26 May 2021

MAKING THE “S” IN ESG CONCRETE!

Free Webinar

 

WHEN: Wednesday 26th May at 4:00pm CET/ 10:00am EST

WHAT: Webinar by BHR and BST Impact with the participation of Amy Hepburn from the Investor Leadership Network.

Investors and companies will be increasingly asked what their policies and indicators for the S are in their decision making. Most reports or communication today revolves around the Environment – and even when “social” or “societal” is mentioned, the focus is often on environmental factors.

The social (S) is a challenge because it seems less concrete. How do you measure impact on society? On individuals and groups? G (Governance) criteria can be discerned from general corporate governance principles and long experience in promoting sustainability. But for the S, the indicators are often too diverse and fragmented because the way in which the S is conceived by different data providers lacks a common principled basis and there are no agreed common standards.

In the conventional investment world, everyone understands fiduciary duty, an obligation of money managers to act in the best interests of their clients—typically centred on financial performance. But without the integration of substantial and substantive professional support from the many areas of “sustainability” which is needed to understand the sustainability dimension of choices made regarding where, when and how much to invest, there will likely only be an ever-increasing amount of money invested in “ESG” product – and the paradoxically, or not so paradoxically, increase in gap between that and the amount needed to reach the SDGs.

This concern increases when considering that human rights, and rights derived from other relevant branches of law, is by no means a professional competence integrated in the senior teams of most asset managers or investees. In order to be able to do due diligence on human rights issues, as well as in order to set strategic objectives and report on them it is crucial to understand what human rights are all about within the ESG framework, where they stem from, what effective and meaningful implementation means, including in complex sectors and settings. If this knowledge is not in house – and with a level of seniority which makes it robust, most efforts will at best be futile, at worst damaging.

With this webinar BHR and BST Impact want to offer concrete examples on how to address societal sustainability and governance using human rights standards as a basis for strategy development and risk assessment, internal governance, stakeholder engagement and monitoring and reporting.

PROGRAMME

The 60min webinar will be an interactive discussion between the panelists around how to anchor your Social Sustainability and Governance in the international legal framework which is the underpinning of the SDGs and will be the basis for any new regulations on these issues. There will be ample opportunity to pose questions from the public.

WHO: BST Impact Managing Partner Kristina Touzenis will be accompanied by the following speakers. 

Maria Prandi, Partner and CEO at BHR

Expert advisor on human rights and social impact with 20+ years of experience advising Spanish and international companies, international ethical organizations and governments.

Co-founder of IR HUB, a platform addressed to companies’ financial desks aiming at Installing “S” knowledge and capacity, taking advantage of IRs position to expand the sustainability culture within a company and supporting ESG understanding, managing and reporting, notably S-social issues.

Pia Navazo, ESG Program Director at BHR

Expert in social issues and business impacts on human rights: global supply chains, expert on financial sector, M&A and human rights and lecturer at university on business and human rights.  Co-founder of IR HUB.

Amy Hepburn, CEO, Investor Leadership Network

Amy Hepburn is a recognized Impact Investing expert and social entrepreneur with deep expertise on gender lens social investments and the care of children in crises. In this capacity, she has spent 20 years driving social change globally in the private, non-profit and public sectors through the creation of unique public/private partnerships and investing for high impact social returns. Her partners consist of visionary leaders and influencers, governments, social entrepreneurs, non-profits, forward thinking companies, foundations and venture philanthropists seeking innovative solutions to persistent social issues. Amy was a Delegate on the first G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council created by Prime Minister Trudeau, and an active member of the NationSwell Council and The Global Women’s Forum on Economy and Society. She has Faculty appointments at Duke University and George Washington University where she teaches on social impact, gender equality, the care of children in crises, human rights and humanitarian action.

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