management think their strategy is robust enough to withstand different climate scenarios.

3. Returns

The third pillar is about returns and the opportunities that come from addressing and solving existential risks. This can create enormous value and commercial opportunity. The goal is to align the net zero plans of companies with the commitments of the financial sector. These commitments are continuously growing. For instance, over 160 major global financial institutions made commitments to net zero for 2050, with interim targets beforehand, at President Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate Change in April, Carney said.

4. Mobilization

Mobilization is about developing the missing markets that are necessary for the transition to net zero. Carney highlighted three in particular:

1. Global professional deep liquid market for carbon offsets – This is a small market that garners a lot of newspaper headlines. The scale of carbon offset investments is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars, but to make a dent in the transition to net zero, it needs to be measured in the tens of billions of dollars on an annual basis.
2. Blended finance – Blended finance leverages public sector money, mainly from the multilateral development banks, with private sector money. The goal is to establish climate resilient infrastructure and climate mitigating structure in emerging and developing economies.
3. The protection gap –  There is a huge insurance protection gap in the world. On average, extreme weather events are causing around $100 billion in insured losses. On top of that, there is at least $200 billion of annual damage to the built environment in emerging and developing economies and much higher losses from harm caused to economic activity, as well as human suffering. The global insurance industry is now working with the International Money Fund, World Bank, and others to close that gap by developing a series of metrics and information that will help replace this missing market in insurance, and help target scarce funding for resilient infrastructure and targeted aid.

Near the closing of the session, Doug Guzman, Group Head of RBC Wealth Management, RBC Insurance, RBC Investor and Treasury services, asked Carney if he had any final advice for the crowd.

Carney responded that there’s a very basic question we can ask of any country, financial institution or company, and that’s “what’s your plan for net zero?”

Speakers:
Christine Bergeron, President and CEO, Vancity
Rahul Bhardwaj, President and CEO, Institute of Corporate Directors
Lara Zink, President and CEO, Women in Capital Markets (Moderator)

The RIA kicked off its first conference session with a roundtable discussion on leadership and governance with industry leaders Lara Zink, Christine Bergeron and Rahul Bhardwaj. Jaqui Parchment, CEO of Mercer Canada, was also scheduled to join but could not due to technical issues. The trio spoke to the interconnectivity of sustainability and inclusion, and why leadership can no longer remain silent or inactive on these issues.

“Generation Z cares about people and the planet, and they’re incorporating ESG into their decisions on where they work and how they invest,” Zink said.

There is now pressure on asset managers and governance frameworks to progress on ESG issues. Movements like #MeToo, Black Lives Matter and climate change have created social pressure to adopt these practices, but at the same time, more and more companies know they need to adopt ESG to create long-term value, Bhardwaj added.

Businesses and asset managers can also no longer look at issues like environmental sustainability, and social and economic inclusion as distinct spheres. In the past, a company could get away with focusing on either the environment or social issues. In reality, the two are intertwined.

For instance, in the case of climate change, those least responsible are at the risk of bearing the brunt of its impact, Bergeron said.

Companies need to adopt a more holistic outlook on how to reduce harm and maximize positive impacts for people, communities and the planet. This means putting people at the centre of your ESG framework and asking, specifically, how company decisions impact people, Bergeron added. This can lead to better outcomes across all areas.

“These are really systemic issues and they do require a system to change. So focusing on one is necessary but I would say insufficient,” she said.

When it comes to asset managers, the focus on ESG should extend beyond investments to include the business model, as a whole, especially if they want to retain top talent.

Canada’s boards look to make changes

It’s really about connecting purpose with value creation for all stakeholders, Bhardwaj says.

Boards are now looking to structure themselves differently, not just in terms of board composition, but also in terms of their agendas so they can create more space to talk about ESG, reputational risk, or just business risk and strategy. There’s so much compliance to be done that boards don’t always have the space to talk amongst themselves on strategy, he added.

At the Institute of Corporate Directors (IDC), they’re creating opportunities for boards and chairs to understand what other successful boards are doing, and learn how they may be able to follow in the same path, not just in the Canadian environment, but the global environment as well.

The ICD also provides support to its members on how they can further embrace diversity within board and senior management positions. The ICD provides a free toolkit on their website and a director’s registrar.

How organizations can drive sustainability and inclusion

“A business is not truly successful if the environment and the community in which it operates is also not thriving,” Bergeron said. If a leader doesn’t see the value of sustainability and inclusion, they should read up on the research regarding risk and opportunities because there’s a sound business case.

Employees, investors, clients and consumer views have shifted significantly and quickly, making ESG a long-term strategic opportunity. Leaders shouldn’t view these issues as the work of their sustainability team. Instead, they need to embed it into their strategy, Bergeron said. For those that haven’t started, they’re already behind.

“If your business model can’t support these societal and stakeholder expectations, your purpose is misaligned right now,” Bhardwaj added. “If you can’t make the business case, you’re not trying hard enough. And if you really can’t make the business case under your model, you’re doing something fundamentally wrong.”

The RIA is pleased to announce the winners and finalists of the 2021 RIA Leadership Awards, which recognize the outstanding contributions of RIA members in advancing responsible investment (RI) in Canada.

Our sincere congratulations to the Winners, whose submissions exemplified leading-edge RI projects, practices and activities. Finalists, who received the second-highest scores in their category, are commended for demonstrating excellence in RI with their competitive submissions. We thank all organizations and individuals who made submissions, as they showcased the great breadth of work that has been done and considerable momentum in the industry going forward.

Market Education (Institutional Investors & Financial Institutions)

Winner: BMO Global Asset Management
Project: MyESG Campaign: Aligning Beliefs and Investments

Finalist: Desjardins
Project: The RI Certification Program

Integration (Institutional Investors)

Winner: British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI)
Project: BCI’s ESG Risk and Opportunities Framework

Finalist: Inspirit Foundation
Project: 100% Impact Portfolio

Stewardship (Institutional Investors)

Winner: BMO Global Asset Management
Project: Diversity and inclusion (D&I) engagement in Canada: moving beyond gender

Finalist: British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI)
Project: BCI’s Leading Stewardship in Board Governance and Climate-related Disclosure Practices

Service Leadership (Service Providers)

Winner: SHARE (Shareholder Association for Research & Education) and Atkinson Foundation
Project: Valuing Decent Work (Collaborative Submission)

Finalist: MSCI
Project: Advancing Climate Investing in Canada

Individual Leadership (Financial Advisors and Professionals)

Winner: Dr. Edward T. Jackson
Project: Assessing Ecosystem Building: The Evaluation of the Convergence Blended Finance Platform

Finalist: Tony Pringle
Project: Supporting ESG Leadership Among Canadian Alternative Investors

The RIA is very grateful to the Panel of Judges for their diligence, time and commitment to judging the submissions in an unbiased manner.

Process

The RIA Leadership Awards were launched in 2020 to recognize the leadership and excellence of RIA members in advancing responsible investment in Canada.

For the 2021 RIA Leadership Awards, there were five categories:

• Market Education: Driving awareness and demand for responsible investments
  >  Open to Organizational Members – Institutional Investors & Financial Institutions
• Integration: Developing RI capacity of investment professionals
  >  Open to Organizational Members – Institutional Investors
• Stewardship: Advancing Practices and Policies to Support RI
  >  Open to Organizational Members – Institutional Investors
• Service Leadership: Advancing Market Practices to Support RI
  >  Open to Organizational Members – Service Providers
• Individual Leadership: Implementing practices to drive awareness and demand for RI
  >  Open to Individual Members – Financial Advisors and Professionals

We received a total of 27 submissions for the 2021 RIA Leadership Awards during the submission period of February 12th to April 14th, 2021. A detailed breakdown is shown below:

• RIA Leadership Award for Market Education  – 5 submissions from organizations
• RIA Leadership Award for Integration – 9 submissions from organizations
• RIA Leadership Award for Stewardship – 4 submissions from organizations
• RIA Service Leadership Award – 5 submissions from organizations
• RIA Individual Leadership Award – 4 submissions from individuals

Submissions consisted of a project description, long-form answers to questions in the categories and sub-themes below, and supplementary materials.

Category: Originality

• Sub-themes: Ambition, Innovation, Uniqueness

Category: Design & Delivery

• Organizational Sub-themes: Design, Methodology, Accessibility, Comprehensibility, Success
• Individual Sub-themes: Design, Methodology, Success

Category: Influence

• Sub-themes: Mainstream, Impact, Momentum

Submissions were assessed by a panel of eleven judges, who scored the submissions independently, with no communication amongst them. Submissions were scored on a scale from 1-5 for each sub-theme listed above, with 5 being the highest score. Judges submitted their scorecards to RIA staff, and staff calculated the average scores for each submission. The maximum possible score was 15. The Winners were those with the highest average score, and the Finalists had the second highest score.

Judges are subject to a conflict of interest policy. Two Judges were recused from assessing certain categories in which their firm/colleague had made a submission. Three other Judges were recused from certain categories due to ongoing business relationships with submitting organizations/individuals. RIA staff had zero influence on the scoring outcomes. 

All organizations and individuals who entered a submission for the Awards will receive a copy of their final scorecard, along with the scores of the Winner and Finalist in their category, and the range of scores given for all the submissions in their category.

You can find out more information about the Winner and Finalist Submissions on the Awards webpage.

New platform offers efficient, cost effective professional development in responsible investment

The Responsible Investment Association (RIA) is pleased to announce the launch of the RIA Digital Academy, a new online learning platform for professionals to strengthen their knowledge of responsible investment, which refers to investments that incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. 

The RIA Digital Academy offers two online courses: a new and improved version of RI Fundamentals for Retail Advisors and the all-new RI Essentials for Investment Professionals. Both courses are offered in English and French, and they are priced at C$450 each with discounts available for RIA members and post-secondary students. 

RI Essentials for Investment Professionals was developed in collaboration with the Institute for Sustainable Finance, which is based at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University. The course gives financial professionals a broad overview of key concepts, issues, strategies, frameworks and trends in responsible investment. It can be completed in 10 to 15 hours of study time. It has been accredited for CE credits by IIROC, FP Canada, and IAFE, and it has been accredited for PDUs by IQPF and CSF. 

As its name indicates, RI Fundamentals for Retail Advisors is tailored for retail advisors working in the Canadian market. It offers practical, efficient, and cost-effective education for retail advisors who want to develop knowledge of responsible investment and how it works in practice. The course can be completed in approximately 10 hours of study time. It has been accredited for CE credits by IIROC, FP Canada, and IAFE, and it has been accredited for PDUs by IQPF and CSF. The new platform offers an updated version of the same Fundamentals course that the RIA has offered since 2016. 

“We are really excited to deliver these educational offerings for our membership and the broader market,” said Dustyn Lanz, CEO of the Responsible Investment Association. “ESG knowledge is no longer nice to have; it’s table stakes for winning institutional mandates and that will soon be the case in the retail market. We are thrilled to partner with the Institute for Sustainable Finance to ramp up ESG education in Canada.” 

“Today’s financial professionals need robust sustainable finance education to fully assess the risks and seize the opportunities of responsible investing,” said Sean Cleary, Chair of the Institute for Sustainable Finance. “We are pleased to work with RIA Canada to address this important gap in professional development.”

The course outlines and more details are available at academy.riacanada.ca. Furthermore, the RIA continues to partner with the PRI Academy, offering discounts on PRI Academy courses to RIA members. Links to PRI Academy courses are available on the RIA Digital Academy website, and members can access their discount code in the member portal of the RIA website.

About the Responsible Investment Association 

The Responsible Investment Association (RIA) is Canada’s industry association for responsible investment (RI). The RIA aims to drive the growth and development of RI in Canada, with a vision to align capital with sustainable and inclusive development as codified in the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our members include asset managers, asset owners, advisors, and service providers who support these objectives. Our institutional investor members collectively manage more than $29 trillion in assets. Learn more about the RIA at www.riacanada.ca. 

About the Institute for Sustainable Finance 

The Institute for Sustainable Finance (ISF) is the first-ever cross-cutting and collaborative hub in Canada that fuses academia, the private sector, and government with the singular focus of increasing Canada’s sustainable finance capacity. The institute’s mission is to align mainstream financial markets with Canada’s transition to a prosperous sustainable economy. Learn more about the ISF at www.isfcanada.org.

RIA Member Enquiries 

Olga Bordatcheva
Senior Manager, Member Relations
Email: olga@riacanada.ca
Phone: +1(416)461-6042 x7

Media Enquiries 

Nick Buccheri
Director, Operations
+1 416-461-6042