ESG Ratings and how investors were influenced during COVID-19

There is some very encouraging news for Sustainability Practitioners as we start the recovery process. It appears that COVID-19 has prompted investors to increasingly factor in ESG into their assessment process. During the pandemic crisis and stock market panic, the ESG funds – funds that practice sustainable strategies and base their investments on the Environment, Society and Governance criteria – have come out stronger compared to others. This is creating a sense of trust around the importance of engaging ESG ratings during company valuations going forward.

A Morningstar study for instance has shown significant over performance of sustainable funds when compared to their peer groupings indicating that in the first quarter of 2020, 44 percent of US sustainable equity funds ranked in the top quartile of returns, while 70 percent ranked in the top half.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the vulnerability of health care systems, markets, and global supply chains. As a result, investors are taking note of the resilience of sustainable investment strategies throughout the pandemic and highlighting the growing importance of preventative measures and risk mitigation. Furthermore, attempts are being made to better understand the link between the pandemic and environmental destruction, lessons which will help to design government recovery plans and company ESG strategies with higher resilience in the future.

The significant impact that COVID-19 is having on human health and global economic systems appears to be determining investor flows and shaping the future of ESG investing.

CSE has extensive experience with the use and application of a variety of sustainability and climate related frameworks and standards, such as GRI, CDP, SASB and UN PRI. Through the specialized tool CSE has developed, companies can understand and improve their ESG ratings. Through CSE’s TCFD service a formal scenario analysis is developed in line with the TCFD framework. The goal is to assess events and trends to alert the company on potential climate-related impacts.

CSE also assists companies to integrate climate change impacts into key governance processes, and key divisions of the company, such as sustainability, finance and compliance, to come together to understand climate-related risks, prepare accordingly and adapt existing company-level risk management processes to take account of climate risks. All services are offered remotely, through the use of CSE’s online tools.

ESG Consulting Services:  Sustainability / ESG gap ratings analysis: in order to identify you current status and improve your access to responsible investors; Sustainability / ESG materiality assessments: in order to engage with stakeholders and identify the key sustainability/ESG topics you should focus on; Deliver our Sustainability (ESG) Trainings in 2 online webinar sessions of 2.5 hours

ESG Performance Certificate: This online course focuses on most widely used, globally, ESG ratings (CDP, DJSI, GMI ESG Ratings, CSRHub, Bloomberg), a Certificate on ESG Performance by the leading training provider on Sustainability, practical, updated knowledge on ESG issues and indicators, standards and rankings. Investors & Sustainability Professionals should register for this course

Building on its globally respected advanced training programs, CSE offers a new digital version of the best seller program in Education ‘’Certified Sustainability Practitioner Program’’ for C-suite executives and other professionals to premier in Europe on Thursday June 25th – Friday June 26th and Monday June 29th , 2020