Adena Friedman
Chair & CEO, Nasdaq
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Chair & CEO, Nasdaq
At Nasdaq, our purpose is to advance economic progress for all.
Our purpose and the pursuit of our vision – to be the trusted fabric of the world’s financial system – not only shape our corporate sustainability strategy, but also inform the role that we play in helping to solve our clients’ most complex challenges.
NAVIGATING COMPLEXITY
Our clients across the financial system today face an increasingly complex operating environment as they navigate regulatory pressures, disparate reporting requirements, and rising compliance costs. Within these, the rapidly evolving and globally fragmented environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) ecosystem is among the most complex issue facing corporate issuers, investors, banks, and regulators. From our position at the intersection of technology and the financial system, we play a unique role in helping our clients navigate these evolving requirements as they execute their own sustainability objectives and strategies.
Nasdaq’s own corporate sustainability strategy centers on managing and reducing long-term risks and advancing ESG practices across our entire organization. Externally, we have also seen an increased need from our clients for trusted partners that can help them navigate the increasing complexity of today’s operating environment. As expectations for data, transparency, and reporting continue to evolve, our suite of solutions and capabilities plays an increasingly important role in providing actionable insights to our clients. We are committed to bringing new technologies to bear to drive scale and resilience across both emerging and established markets, including through Puro.earth, our carbon removal crediting platform, which will play an increasingly important role in helping companies manage their carbon footprints.
2023 HIGHLIGHTS
In 2023, we continued to accelerate our own corporate sustainability journey. During the year we made efforts to minimize our environmental footprint in alignment with our science-based net-zero emissions targets and we are on track to achieve carbon neutrality for the sixth consecutive year. 2023 also marked a year of firsts for Nasdaq: we hosted an inaugural New York Climate Week conference, published a first-of-its-kind report on The State of Sustainability and ESG, and were included in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook for the first time.
Beyond our environmental sustainability strategy, we remain committed to ensuring Nasdaq is a global destination for top talent. Through the integration of Adenza, which we acquired in 2023, and Verafin, we are proud to expand our footprint to reach 38 countries. At Nasdaq, our employees are critical to our success, and we launched new career development and training initiatives focused on the long-term success, engagement and retention of our global workforce. Our efforts are producing tangible results as we achieved high levels of employee engagement and workforce turnover decreased.
The Nasdaq Foundation also continued to make progress on our mission by providing grants to more than a dozen organizations and supporting critical projects. Through our Foundation’s New Investor Initiative we help to strengthen the representation of minority investors and entrepreneurs, as well as create more equitable paths to success.
In addition to advancing our own corporate strategy, we continued to build robust, demand-driven products that serve our clients’ sustainability needs. Nasdaq’s expertise, tools and technologies drive impact across our clients, helping them to build sustainable markets and resilient businesses. Leveraging our track record of innovation, we were proud to launch several new tools designed to help our clients conduct even better strategic analysis, expedite ESG decision making and streamline their ESG reporting and disclosure practices.
And while the carbon removal market is still in the early phase of development, we recognize the important role that carbon removal solutions will play within wider climate and carbon strategies. Through Puro.earth – the world’s leading carbon removal crediting platform – we are at the forefront of this emerging market. By leveraging this technology, in combination with our expertise as a market operator, we enhance the scale, transparency, standardization, and resiliency of carbon markets. We are proud that in the past year we have introduced registry services and launched a pioneering technology that securely digitizes the issuance, settlement and custody of carbon credits.
As we collectively navigate a rapidly evolving and increasingly complex sustainability ecosystem, Nasdaq remains committed to catalyzing progress towards a more sustainable tomorrow. In the pages that follow, we are pleased to showcase how we have embraced the era of impact to build a foundation for future success.
— Adena Friedman, Chair & CEO, Nasdaq