Sustainability is shaping global markets in the 21st century; $100tn of assets under management today are committed to the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment. However, as Martin Wolf recently noted, “there is still a frighteningly long way to go”, and the potential for private investment to drive this change remains unfulfilled (“Dancing on the edge of climate disaster”, Opinion, November 24).
Inconsistency around environmental, social and governance data remains a significant practical challenge. Lack of disclosure and limited accessibility are limiting investment in low-carbon and sustainable business activities. Urgent action is needed to rectify this.
Too many companies are failing to disclose useful sustainability data. Only 1 per cent of businesses, for example, are making substantial disclosures of their climate risks. For many, lack of alignment is not deliberate; disclosure against hundreds of different reporting conventions is simply too challenging as things stand.
That is why we, a global alliance of financial institutions, investors and businesses, are launching a new central source for accessible, digital, corporate sustainability information in support of the 10 principles of the UN’s Global Compact.
ESG Book will allow corporates autonomy over the disclosure and maintenance of sustainability data in real time, unrestricted by the annual reporting cycle. Reported ESG data will in turn be made available to all stakeholders for free, displayed in an impartial manner and independent of current opaque ratings.
Our aim is a new, co-ordinated approach to ESG data, where corporate sustainability information is widely available, comparable and transparent. By changing how this data is integrated and measured on a global scale, we will directly connect companies to their stakeholders in an unprecedented way.
Georg Kell
Founder, UN Global Compact
Founding Member, ESG Book
Chairman, Arabesque, New York, NY, US
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