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

CSRHub CTO and Co-Founder Bahar Gidwani will again be speaking at 2020 Wall Street Green Summit. The conference will take place virtually October 5

The Wall Street Green Summit was launched in 2002, making it one of the longest running events in the sustainability industry. Striving to develop the sustainable finance system for responsible investing, the summit gathers professionals and pioneers in the world of sustainability to discuss the many facets of the emerging "impact economy."

This year’s five-day virtual conference will include panels on: Sustainable Finance Megatrends, Green & Sustainable Finance, Technology Solutions, Investing for Impact, and Cleaner Sustainable Technology for Climate Solutions.

Bahar will be sharing his insights on the Sustainable Finance Megatrends on the first day of the summit. This discussion will be moderated by Paul Ellis of Paul Ellis Consulting. The other panelists he will be conferring with include:

• Peter C. Fusaro, Partner, ESG and Impact, AV Group Ltd.
• Katie MacDonald, NYSERDA
• Kristen Sullivan, Partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP, Americas Sustainability Services Leader
• Ted J. Haberfield - Chairman & President, MZ Group US
• Tim Hoffman, Program Director, NYS Venture Exchange and Columbia Tech Ventures
• Tinia Pina, Founder & CEO, Re-Nuble Inc.
• Andrea Bonime-Blanc, CEO & Founder, GEC Risk Advisory

For the full program, complete list of speakers, and the opportunity to register, click here.

 Bahar Gidwani has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and was one of the first people to receive the FSA (Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting) designation from SASB. Bahar worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. He has founded several technology-based companies and is a co-founder of CSRHub, the world’s broadest source of corporate social responsibility information. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York City.

CSRHub offers one of the world’s broadest and most consistent set of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings, covering 20,000 companies. 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 ratings can be used to drive corporate, investor and consumer decisions. For more information, visit www.CSRHub.com. CSRHub is a B Corporation.

CSRHub CTO and Co-Founder, Bahar Gidwani, will be speaking at the 2020 BattleFin Ensemble & Discovery Days event. The conference will take place virtually September 29th - 30th, 2020.  

BattleFin's panel lineup is broad and current, including discussions on the recovery of the travel industry, tech and consumer stock insights, macroeconomic trends, and even a panel focusing on the current election. 

The two-day conference aims to use alternative data insights to predict some of the changing impacts Covid-19 will have on Q3 earnings.

Bahar will take part in a roundtable discussion on the Institutional Investor's Perspective sponsored by AWS on Tuesday at 11:35am ET alongside executives from:

• Sentieo - Financial Research for a Market Edge
• American Century Investments - Leading Asset Management Firm
• Worldwide World Pensions Council - The Asset Owners' Think Tank

For the full agenda, a complete list of speakers, and the opportunity to register, click here.

Bahar Gidwani has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and was one of the first people to receive the FSA (Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting) designation from SASB. Bahar worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. He has founded several technology-based companies and is a co-founder of CSRHub, the world’s broadest source of corporate social responsibility information. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York City.

CSRHub offers one of the world’s broadest and most consistent set of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings, covering 20,000 companies. 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 ratings can be used to drive corporate, investor and consumer decisions. For more information, visit www.CSRHub.com. CSRHub is a B Corporation.

By Bahar Gidwani

At a recent meeting hosted by EIRIS (one of the leading European sources of SRI information), one of the panelists commented that company relationships with their stakeholders are going through “the five stages of grief.”

The speaker didn’t elaborate much on this idea, but it struck me as very astute.  Elisabeth Kübler-Ross enumerated five stages of grief in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying.  They are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

I have seen these reactions often when corporations are confronted with social concerns by their stakeholders.  It used to be quite common for companies to deny any bad behavior rather than admit it.  The rapid distribution of information via the Internet (and hopefully the presence of sites such as CSRHUB), are helping to make it impossible to deny the truth.

I’ve also seen a lot of anger.  Companies feel they have been unfairly singled out for unfavorable attention or that their good behavior should count more than their bad.  By the way, our system gives a way to test whether or not companies that have one area of poor behavior may have another that is very good.  It turns out that the average difference between the best category score (we have four categories we track) and the worst is about 12 points.  The chart below shows that differences of 50+ points are possible—many companies have lopsided performance that create a weak point that is open to attack.

Bargaining is related to “engagement.”  We see it often during proxy season, when groups like the ICCR, Corporate Library, and the Sustainable Investments Institute work to use investor leverage to change company behavior.

Depression seems to be where many corporate social responsibility (CSR) professionals end up, after a while.  They push for changes inside their companies, achieve results they feel are encouraging and worthwhile, and then suffer criticism from outsiders because they haven’t done more.

Acceptance. A few companies seem to have reached acceptance.  They have cleaned up the issues that could cause denial and anger and have stopped bargaining improvement in one area against inertia in another.  Instead of frustrating those inside the company who care about sustainability, they have started to internalize good CSR practices and accept that they are an increasingly necessary part of doing business.

CSR issues are filled with power and emotion.  Our happiness, health, and the future of the world depend at least partly on how companies react to them.  It seems helpful to me to describe how companies deal with these issues in the same terms we use to deal with death and loss.  Companies are leaving behind their old way of life and moving into a new world.  It will take a while for them to complete this journey.