Making Sense of ESG: One of the Biggest Storytelling Opportunities of the Next Decade
- By Aleksandra Gralinska, CS Sr. Specialist
ESG, once the purview of a general counsel is becoming central to how corporates engage the capital markets. As our panelist from Pfizer, Chris Grey put it, companies that integrate ESG topics into their investment story and design a “coherent value-creation narrative” have the “biggest storytelling opportunity of the next decade.” At Nasdaq, we wake up every day to support issuers in their pursuit of value creation. We marry capital markets Advisors with Nasdaq proprietary data to help issuers tell their best story. This is our north star.
Nasdaq hosted its 4th Annual Investor Relations Forum at its MarketSite headquarters to discuss timely and pertinent topics for the IR community, including a panel discussion on the Evolution of the Capital Markets: Making Sense of ESG. Moderated by Nasdaq’s Global Head of Sustainability, Evan Harvey, the panel included a wide-ranging set of panelists with differing vantage points, including, Christopher Gray, SD at Pfizer, who sits in the company’s Corporate Affairs division, Citigroup’s Davida Heller, SVP of Corporate Sustainability and Debbie Hancock, SVP of Investor Relations at Hasbro.
Highlights
- Take ownership of your company’s ESG narrative
- Understand what ESG metrics are important to your company and sector
- Stay ahead of the curve by following regional differences in ESG topics
Nasdaq Global Perception’s 3Q19 Issuer Survey highlighted that IROs globally cited ESG and Corporate Governance as one of three things they would spend time on if they had an additional 1-2 hours in their day.
Download the Nasdaq ESG Advisory Brochure here.
Pfizer’s Chris Gray spoke to a theme echoed by all panelists that taking ownership of your company’s story is critical to success. Chris noted when he started his ESG journey five years ago, one of the first steps he undertook was to create a long-term “coherent value-creation narrative” both for internal as well as external stakeholders.
The management adage “what gets measured gets done” is especially true in the application of sustainability programs. All of the panelists spoke of performing qualitative ESG mapping exercises as they charted initiatives and implemented gap analyses. Identifying opportunities to articulate quantitative progress on an ongoing basis would be fundamental to the value-creation narrative. Citi’s Davida Heller commented that Citi now includes ESG highlights in its proxy statement and organizes a separate investor engagement call specifically focused on ESG. Both have been well received by investors.
Regional differences exist among the behavior of both corporates and the buy-side. These differences, when understood, present opportunities to identify trends and understand where investor focus may shift. ESG is table stakes in Europe and it is gaining momentum in the US. Hasbro IRO Debbie Hancock noted that in the U.S., whether it’s talking with the buy-side investors or proxy voting contacts, ESG topics have started to increasingly come up in her meetings. Investors are asking, “What is important to your company, and how are you thinking about it and how should we be thinking about it?”
Contact us today to learn more about our ESG Advisory Program, or other IR intelligence solutions.
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