Canada’s Largest Pension Managers Call on Companies and Investors to Improve ESG Reporting
A coalition of CEOs from Canada’s largest pension plan investment managers has issued a call on companies and investors to provide consistent and complete ESG information in order to strengthen investment decision-making and better assess and manage their collective ESG risk exposures.
The group of 8 CEOs from AIMCo, BCI, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, CPP Investments, HOOPP, OMERS, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and PSP Investments, represent assets under management of approximately $1.6 trillion.
According to the group, they have joined forces to help shape a future defined by more sustainable and inclusive economic growth. The CEOs also committed to strengthening ESG disclosure within their own organizations and to allocate capital to investments best placed to deliver long-term sustainable value creation.
In their joint statement, the CEOs stated:
“How companies identify and address issues such as diversity & inclusion, human capital, and climate change can significantly contribute to value creation or erosion. Companies have an obligation to disclose their key business risks and opportunities to financial markets and should provide financially relevant, comparable and decision-useful information.”
Demand by investors for better sustainability practices by companies and investment managers has been intensifying, yet the lack of consistent, reliable reporting standards remains one of the key obstacles to assessing and measuring the progress of these efforts, and comparing companies and investors to their peers on ESG factors. Standards and frameworks, including SASB and TCFD have emerged in order to help provide better sustainability reporting tools in order to help solve this problem. In their statement, the CEOs promote the use of these tools.
Responding to the CEOs’ initiative, Janine Guillot, Chief Executive Officer, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) said:
“SASB welcomes the leadership of Canada’s eight largest pension plan investment managers in advancing investor-focused sustainability disclosure. By asking companies to use SASB Standards, along with the TCFD recommendations, this group is helping improve the availability and comparability of sustainability information and contributing to more resilient markets.”
Mary Schapiro, Head of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Secretariat and Vice Chair for Global Public Policy at Bloomberg LP, added:
“We applaud these Canadian pension funds for their efforts in contributing to a more resilient global economy. By asking companies to disclose in line with the TCFD and SASB frameworks, they are paving the way for convergence around a common set of disclosure principles and furthering Canada’s leadership in this area.”
The CEOs’ statement concluded:
“We are inspired by this opportunity to help confront the most urgent challenges facing our global community and create more inclusive economic growth. We encourage other parties committed to our vision to join us on this journey towards a more sustainable future for all.”