To successfully shift to an ESG focus you need to recognize the forces driving it. Once you understand why investors now care so much about ESG issues, you can make changes within your organization to maximize long-term value for shareholders and stakeholders. This session will focus on the factors promoting the heightened focus on ESG.

• Financial returns
• Growing demand
• Fiduciary duties redefined
• Focus on materiality
• The integration of ESG into financial analysis
• ESG activism by investors

• 85% of CFA Institute members take ESG factors into consideration in their investing
• This session showcases how ESG is not only used by sustainable investors that want to allocate capital according to their values, but also by more traditional investors who acknowledge that some ESG factors are economic factors, especially in the long term
• Mackenzie Investments applies a multi-boutique approach with different investment approaches ranging from responsible investing where one focuses on mitigating ESG risks to impact investing where one targets a specific sustainability outcome
• Jonas will guide you through the different investment strategies at Mackenzie and how each of these use ESG data in the investment analysis and decision making process.

• Identifying the framework that is most relevant to your investors
• The need for ESG disclosure that will result in information that is some combination of clear, coherent, consistent, comprehensive, complete, concise and comparable
• What disclosure regime do key stakeholders in Canada want Canadian public companies to follow?
• What framework is expected to win out and become the standard?
• Impact on board and management decisions on what is becoming an emerging consensus around the TCFD framework and SASB standards

Over the past few years, we’ve seen environmental, social and governance issues gain importance in the boardroom, driven by shareholders and rising stakeholder expectations. Increasingly boards see ESG as an opportunity to improve long term value creation and not a simple check-the-box exercise. Companies are expected to play a stronger role in society. Yet, it is not clear how to navigate these issues at the board table.

We will review these trends by looking at:

• ESG competencies that will increasingly be required of directors
• Including ESG in risk management, strategy and executive compensation
• Board oversight of the company’s purpose and stakeholder relations and how to get started

• Impact of engagement when engagement is successful
• How engagement instills longer term perspectives
• How shareholder power can be used to influence corporations on particular issues and actions
• Engaging with companies through
  • Dialogue
  • Filing shareholder resolutions
  • Active and informed proxy voting
• Communication
• Learning
• Political dynamics – facilitating internal and external relationships for companies
• Benefits and challenges of individual versus collective forms of engagement
• Barriers and enablers to engagement success

• Difficulties assigning a value for intangible assets on a balance sheet
• Lack of consensus or information on how businesses can measure and assess the value of their social and human capital resources
• How investors integrate social and human capital accounting into decision making
• Developing resilient and sustainable business models by putting numbers to the issues that will affect the future of your organization
• Key challenges organizations face when using social and human capital accounting
• Embedding the management of environmental and social issues into business processes and strategy

• Understanding the global climate incentive framework
• How to identify incentives of interest
• Practical tips for the ESG leader to foster stakeholder engagement
• Learning from others: common mistakes and pitfalls when evaluating climate incentives
• Learning from others: identifying and leveraging best practice