CHANGE the CONVERSATION Redeﬁning How Companies Engage Investors on Sustainability

CHANGE THE CONVERSATION Redefining How Companies Engage Investors on Sustainability www.ceres.org Acknowledgements Ceres would like to acknowledge report author, Kristen Lang , Director, Company Network at Ceres, with special recognition of Amy Augustine for her leadership in the development of the report. Special Thanks We would also like to extend special thanks to those colleagues that provided support, insightful feedback and guidance in the development and release of the report: Natasha Scotnicki, Peyton Fleming, George Grattan, Brooke Barton, Veena Ramani, Kirsten Spalding, Karen Rivera, Sara Sciammacco, Barbara Grady, Troy Shaheen, Dan Saccardi, Blair Bateson, Mary Ann Ormond, John Weiss, Alba Munoz and Laura LoSciuto. Project Contributors Ceres would also like to thank those company and investor representatives that dedicated their valuable time and thoughtful insights to inform our recommendations and this report. The views in this paper are those of Ceres alone and do not necessarily reflect those of these contributors. Graphic design by Patricia Robinson Ceres is a sustainability nonprofit organization working with the most influential investors and companies to build leadership and drive solutions throughout the economy. Through powerful networks and advocacy, Ceres tackles the world’s biggest sustainability challenges, including climate change, water scarcity and pollution, and human rights abuses. Our mission is to transform the economy to build a sustainable future for people and the planet. For more information, please contact: Kristen Lang Director, Company Network Ceres [email protected] CHAngE tHE ConvERSAtIon — 2— Redefining How Companies Engage Investors on Sustainability Letter from the President In 1989, the investors who joined together to form Ceres in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill were at the forefront of a transformative movement in business. They understood that the most profitable companies in the long run will be those that recognize the imperative to invest in more sustainable business practices. They knew then what we say at Ceres today: sustainability is the bottom line. In 2017, investments guided by environmental, social and governance (ESg) criteria rose to $12 trillion in the U.S. alone, nearly double from 2014 levels. 1 ESg investment now represents 1 of every 4 dollars invested in the U.S., and has risen to nearly $23 trillion globally. 2 Companies, in turn, are committing to sustainability like never before. Recent Ceres research shows that among 600 of the largest publicly traded companies in the U.S., nearly two-thirds have commitments to reduce greenhouse gas (gHg) emissions, half are actively managing water resources and nearly half are now actively protecting the human rights of their employees. As ESg investment climbs, the business case for corporate sustainability only strengthens. In early 2019, the World Economic Forum included the following among its top global economic risks: extreme weather, biodiversity loss, failure to mitigate climate change and the water crisis. 3 While risk mounts, wide-ranging sources—including oxford University, Harvard Business School, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch—continue to affirm that a focus on a sustainable business strategy can provide a competitive advantage in stock price, cost of capital and operational performance. 4 these trends underscore the link between ESg and financial performance, and further demonstrate that those issues once considered extra-financial are, in fact, material financial risks and opportunities impacting the bottom line. And yet, when it comes to engaging investors on sustainability, the vast majority of companies are still missing the mark. With rare exception, they fail to present sustainability as an integral component of business strategy and decision-making, or as a driver of increased business resilience and revenue growth. Reflecting this, 41 percent of the CEos surveyed by Accenture could not accurately quantify the business value of their sustainability initiatives. Such failures are missed opportunities. Ceres envisions a future where sustainability is not a separate work stream, but an integral component of business planning and execution that investors routinely assess and reward. to get there, we must redefine how companies engage investors on sustainability. Simply put, we must change the conversation. CHAngE tHE ConvERSAtIon — 3— Redefining How Companies Engage Investors on Sustainability Letter from the President Ceres is committed to a future where sustainability is not a separate work stream, but an integral component of business planning and execution that investors routinely assess and reward. to get there, we must redefine how companies engage investors on sustainability. Simply put, we must change the conversation. Drawing from our interviews with more than 25 Ceres investor partners, Change the Conversation highlights key trends in investors’ evolving expectations for corporate sustainability. It presents nine recommendations to guide companies toward more meaningful and effective investor engagement on ESg issues, helping them to not only meet investor expectations, but also capture competitive advantage. three trends are clear as we confront a rapidly changing world. First , sustainable investing is not a passing phenomenon or a niche investment strategy—it is a fast-growing movement redefining capital markets. As Larry Fink, CEo of asset manager powerhouse BlackRock, recently told the Financial Times , “Sustainable investing will be a core component of how everyone invests. We are only at the early stages.” Second , investors must quickly move to demonstrate with transparency how calls for corporate action on ESg will be rewarded in the marketplace. And finally , corporate commitments to “do better” are no longer enough. Instead, companies must proactively demonstrate how sustainability issues are fully considered and weighed equally as business concerns and how sustainable innovation is driving new business opportunity. In effect, they must show that they, too, understand sustainability is the bottom line. Mindy S. Lubber CEO and President Ceres CHAngE tHE ConvERSAtIon — 4— Redefining How Companies Engage Investors on Sustainability Executive Summary When Ceres released The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability —our vision for corporate sustainability leadership in the 21st century—in 2010, sustainable business leaders were easily identified and few in number. now it is commonplace to find a “sustainability” or “corporate responsibility ” section included on company websites. Increased public awareness, regulation and investor interest has made acknowledging environmental and social impacts, and claiming a commitment to be “sustainable,” a mainstream practice for doing business today. Nearly half of the 600 largest public U.S. companies are formally communicating with investors in some way on sustainability, via annual meetings, quarterly earnings calls, investors days and more. 5 But how those companies are engaging, and the depth and value of those engagements, varies widely. For example, most companies still share information in ways that reinforce the misconception that these issues are extra-financial and not material. They also fail to provide investors with the information they need to understand and value the positive impacts of sustainable business strategies on corporate health and financial performance. For 30 years, Ceres has partnered with leading global corporations and investors to better integrate environmental and social considerations into business strategies—effectively working together to redefine business as usual. As active advocates leading these corporate and investor dialogues, we understand that for many companies, engagement with investors on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is fraught with trepidation and resistance. This leads to reactive, less- effective interactions with interested investors. Without deeper insight on what ESG information investors value, how investors want to see this information and who they want to hear from, companies will continue to fall short in providing the decision-useful information investors need to fully understand and value the financial implications of critical sustainability risks and opportunities. In collaboration with more than 25 Ceres investor partners—including some of the world’s largest asset managers and asset owners, ESG-oriented asset managers, ESG and governance analysts, and proxy advisors—we conducted a series of interviews to further explore the themes and observations gleaned from our decades of experience in corporate and investor dialogues. In these conversations, we sought to get answers to the most common questions we hear from companies every day: What does meaningful ESG disclosure look like to the investor community, and where and how do they want to see it? What timeframes are investors interested in: short- or long-term? How do investors define sustainable business leadership? How, in an increasingly crowded space of companies claiming to be sustainable, can companies stand out and be rewarded by investors for their leadership? CHAngE tHE ConvERSAtIon — 5— Redefining How Companies Engage Investors on Sustainability Executive Summary What emerged is a set of nine recommendations, outlined under three strategies, to guide companies toward more meaningful and effective investor engagement on ESG issues. Strategy #1: Formalize sustainable business integration 1. Demonstrate accountability

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