Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), UBS Optimus Foundation, Credit Suisse Foundation, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), announced the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals Impact Finance Initiative, with a goal to mobilize up to one billion Swiss francs in private capital to advance measurable impact in developing countries.The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) refer to the 17 categories of goals adopted as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by world leaders at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015, with the aim to protect the planet and improve the quality of life globally. SDG targets include ending poverty and hunger, improving education, and protecting the environmen...
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), one of the leading organizations promoting standardized ESG reporting, announced today that climate research provider and environmental disclosure platform CDP will participate in the process to update the GRI Biodiversity Standard. The organizations also stated that CDP will use the updated standard, once published, to inform its own disclosure system.Additionally, GRI announced that it has accepted an invitation to join the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures’ (TNFD) TNFD Forum and become a TNFD Knowledge Hub partner. Launched in June 2021, TNFD aims to deliver a framework for organisations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks, with a goal to establish the framework in 2023. GRI announced that the updated biodivers...
Walmart, along with HSBC and climate research provider and environmental disclosure platform CDP, announced today the launch of a supply chain finance program incentivizing and helping suppliers to set science-based emissions reduction targets, in a bid to advance the retail giant’s efforts to address its Scope 3 emissions footprint.According to Walmart, the program marks the next step in its supply chain emissions reduction initiative, Project Gigaton. Launched in 2017, the project aims to eliminate 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its global supply chain by 2030. To date, over 3,100 suppliers have signed on to the initiative, resulting in cumulative avoided emissions of 416 million metric tons of CO2e.
A group of 21 leading financial institutions in Japan, including Dai-ichi Life Group, MUFG Bank, and Sumitomo Mitsui announced the launch of the Japan Impact-driven Financing Initiative, aiming to promote the measurement and management of the changes created through investment and financing activities on social and environmental issues and to support greater impact-focused financing in the country.The new framework, initiated by the Social Innovation and Investment Foundation and impact-oriented financial institutions, aims to enable the Japanese financial industry to autonomously and sustainably develop impact-oriented investments and lending. According to the signatories, with Japan’s impact investing being still at an early stage, it is necessary for financial institutions to share th...
ESG ratings and research provider Sustainalytics announced today the launch of its Corporate Supply Chain ESG Solutions, aimed at enabling companies to assess and manage ESG risks within their supply chains.As companies face increasing pressure from investors, customers, regulators and other stakeholders to improve and report on their sustainability profiles, understanding and managing ESG impact emanating from areas often beyond their direct control, such as the supply chain, forms a formidable challenge. Key sustainability issues often present in supply chains range from human rights and forced labor to workforce health and safety, and shortages of natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions.