CSRHub Blog Research on ESG metrics and comments on sustainability best practice

CSRHub CEO and Co-founder, Cynthia Figge will be speaking at the Sustainable Brands New Metrics ’19 Conference, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, held November 18-20, 2019.

Cynthia will be joining a keynote plenary panel speaking on Trends and Opportunities in Values-Based Investor Engagement on Wednesday November 20, 2019.

This session will discuss the trend of values-based investing as part of the rapidly changing sustainable investing space. The conversation will cover the main ways in which investment patterns are being adjusted or transformed in light of the growing importance of sustainability issues and new types of relevant company data. Participants will also address the effects that these new dynamics are having on relationships between companies and investors.

Trends and Opportunities in Values-Based Investor Engagement
Wednesday November 20, 2019

	Cora Olsen, Global Lead, Integrated Reporting, Novo Nordisk
	Megan Maltenfort, Director, Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability, Campbell Soup
	Cynthia Figge, CEO and Co-Founder, CSRHub

Friends of CSRHub will receive 20% Discount on registration!

Please register here with code “CSRHub”.

A recent IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary survey found a disconnect from company to company, with regards to who is responsible for ESG communications. The results show ESG communications responsibility changes according to various factors, including cap size, region and company size.

Primary responsibility for ESG communications rests with a dedicated sustainability team at more than a third of companies polled, while responsibility lies with corporate communications at a further 28 percent. Depending on cap size, responsibility lies predominantly with the corporate or company secretary, while corporate communications tend to hold responsibility for ESG at smaller cap companies.[1]

As a result, IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary have launched a series of forums on ESG integration to bring together investor relations, sustainability professionals and corporate secretaries from a variety of public companies, to discuss how to take an integrated approach to investor expectations on ESG factors. The events will help companies make sense of the evolving trends around ESG and take action to improve relationships with shareholders, future-proof their businesses, and ensure a smooth proxy season. The team behind the events are keen to ensure that attending companies leave with a to-do-list that they can implement immediately.

Following the success of last year’s forum which saw more than 150 professionals in attendance, CSRHub is partnering with IR Magazine and Corporate Secretary to help companies respond to the growing demand for improved ESG practices and disclosures. The forum in London takes place on November 7.

The ESG Integration Forum that takes place in New York (December 5) is part of Sustainable Finance Week, a series of events based in New York focused on accelerating the next $10 trillion dollars in sustainable finance. There will be more than 1500 investors and corporates in attendance across all events that week - so there's only one place to be that week!

To find out more and book your place:

ESG Integration Forum – Europe, November 7, London: IRMagazine.com/esgeurope/

ESG Integration Forum, December 5, New York: IRMagazine.com/esg/

[1] IR Magazine Partners, ESG & Investor Engagement, 2019 https://www.irmagazine.com/content/esg-investor-engagement

The Harvard Business Review (HBR) just released its prestigious ranking of the 100 best-performing CEOs in the world. The top CEO in the S&P Global 1200 is Jensen Huang, CEO of the U.S. technology company NVIDIA. The top ten CEOs are from companies including Nvidia, Salesforce.com, Kering, Texas Instruments, Iberdrola, Adobe, Mastercard, KBC, Microsoft and LVMH. You can see the full list here. 

HBR notes that they made an important change in methodology this year.  “Since 2015 our ranking has been based not only on financial performance but also on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) 

ratings. For the past four years we’ve weighted ESG scores to account for 20% of each CEO’s final ranking. This year we tweaked the formula, increasing that share to 30%. The shift reflects the fact that a rapidly growing number of funds and individuals now focus on far more than bottom-line metrics when they make investment decisions. One sign of this changing sensibility: In August 2019, 181 U.S. CEOs who are members of the Business Roundtable signed a statement affirming that the purpose of a corporation is to serve not just shareholders but four other groups of stakeholders: employees, customers, suppliers, and communities.”

This change in weighting significantly impacted ranking results. For example, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, a top CEO every year since 2014, fell off the list owing to relatively low ESG scores. “The incorporation of 30% ESG data signals a growing shift of perception in what matters to be the best,” said Cynthia Figge, CEO and Cofounder of CSRHub. “We are honored to have CSRHub’s ESG (environment, social, governance) metrics included in the methodology for the fourth year in a row, and now determine 15% of the HBR Ranking of the World’s Best-Performing CEOs.”

You can see the full report available in Harvard Business Review Magazine, found here.

To learn more about CSRHub, our ESG/CSR metrics or how you can improve your ESG scores, contact us here.

CSRHub offers one of the world’s broadest and most consistent set of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings, covering 18,000 companies. Its patented Big Data algorithm combines millions of data points on ESG performance from hundreds of sources, including leading ESG analyst raters, to produce consensus scores on all aspects of corporate social responsibility and sustainability. CSRHub ratings can be used to drive corporate, investor and consumer decisions. CSRHub has been a Certified B Corporation since November of 2010. For more information, visit www.csrhub.com.

October 17, 2019

ALEXANDRIA, VA and KATONAH, NY – ecountabl, Inc., the technology company that helps Americans live up to their values in daily life, and CSRHub, a leading provider of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information, announced they have signed a license agreement that facilitates the use of CSRHub’s best-in-class CSR information in ecountabl’s groundbreaking consumer financial technology platform.

“ecountabl is pleased to be working with CSRHub to make corporate social and environmental information accessible and shareable for American consumers,” said Cody Taylor, ecountabl co-founder. “CSRHub offers an incredible database of independent and trustworthy information that we can use to help individuals make purchasing decisions that align with their values.”

ecountabl will use CSRHub data as an input to its revolutionary ecountabl Score, a consumer metric that helps individuals identify companies and brands that share their personal values in areas like climate protection, gender equality, racial diversity, human rights, and fair worker treatment. The ecountabl Score connects directly with users’ personal financial accounts through the ecountabl mobile app.

”CSRHub is delighted to provide information to ecountabl’s great service to drive more socially responsible consumer decisions,” said Cynthia Figge, CSRHub Co-Founder and CEO.

About CSRHub

CSRHub, a New York-based certified B Corporation, provides access to one of the world’s broadest and most consistent set of Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) ratings and information on 18,000 companies in 141 countries. Its Big Data algorithm combines millions of data points on ESG performance from hundreds of sources, including leading ESG analyst raters, to produce consensus scores on all aspects of corporate social responsibility and sustainability. CSRHub products are also available through partners including Bloomberg’s App Store and Open:FactSet.

About ecountabl

ecountabl is a purpose-driven technology company that makes the social and environmental performance of companies accessible and shareable for ordinary Americans. Founded in 2019, we make independent data on thousands of companies available in our mobile app, connectable to personal financial accounts, and shareable on social media. We are a public benefit corporation with a mission to help people live up to their values in daily life. For more information, visit www.ecountabl.com.

Press Contact: info@ecountabl.com
Press Contact: csrhub.news@csrhub.com

Source: ecountabl Inc. and CSRHub

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Future in Review Oct. 8-11, 2019 at The Lodge at Torrey Pines, La Jolla, CA, A Strategic News Service Presentation

CSRHub’s CEO and co-founder Cynthia Figge will be speaking on a panel discussing Scalable Technologies for the Climate Crisis.

Scalable Technologies for the Climate Crisis
1:30 PM-2:00 PM Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019

Speakers: Cynthia Figge, Ali Douraghy, Aaron Fyke, Stephen Honikman 

Ali Douraghy Chief Strategy Officer, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Berkeley Lab

Ali Douraghy designs and leads multidisciplinary science and technology strategies for solving global challenges affecting society and the planet. As chief strategy officer for Earth & Environmental Sciences at Berkeley Lab, Ali reports to the associate lab director, leading the development of strategic initiatives for a team of 500 researchers working to translate scientific discoveries into breakthrough solutions for energy and the environment. Prior to Berkeley Lab, Ali was senior international programs officer at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. From 2010 to 2014, Ali was with USAID, first in the Washington, DC, area as Science & Technology advisor, playing a lead role in advancing global engagement and the science and technology cooperation initiatives outlined in President Obama’s 2009 Cairo address. For two years after that, he was USAID’s director of Science & Technology in Jakarta. In this role, he led the development of USAID/Indonesia’s Science, Technology & Innovation strategy – a first for USAID country missions worldwide.

Stephen Honikman Emergent Microgrid

Stephen Honikman has spent his career immersed in sustainability and technology innovation, involved in both startup ventures and large enterprises. Born and raised in a “solar home,” Stephen learned, at an early age, the value of resilience, efficiency, and technical innovation as a tool to overcome the manmade limitations that are an intrinsic part of the energy markets. Stephen's initial career was spent in Silicon Valley during the heady days of the late 1990s participating in early internet development and commercialization – learning firsthand the transformative value of expansive networks and the opportunities created when established enterprises fail to see coming disruptions. Now, coming off 10+ years of activity in commercial-scale solar finance, Stephen is combining his experiences and interest in distributed energy resource development, storage, and software to accelerate commercialization of scalable microgrids that marry the resilience and value propositions of behind-the-meter storage with the additional value unlocked through creation of an aggregated energy storage network that can monetize the grid-services market and bring agency to electricity prosumers.

Aaron Fyke Founder and Managing Partner, Thin Line Capital

Aaron Fyke has spent over twenty years as an investor, engineering, and entrepreneur, having cofounded six companies in a number of technology areas including fuel cell, ocean power, concentrating solar, and energy storage.

He is currently Founder and Managing Partner of Thin Line Capital, bringing investment capital to bear on some of the world’s toughest problems in energy, water and food sustainability.

While CEO of Edisun Heliostats, he was committed to lowering the costs of solar thermal power.  Prior to Edisun, Aaron was the Founder and CEO of Energy Cache, a low-cost grid scale energy storage technology company, serving a multi-billion dollar energy market - backed by Idealab, Bill Gates, NRG, and others.  Aaron continued his work with gravity storage with Energy Vault, which received a significant investment from SoftBank.

Previously he headed up the development of a $10M X PRIZE in Energy for the X PRIZE Foundation. Prior to that he was a Partner at Starfish Ventures, Australia’s largest venture capital firm, where Aaron led the investment into the fund’s biggest investment and exit.  Aaron is an adjunct lecturer on entrepreneurship at USC and has been a consultant and keynote speaker to utilities (e.g., TransAlta), corporations (e.g., Google), and a number of conference and media events (MIT Tech Review, AlwaysOn Going Green and others).

Aaron earned his MBA and MSME as an LGO fellow at MIT, and his BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Victoria, graduating at the top of his class. He has been certified as a Professional Engineer both in California and British Columbia. 

Cynthia FiggeCEO and Co-founder, CSRHub LLC

Cynthia Figge is a forerunner, entrepreneur, and thought leader in the corporate sustainability movement. Cynthia is CEO and co-founder of CSRHub, a leading big-data ESG (environment, social, governance) information platform. CSRHub provides consensus ratings on the performance of 18,000 companies worldwide and serves the corporate, financial, and academic sectors and API partners. Cynthia co-founded EKOS International in 1996, one of the first consultancies integrating sustainability and corporate strategy. She has worked with major organizations including Boeing, Coca-Cola, Dow Jones, and REI to help craft sustainability strategy integrated with business. Cynthia is a national speaker on trends in ESG, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and business intelligence. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur in CSR/ESG, Cynthia was an officer of LIN Broadcasting / McCaw Cellular, leading new services development. She serves as an advisor to media and technology companies and is chair of Compassionate Action Network (CAN). Cynthia has an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is based in the Seattle area.

https://www.futureinreview.com/