38 research outputs found
Contribution of sustainable investment to sustainable development within the framework of the SDGS: the role of the asset management industry
PURPOSE: This study aims to understand how scholarly research addresses sustainable
investments’ contribution to sustainable development within the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDG) framework. This is achieved by focusing on how the asset management industry,
through the practice of advanced sustainable investment strategies, can contribute more
efficiently to sustainable development.
DESIGN: For this purpose, a systematic literature review using the content analysis method
and comprised between the years 2015-2021 is carried out.
FINDINGS: A systematic literature review shows that the asset management industry is
critical to integrating SDGs in financial markets, through their influence on investee
companies or their investment products. The findings also indicate that SDGs are integrated
into investment portfolios, particularly those managed according to the impact investment
strategy and those that practice active ownership. However, the integration is not
homogeneous.
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RESEARCH LIMITATIONS: This review has limitations derived from search engineering.
In addition, research goals have conditioned the exclusion of articles that merely refer to the
SDGs. Moreover, since SDGs were launched in 2015, not enough time has elapsed to analyze
the total contribution of sustainable investment to achieving the SDGs.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: This study provides the basis for a multidisciplinary
debate related to developing a good integration of SDGs in the asset management industry
under new global challenges.
SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS: Given the disconnection between the expansion of sustainable
investment and sustainability achievements, this research aims to deepen the understanding
of how sustainable investment can contribute more efficiently to sustainable development
within the framework of SDGs.
ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This analysis advances previous academic research by providing
insights into new pathways for future studies on how to approach the asset management
industry's challenges to contribute to sustainable development efficiently in the current
context
Sustainable development and financial system: Integrating ESG risks through sustainable investment strategies in a climate change context
This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Sustainable development and financial system: Integrating ESG risks through sustainable investment strategies in a climate change context. Maria Folqué, Elena Escrig-Olmedo, Teresa Corzo Santamaría, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2181. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.Sustainable Investment funds are one of the most appropriate ways for the financial system to contribute to sustainable development. However, the effective contribution of Sustainable Investment funds can vary widely depending on their management strategy. This paper aims to analyze which strategies or combinations of them allow practitioners to better manage ESG risks in ESG portfolios within a complete framework consistent with global challenges that focus on sustainability and carbon risk scores. To analyze the differences between Sustainable Investment strategies, we adopt a parametric analysis of variance method. We find that, on average, funds that only apply negative filters achieve worse ESG risk scores and show worse carbon risk. In sum, this study contributes with more in-depth knowledge about the different outcomes in terms of sustainability risks of the different SI strategies
Spanish society's perceptions about socially responsible investing
The debate surrounding the financial needs of investors and the impact on society of investment is considered to be an important research topic due to the growth of socially responsible financial markets. The objective of this research is to study the perception of the Spanish public about socially responsible investing (SRI) criteria and real-life investment needs.
To examine the Spanish perception of SRI, we conducted a field survey. The results show that SRI is in an early stage and Spanish investors need more exact information regarding social, environmental, and governance criteria in order to invest in socially responsible companies and products
Rating the Raters: Evaluating how ESG Rating Agencies Integrate Sustainability Principles
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rating agencies, acting as relevant financial market actors, should take a stand on working towards achieving a more sustainable development. In this context, the objective of this paper is, on the one hand, to understand how criteria used by ESG rating agencies in their assessment processes have evolved over the last ten years and, on the other hand, to analyze whether ESG rating agencies are contributing to fostering sustainable development by the inclusion of sustainability principles into their assessment processes and practices according to the ESG criteria. This research is based on a comparative descriptive analysis of the public information provided by the most representative ESG rating and information provider agencies in the financial market in two periods: 2008 and 2018. The findings show that ESG rating agencies have integrated new criteria into their assessment models to measure corporate performance more accurately and robustly in order to respond to new global challenges. However, a deep analysis of the criteria also shows that ESG rating agencies do not fully integrate sustainability principles into the corporate sustainability assessment process
Responsabilidad social corporativa e internacionalización bancaria: el caso de la banca española en Argentina, Brasil y Chile
Este trabajo pretende dar a conocer la posición de labanca española en términos de responsabilidad socialcorporativa en Latinoamérica (Argentina, Brasil y Chile)a través del estudio de los casos de los dos gruposbancarios españoles con mayor presencia en estospaíses: el Banco Santander y el Banco Bilbao VizcayaArgentaria. Para este estudio se ha utilizado lainformación pública de estas dos entidades. Entre lasprincipales conclusiones cabe señalar que se observanevidencias de traslación de los estándares de gestión dela casa matriz a sus filiales en Latinoamérica, aunquecreemos que se necesita una mayor adaptación de estosa cada contexto geográfico concreto
Sustainability rating agencies as a driver of socially responsible investment
El conjunto de actores de los mercados financieros a nivel mundial están demandando
de forma creciente que la información financiera de las empresas se vea integrada con
información de carácter ambiental, social y de gobierno corporativo. Las agencias de calificación de la sostenibilidad surgen en los mercados como oferentes de dicha información,
desarrollado sus propias herramientas de medición y evaluación de los criterios financieros,
ambientales y de gobernanza (FASG).
El objetivo de este artículo es poner de manifiesto la función impulsora y modeladora
que están realizando estas agencias en el análisis de la sostenibilidad corporativa, sus metodologías de evaluación y los criterios que utilizan, constatando que están potenciando el desarrollo de la inversión socialmente responsable (o inversión sostenible, o inversión con criterios ASG), y de las finanzas sostenibles, tanto por ofertar bases de datos de criterios FASG,
como por la elaboración de índices bursátiles de sostenibilidad que sirven de benchmarking
para los fondos de inversión con criterios de sostenibilidad. Sin embargo, por ahora, este
impulso no está impactando en la innovación hacia modelos de negocios sostenibles.The financial market actors worldwide are increasingly demanding that the financial
information of companies should be integrated with information of an environmental,
social and corporate governance nature. The sustainability rating agencies emerge in the
markets as providers of such information, developing their own tools for measuring and
evaluating the financial, environmental and governance criteria (FESG). The objective of this paper is to highlight the function that these sustainability agencies
are fulfilling, their evaluation methodologies and the criteria they use, confirming that they
are promoting the development of socially responsible investment (or sustainable investment, or ESG investment). Both for their offer of databases of FESG criteria, and for the
elaboration of sustainable indexes that serve as benchmarking for investment funds with
sustainability criteria. However, they are not influencing innovation towards sustainable
business models
SDG reporting: an analysis of corporate sustainability leaders
Purpose
This study aims to empirically analyze a sound commitment and a consistent integration of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the corporate reporting and management systems of companies that have a leading position in sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The study applies a content analysis procedure based on a proposed analytical framework to codify the commitment and the SDG integration. In order to analyze the consistency of the integration, this study has provided a “SDG integration” score based on fuzzy inference systems methods. The companies in the sample have been identified as benchmarks in terms of sustainability in a specific region of Spain.
Findings
The findings show a lack of formality regarding the SDG commitment at the highest decision-making level and a low level of SDG integration in the reporting and management systems. These results are mainly explained because the most companies do not prioritize according to the materiality analysis and those SDGs more reported have not been deployed along targets and KPIs in a consistent way.
Research limitations/implications
The results provide practical implications that help to overcome the limitations in terms of comparison and consistency of the SDGs-reported information. It also illustrates how the leading sustainable companies are doing the SDG reporting and suggests which elements could be improved to promote a consistent integration of the SDGs in the management systems.
Originality/value
This study provides new work lines in the promotion of an effective SDG-business reporting based on a robust management structure that allows an alignment among the SDG-business decisions based on a normative, strategic and operational approach
Sustainable supply chain management in a global context: a consistency analysis in the textile industry between environmental management practices at company level and sectoral and global environmental challenges.
In a global context, it is crucial to measure and report the corporate sustainability impacts taking into account what is happening along the whole supply chains. The objective of this study is to analyze whether environmental measurement and reporting practices, currently developed by companies under a global supply chain context, are aligned with global environmental challenges and the environmental hotspots at the sectoral level. To tackle this objective, this study has been focused on the textile sector, due to the relevance of its environmental impacts. A research was conducted based on the analysis of global environmental challenges: 1) at company level, on the measurement and reporting of specific environmental indicators connected with the impact categories of the European Organization Environmental Footprint (OEF); and 2) on the analysis of textile industry environmental hotspots, through the technical tool SimaPro that allows their quantification and identification along the life cycle phases using different scenarios. The results show a consistency between global environmental challenges and company environmental disclosure; however, a disconnection between the specific environmental indicators reported by textile companies and the main hotspots of the sector are observed. This implies that companies could be managing environmental issues related to global environmental concerns but ignoring those critical environmental issues truly relevant from a technical point of view, according to the nature of their activity. The paper argues that is not only necessary to consider the corporate awareness regarding global environmental challenges, but also to address the real environmental hotspots at the sectoral level. This paper represents a contribution in the discussion about what sustainability management implies along the supply chains, emphasizing the need to advance in a consistent and science-based integration of global environmental challenges, environmental hotspots at the sectoral level and environmental management practices at company level. The results obtained help global chain actors and other organizations to address this challenge
Sustainable development goals in the hospitality industry: a dream or reality?
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how effectively leading sustainable hotels have integrated
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their reporting. The main aim is to pinpoint areas for
improvement concerning SDG reporting which can help the hospitality industry to achieve a transformation
in a more SDG-aligned global tourism system.
Design/methodology/approach – For this study, a content analysis technique was used to extract the
information regarding strategic consistency of SDG reporting. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches
were applied to the analysis of this information. This paper seeks to assess the extent to which the materiality
analysis, corporate targets and performance indicators defined by the world’s top sustainable hotels in their
sustainability reports are consistent with those SDGs linked to the business. To that end, the authors have
selected the most sustainable hotels according to the SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment in 2020.
Findings – The results of this study show that the most sustainable hotel companies did not take a strategic
consistency approach when reporting the SDGs. These findings identify four areas for improvement concerning
reporting, which may promote the adoption of a strategic and consistent approach in SDG reporting.
Practical implications – This study includes a set of recommendations to provide the market with
complete, coherent and comparable information on their contribution to the SDGs and, therefore, foster
collective learning to bring about sustainable tourism transformation.
Originality/value – This paper represents a contribution to the discussion on the strategic or symbolic
implementation of SDGs at a corporate level. In addition, this paper reflects a deeper understanding of how
hotel companies could improve their reporting and management system to contribute to SDGs
Materiality Analysis for CSR Reporting in Spanish SMEs
Most corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards have not been designed
to be implemented in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Given
that 99% of Spanish companies are SMEs, this study aims to propose a
selection of basic CSR material issues that, because of their usefulness and
significance, should be adapted to Spanish SMEs and their stakeholders.
This study provides a CSR model for SMEs that includes the most important
social, environmental, and corporate governance issues. This model, which
is based on expert knowledge, is useful for integrating sustainability in the
management of SMEs and enhancing the management of stakeholders