The Sustainability Story

CFA Institute talks with Denise Weger, Senior Manager, ESG, Strategic Initiatives at Novartis. Denise discusses how Novartis handles ESG strategy and planning, the materiality of ESG data and the evolution of ESG reporting. We also discuss how Novartis engages with investors and other stakeholders about important material ESG issues.

Please find the following link to Novartis materiality page:

www.novartis.com/materiality

The FAZ toolkit is at the following link:

https://www.faz-institut.de/plattformen/verantwortung1/materiality/

We Talk with Curtis Ravenel, Senior Advisor to former bank of England governor Mark Carney, COP26 Finance Advisor and UN Special Envoy for Climate Finance. Mr. Ravenel discusses how the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosure or TCFD has conducted its work and structured its recommendation since it was formed by the G20’s Financial Stability Board in 2015.

We talk with Michael Azlen, Founder and CEO, Carbon Cap Management LLP who frames the discussion on carbon markets in terms of where we’ve been, where we are and where we are going. Mr. Azlen reviews the importance of carbon pricing and how government regulated carbon markets provide a market-based solution to climate change which offers the best chance of addressing the problem at the scale and speed that the climate crisis requires.

The State of Diversity at Public Companies and Boards
We talk with Deborah Gilshan, Advisor, Investment Stewardship & ESG, founder of the 100% Club and author of the report The Ethics of Diversity. She notes that at the current pace, it will take 257 years to achieve global economic gender parity, and stresses the need for urgency. In this podcast she discusses how diversity at companies, on boards and in management can act as a catalyst to achieve needed change at a more rapid pace. Discussed in the podcast is the report Closing the Racial Inequality Gaps: The Economic Cost of Black Inequality in the US by Dana M. Peterson and Catherine L. Mann.

Matt Orsagh, Senior Director, Capital Markets Policy at CFA Institute talks with Jon Lukomnik, co-author of the book “Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Investing That Matters”, to explore how one of the major pillars of modern investing and finance, “Modern Portfolio Theory” may need to evolve to better take into account the rise of ESG integration and sustainable investing.

Jon Lukomnik on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-lukomnik-6164415/

Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory 1st Edition:  https://www.amazon.com/Moving-Beyond-Modern-Portfolio-Theory/dp/0367760827