Tag Archives: ESG

Climate, News, Sustainability

Medallia commits to achieving Net Zero by 2040

Medallia, the global leader in customer and employee experience, today announced a commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040, 10 years ahead of what is required in The Paris Agreement.

After measuring their baseline GHG footprint for the first time in 2023, Medallia determined that it would also commit to setting near-term science based GHG emissions targets through the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) by the end of 2026 — joining more than 4,000 companies globally helping to create a zero-emissions economy grounded in climate science.

“Sustainability has long been a priority at Medallia and we’re excited to honour the environmental goals of our customers and partners by reducing our own emissions and in turn, helping them reduce theirs,” said Joe Tyrrell, CEO, Medallia. “This commitment is the first of its kind in the experience industry and highlights our industry-leading commitment to do our part in the fight against climate change.”

News

GOODFOLIO Partners with Tumelo to Give its Users a Voice on Corporate ESG Issues

GOODFOLIO, a simple, transparent and customisable platform for impact-driven investors, has launched a new partnership with Tumelo to give its users a voice on key environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues within companies where their money is being invested in.

By incorporating the Tumelo Voting API (application programming interface), GOODFOLIO users are given a voice on the defining issues of our time. Users can express their vote preferences to their fund managers to influence global companies on a range of issues including: gender equality, climate change, inclusion, and human rights. Users receive access to recommendations for and against proposals before a vote and data on the outcome of their engagement.

GOODFOLIO is an innovative solution which aims to empower impact-minded investors to overcome the unreasonable difficulties in making and implementing values-driven investment decisions. This includes avoiding greenwashing, achieving transparency, and having sustainability data available at the point of use. Having developed tools for users to efficiently scan and scrutinise investments for more effective alignment with values and preferences, GOODFOLIO is targeting the global ESG and impact funds market forecast to reach $55 trillion in value by 2025 (source), growing at 40% per year in Europe (source).

The London-based company behind the platform is currently crowdfunding and has raised nearly £300K, double its initial target. This additional investment will go towards bolstering GOODFOLIO’s team and supporting further product development, marketing and customer acquisition.

GOODFOLIO was founded by its CEO Omid Pakseresht, an Oxford-educated entrepreneur with a successful track record in finance and technology product commercialisation, and his brother and Chief Technical Officer, Nima Pakseresht, a computer science technology leader with more than 15 years of experience in big data, AI and ML.

The senior management team also includes Harvard-educated social entrepreneur Farahnaz Karim, with experience in the UN and World Bank, who serves as GOODFOLIO’s Chief Impact Officer.

CEO Omid Pakseresht comments: “We are delighted to partner with Tumelo and aim to become one of the first investment platforms to bring the Voting API function to market. This will enable impact-driven investors who use our platform to directly express their views to their fund managers about what kind of change they would like to see in the corporate world. Our community views this as an important component in the equation of creating impact through investment.”

“The partnership with Tumelo marks the beginning of a journey to empower our users to create more impact through collective action.

“The success of our current crowdfunding campaign is also a significant development for GOODFOLIO. This additional investment will enable the business to further develop its unique position, better serve its community, and reach out to a larger audience of impact-driven investors.”

Georgia Stewart, CEO of Tumelo, said: “We are very excited about the partnership with GOODFOLIO, a company as passionate about providing investors with a voice as we are. Tumelo’s Voting API functionality is ideal for GOODFOLIO’s ESG-focused platform as it enables users to closely interact with companies within their investment portfolio through their fund managers, giving them a voice on the hottest issues of our time. This progressive and positive step forward empowers investors to balance financial returns and ensure their investments align with their values.”

More details on GOODFOLIO’s crowdfunding round on Seedrs can be found here.

Climate, Climate Action, News, Sustainability

“ESG pay” for executives reduces companies’ carbon footprints

Companies that include ESG metrics in their executive compensation schemes experience more tangible improvements in their CO2 emissions, research from the University of Mannheim, Business School reveals.

According to Professor Stefan Reichelstein,  Director of the Mannheim Institute for Sustainable energy Studies and Professor of Business Administration at the University of Mannheim, Business School, including ESG criteria among key performance indicators for executives (referred to as “ESG pay”) is also associated with firms receiving more favourable ESG scores from external rating agencies.

The likelihood of firms adopting ESG pay for executives is more common in environmentally burdensome industries and countries with greater sensitivity to ESG-related issues, Reichelstein finds.

At the firm level, the proclivity to introduce ESG pay is associated with large firms that exhibit greater volatility, and increases if a company has already publicly issued environmental commitments.

“By including ESG metrics for activities subject to external costs in executive compensation schemes, owners can credibly convey to the firm’s stakeholders that management’s attention will be drawn to these external effects. In addition to improving the general corporate image, a firm commitment to be ‘ESG conscious’ may strengthen customer loyalty and make the firm’s equity shares more attractive for institutional investor groups,” says Reichelstein.

Though window-dressing activities, where firms don’t want to “walk the talk”, can be difficult to detect in the context of ESG pay, these findings indicate that the majority of ESG pay adopters are not merely engaging in window-dressing.

This research was based on a sample of 4,395 public firms from 21 countries taken from the ISS Executive Compensation Analytics database.

News

New Platform Address ‘Intention-Action’ Gap for Impact-Driven ESG Investors

GOODFOLIO launches 2nd crowdfund targeting investors in $55tr global ESG-Impact funds market

A simple, transparent, and customised investment platform which enables DIY investors to back companies and industries that share their ethical values has launched today.

Inspired by the thought of overcoming the unreasonable difficulty of making values-driven investment decisions and implementing these, GOODFOLIO was conceived to help investors manage this challenge. Having developed in-house tools to efficiently scan and scrutinise investments for more effective alignment with values and preferences, GOODFOLIO is now onboarding clients.

Global ESG and impact funds are forecast to reach $55 trillion in value by 2025 (source), growing at 40% per year in Europe (source). However, while a UK study revealed that 77% of people with over £25K in investable assets would choose sustainable investments, only 13% have actually done so (source).

GOODFOLIO was created to help overcome this intention-action gap and increase the flow of capital into impactful investments. It does this by providing values-driven investors with essential data, including categorised lists of ESG funds with meaningful insights and an ability to search and compare different offerings. GOODFOLIO enables users to channel their assets into funds that are aligned with their values, focusing on core areas that matter to them such as gender, climate, health, and water. This targeting of impactful capital can send a powerful signal to businesses to change their behaviour for attracting capital.

With regulatory permissions secured, GOODFOLIO empowers investors to build and manage Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) compliant and impact-driven investment portfolios that work for the benefit of people, planet, and prosperity.

Another benefit GOODFOLIO users enjoy is the low and transparent pricing structure where they are charged an all-in fee of 0.45% for the first £50,000 invested through the platform and 0.35% for anything above. Compared with IFA, or legacy investment platforms like Hargreaves Lansdown that charge per transaction, it can be significantly more cost-effective.

The London-based company behind the platform raised £160K in pre-seed funding last year and since that time has built a high-valued waiting list with around £30m of investable assets. While catering to the UK B2C investment market and increasing its impact-driven financial products and tools, the long-term vision of GOODFOLIO is to target pension providers and investment managers within the B2B market.

The company is now seeking to raise a further six figure sum through crowdfunding and is also planning an institutional investment round in 2023.

GOODFOLIO was founded by its CEO Omid Pakseresht, an Oxford-educated entrepreneur with a successful track record in finance and technology product commercialisation, and his brother and Chief Technical Officer, Nima Pakseresht, a computer science technology leader with more than 15 years of experience in big data, AI and ML. The senior management team includes Harvard-educated social entrepreneur Farahnaz Karim, who serves as GOODFOLIO’s Chief Impact Officer.

Among the company’s board of advisors are Bob Noyen, an institutional investment expert whose long career in Finance includes taking a boutique UK based asset management firm through to IPO and making the firm one of the first in Finance to become Carbon Neutral, and Steven Hamblin, an angel investor and technology leader who built one of the first AI teams at Babylon Health.

CEO Omid Pakseresht comments: ‘After extensive work in developing our platform and crossing the regulatory milestone, we are now delighted to launch GOODFOLIO to support the UK’s growing, engaged and vibrant community of values-driven investors who want more control over what their capital does.

A majority of UK investors want to consider ESG factors but there is currently no effective investment platform to present clear and concise data at the point of decision making and provide tools for how investments can be aligned to values. With GOODFOLIO, we address that issue by making it easy for users to invest, as well as manage and monitor the social and environmental impact of their portfolio via intuitive reports and tools.

Led by demand from investors, and the sheer need to build a better world, we believe that impact-driven investments will eventually become the norm. GOODFOLIO is doing its part to get us there, and we are doing this with a fairer, transparent and cost-effective fee structure.

Through our crowdfunding round we aim to grow GOODFOLIO’s presence in the UK market by bolstering our team and investing in further product development, marketing and customer acquisition.’

To join GOODFOLIO’s growing community or learn more, visit www.goodfolio.com. For more details on the GOODFOLIO crowdfunding campaign, click here https://www.seedrs.com/goodfolio1/coming-soon  

Logistics, News

Evri commits to provide mandatory ESG training for all employees and contractors by 2024

Evri, the consumer delivery specialist, has committed to providing mandatory ESG Training for all employees and contractors by 2024, as it continues its journey to becoming an even more ethical and sustainable business.

Forming part of the company’s comprehensive and ambitious ESG strategy, the training is designed to highlight the importance of ESG, and to encourage employees to consider environmental and social implications during their day to day roles.  It is being rolled out across the whole company and will be mandatory for all 7,128 employees and 20k plus contractors.  In order to ensure full access everyone involved has been given a dedicated email address, including all couriers and warehouse operatives.”

The company’s dedicated Digital Learning Designer and Digital Learning Manager have worked closely with the ESG team to create the training and will be responsible for the roll out across the company.  The training will focus on Evri’s ESG performance and future ESG targets. The aim is that upon completion, employees should feel comfortable talking about the ethos of ESG within the company.

Martijn de Lange CEO, Evri commented: “Following a period of exceptional growth for the business, it’s never been more important to recognise our impact on the planet and its people. While we have always been a responsible carrier, the last 12 months have seen a significant gear change in our efforts to become an even more ethical and sustainable business.

“To underline our commitment, ESG forms two of the four core pillars that underpin our new brand: Community and ESG itself. With a dedicated team and a bold new vision in place, Evri is in a strong ESG leadership position as the next chapter for our business begins.”

ESG/CSR, News

Sedex identifies 10 vital data points to demystify ESG reporting

Latest report from Sedex identifies the essential business and supply chain data to support companies’ sustainability goals and effective ESG reporting

London 6 July 2022 – A new report from Sedex, the trusted partner for environment, social and governance (ESG) and sustainability data, identifies the key data to collect for businesses looking to conduct effective ESG reporting.

ESG has become a business priority, as companies respond to investors’ increased interest in social and environmental performance. But a lack of reporting standards, with varying requirements across different ratings providers and frameworks, makes it incredibly challenging for businesses to meet ESG demands efficiently.

Data and technology provide essential solutions to this challenge. Capturing the right information equips a company to achieve ESG goals and supports other sustainability activities, such as producing modern slavery statements and demonstrating tangible progress against targets.

Data to meet multiple sustainability goals

Sedex has identified the data businesses need most to meet ESG demands, and which feeds into many other sustainability-related activities. Gathering this data can save companies time, reducing duplication and effort, and helping build supply chain visibility to make more informed decisions.

The 10 data areas:

  • Air emissions
  • Water use
  • Physical waste
  • Worker demographics
  • Accident and injury occurrences
  • Worker access to freedom of association
  • Modern slavery risks and occurrences
  • Gender pay gap
  • Corruption risks and occurrences
  • Governance bodies

See Notes to Editors for full descriptions

Data-led technology and tools enable businesses to collect, store, share and report on this data at scale across global operations and supply chains. Sedex’s Radar risk tool, for example, provides over 340,000 risk scores across countries and industries for businesses to compare social and environmental risks around the world.

Jon Hancock, CEO at Sedex, says: “Data on a business’s operations, employees and supply chain is crucial for identifying and tackling social and environmental sustainability issues, and evidencing a company’s ESG impact in a credible way. This data, and the insight it brings, also supports many other business benefits – including more effective risk management, better response to supply chain disruption, and improved reputation with stakeholders including consumers.

“We empower companies to do this with our solutions, including bespoke support on a company’s particular ESG and sustainability needs, and the tools to execute activities at scale. Businesses can capture the data they need in the most efficient way.”

View the full insights report on the 10 core data points here: https://resources.sedex.com/10-data-points-for-esg-reporting/

Appointments, News

Palatine expands London Buyout team

Palatine has strengthened its team with the appointment of Danielle Garland as Investment Director in its Buyout team based in London.  

Danielle joins from Mobeus Equity Partners having worked in M&A since 2008. At Palatine, she will be responsible for deal origination, execution, and working with management teams to deliver their strategy post investment. 

Throughout her career, Danielle has been a passionate advocate of increasing diversity in the profession, founding a series of highly successful events that connect female investors, founders and advisors within the private equity community. She will continue to drive this ambition forward at Palatine, given the firm mirrors her own stance on diversity, inclusion and impact investment.  

She said: “There is an impressive, collaborative and down to earth approach at Palatine that I wanted to be a part of. I enjoy working with great businesses to help them grow and ensuring that the people strategy is in place to achieve that and I am very excited to start this next chapter in my career here.” 

Partner Tony Dickin said: “We are delighted that Danielle has joined us, bringing significant experience in key sectors such as business and financial services and also a shared passion for sustainable value enhancement and collaboration to our growing team in London.”

The firm recently appointed Carly Sinicrope as an Investment Manager in the London office, while Rupert Brown has moved from the Buyout to the Impact team. 

News

Evri Launches ESG Report

Evri, the consumer delivery specialist, has published its first ever Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report which highlights the progress the company has made against its ambitious ESG strategy during the 52 weeks of the financial year ended 26 February 2022. It further underpins the company’s commitment to becoming the UK’s most sustainable delivery business.

The report covers key achievements and performance data, as well as the challenges and opportunities the business has faced this year as it strives to deliver a better future and reach net zero in direct and indirect emissions by 2035.

Key initiatives detailed in the report include:

  • The use of 100% renewable energy in all Evri operations
  • Ongoing investment in alternative bio-fuels and electric vehicles
  • Creation of eco-solutions for major retail clients including zero emissions final mile delivery solutions
  • Industry leading benefits for self- employed couriers which now include paid holiday, pensions and parental leave
  • ESG bonus targets for the Evri Senior Team
  • ESG Training for every single employee and courier

Fash Sawyerr, Chief Transformation Officer at Evri said, “As a responsible carrier, we recognise our impact on the environment and we are pushing sustainability and ethics to the forefront of our operating model. We are committed to delivering a better future for the planet, including our people, our customers and retail partners, and wider communities.”

 

ESG/CSR, News

Zvilo Promotes a Sustainable Future and Commits to UN’s SDGs

Zvilo, the forward-financing and banking fintech, announces a set of ambitious environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets and strict reporting measures based on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — a commitment part of its mission to become the first sustainable digital financial service provider in the Balkans and beyond.

Zvilo will directly contribute to nine (9) of the seventeen (17) SDGs*, as follows:

  • SDG 1: No Poverty. Zvilo seeks to provide accessible digital financial solutions enabling economic opportunities for low-income households and small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Targets include disbursing over €1 billion in loans, financing approx. 25 million invoices through its supply chain finance program and reducing the number of unbanked people in the Balkans by a minimum of 100,000.
  • SDG 2: Zero Hunger. Zvilo will focus on supporting agricultural SMEs, ensuring that at least 20% of funding will be towards sustainable agriculture to increase resource efficiency through developing and upgrading the agro-business value chain.
  • SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being. Zvilo will support food security and safety by ensuring that at least 20% of funding goes towards ISO-certified SMEs.
  • SDG 5: Gender Equality. Zvilo will promote gender equality with a specific goal to support at least 20% of female-owned and managed enterprises.
  • SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy. Zvilo will seek to tackle climate change by supporting businesses that seek to adopt or are users of renewable energy and climate-smart technologies, providing at least 50% of funding towards these businesses.
  • SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. Zvilo will support the creation of over 70,000 jobs, increasing productivity and encouraging inclusive employment — successfully creating decent jobs in industry and industry-related services.
  • SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure. Zvilo will contribute to the innovation of payment and financial systems and promote sustainable industrialisation, resulting in over 10,000 SMEs and 1 million individuals using digital wallets.
  • SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. Zvilo will provide at least 20% of funding to support businesses in implementing more sustainable production methods, packaging, and waste management.
  • SDG 13: Climate Action. Zvilo will enable SMEs and individual users to track and offset their carbon footprint. As a company, Zvilo aims to be carbon neutral by 2026.

Admir Imami, Chairman of Zvilo, stated: “We are very proud to announce a set of stringent ESG standards to which Zvilo will operate. As a global citizen, ESG and responsible investing has been central to my business activity in the last two decades of my professional work. At Zvilo, as responsible lenders, we have a unique and influential position in the Balkan region. This means we must act responsibly by encouraging positive behaviour that helps achieve a fairer, more sustainable, and more equitable world and by supplying smaller businesses and consumers with the funds needed to enact these policies when cash flow is limited.”

The ESG commitments will have many positive impacts at a local level within the community and a broader level within the region. Some of these include:

  • Reducing carbon and greenhouse gas emissions for core business processes, properties, and infrastructure.
  • Inspiring a movement throughout the regional markets to embed ESG into its strategy and encourage companies to increase transparency and disclosure of their climate impact and move towards more sustainable business practices.
  • Supporting the energy transition towards renewable energy generation.
  • Promoting the 2X Challenge by empowering women throughout the value chain.
  • Promoting diversity and inclusion within the working environment.

“The responsibilities and aims we have, and our determination to meet them, do not end when we turn off our office lights or even help a business or consumers meet their green targets. We must ensure a continuous lifecycle of positive behaviour — through consistent and strict reporting to keep Zvilo, our clients and our customers educated and true to their responsibilities”, stated Njomza Qerimi, ESG Lead at Zvilo.

As a responsible lender, Zvilo promises to monitor and report ESG adherence accurately through tailored annual questionnaires. With Zvilo’s supply chain finance platform and the forthcoming web and mobile app, ESG data is automatically captured for reporting and portfolio management and enhanced using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Admir Imami concluded: “Businesses and consumers have a responsibility to make the world a better place. Although potentially once controversial in the business world, today, it is a fact: that businesses cannot and do not operate in a vacuum. This is true both ethically and as a matter of good business stewardship — as failing to live up to ESG standards can significantly impact brand standards and a business’s bottom line”.

“We aim to inspire other businesses to follow suit and give businesses access to the funding they need to make meaningful, structural changes to improve their adherence to environmental, social, and governmental norms”.

*Targets are projections and subject to change.

News

Global outsourced marketing agency BBSA fights climate change with new reforesting pledge

In response to the climate crisis and the urgent need for a green agenda, global outsourced marketing agency BBSA has launched a new eco-campaign to begin reforestation, one tree at a time. 

Launching on World Environment Day (5th June) and as part of their ‘eco-tradition’, BBSA has pledged to plant one new tree for every client that they onboard, personalized with their name, marking their partnership with the eco-strategy. There is no limit on how many trees they are willing to plant, and their goal is to have planted 10,000 trees by 2030. 

BBSA’s reforestation commitment reaches far beyond the environment as they onboard local communities to help with the task. As such, their investment is twofold; not only do they employ the local community, but they also cultivate a desire in the community to become more environmentally active.

The positive impact that trees have on the environment has been argued to be broader than previously thought, recent studies have shown. Not only do trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, they also play a role in cooling the air, which protects the environment from droughts, extremely high temperatures and floods which are caused by the climate breakdown. In addition to this, trees are home to a range of wildlife and so are important to protect these species. 

As part of their new Reforesting One Tree @ One Client initiative, BBSA has adopted a three tier approach in their pursuit of a greener earth:

  • Community participation and support  – They assert that the success of reforestation lies in community support, both planting trees and maintaining tree sites to ensure growth. 
  • Municipal and governmental support  – One of the biggest threats to planting sites is commercial enterprise or housing projects. Planting sites are only established in locations where BBSA have the full support of both local and national governments. This ensures sites will have the opportunity to  thrive. 
  • Business funding and support – With the support of other businesses, BBSA can launch and initially support the reforestation projects. The long term goal is to create a self-sufficient ecosystem that does not rely on outside investment. 

Commenting on the new Reforesting One Tree @ One Client initiative, Anna Stella, BBSA’s CEO says; 

“Often reforestation requires the financial support of businesses and invested parties. With BBSA’s additional funding support, we can launch and initially sustain reforestation projects. Our aim, however, is to cultivate a self-producing ecosystem not dependent on external funding. As forests are being regrown, the local community is the driving force in the efforts and benefits from the economic empowerment brought by the extra employment.

Our environment is important to us and we must take care of it and protect it. Sustainability today is a core business imperative, and we recognize both the opportunity and responsibility to deliver marketing solutions that enable our clients to manage their – and the planet’s – limited resources productivity, contribute to an inclusive economy and shape a sustainable future.”

For more information visit https://bbsa-marketing.com/reforesting-one-tree-at-one-client/