How Can Investors’ Engagement in Environmental, Social and Governance Issues Create and Deliver Value?

An event organised by ETHOS - the Centre for Responsible Enterprise

Responsible engagement is concerned with institutional investors’ direct dialogue with investee companies about environmental, social and/or governance (ESG) issues. Although responsible engagement is gaining currency as an effective mechanism for institutional investors to advance their responsible investment strategies (by promoting investee companies’ adoption of sustainable management practices to ensure long-term value creation), it has been analyzed mainly from the perspective of investors, and rarely from the viewpoint of the ‘engaged corporations’. In addition, the processes whereby engagement in ESG issues create and delivers value for both investors and corporations have yet to be fully explored or understood. In particular, little is known about how corporations manage ESG requests nor about the processes by which investors’ engagement on ESG create value either for the targeted corporations, or for the practitioners dealing with sustainability or corporate social responsibility within corporations.

This event will bring together a panel of sustainable development executives, leading investors, experts from industry, and notably the Principles for Responsible Investment, as well as academics studying engagement, to discuss how corporate actors manage investors’ requests directly and interests in ESG issues. During the event, Professor Jean-Pascal Gond will share preliminary insights from a current PRI-funded project examining how corporations deal with the growing development of investors’ engagement practices. Expert practitioners and academics will then exchange their views and insight on the current trends related to engagement and their meaning for corporate actors.

Confirmed Speakers
Practitioners:
Vincent Dufief – ‎Investor Relations Director, Total, France
David Harris – Head of Sustainable Business at the London Stock Exchange (LSE), London, UK
Valeria Piani – Associate Director, Investor Engagements at the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment Initiative, London, UK
Dr. Michael Viehs – Engagement Professional, Hermes Equity Ownership Services, London UK
Dr Steve Waygood - Chief Responsible Investment Officer, Aviva Investor, London, UK
Academics:
Prof. Elroy Dimson – Cambridge Judge Business School, UK
Prof. Jean-Pascal Gond – Head of ETHOS, Cass Business School, City, University of London
Prof. Sebastien Pouget – Toulouse School of Economics, Toulouse, France.

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