Photo credit: Shona King, United Kingdom
Investors and buyers are willing to pay a premium for companies that can demonstrate strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials. Stakeholder activism on ESG aspects is adversely impacting the availability of capital.
The last year has shown how robust ESG management provides companies with resilience to external shocks. Stocks of companies with strong ESG credentials and robust climate strategies have outperformed those of peers this year. Corporate goals around carbon neutrality and energy transition strategies have accelerated activity to manage corporate portfolios by decarbonizing the asset base while increasing investment in and acquisition of sustainable products and technologies. ESG and sustainable investing as the new standard to access finance. There has been a significant increase in the size of ESG funds, green bonds, capital flows to ESG funds and sustainability-linked financing, with ESG viewed as integral to strong corporate governance and business performance.
The growing ecosystem of ESG regulations, voluntary disclosure frameworks, incentives and targets are driving corporate leaders and financial players to make sustainability commitments and disclosures. Financial organizations – and their clients – have to respond to quickly changing sustainability policies and increasing stakeholder scrutiny. ERM is an advisor to more than 500 corporate and financial sector organizations, building on our technical, strategy, legal and in-house private market and banking experience. We partner with clients across every stage of their invest lifecycle:
- Transaction advisory;
- Strategic direction;
- Driving improvement; and
- Disclosing effectively.
Building on our experience in helping clients, ERM is an industry thought leader and strategic collaborator to leading sustainability organizations, including PRI, TCFD, European Commission, GRI, Equator Principles and WBCSD.