B4IG Newsletter #11
In this issue:
Further clarity in ESG reporting in 2022
B4IG Tools to be published soon!
OECD Well-being Framework to measure the social performance of businesses
Walking the Talk: Valuing a Multi-Stakeholder Strategy
and more!
This year should bring more clarity in standards for measuring a company’s progress and performance on sustainability.
At the EU level, the Commission's proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) should be agreed on in the first half of 2022, with an initial set of standards expected to be adopted by October. As for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it is in the process of developing a comprehensive framework for climate-related disclosures and is expected to unveil a rule requiring disclosure of standardized human-capital data. Last but not least, the new International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), chaired by Emmanuel Faber since last December, will provide a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability-related disclosure standards and is expected to publish first proposals by the end of the year.
This standard-setting process will have several challenges to meet, including making compatible standards based on “single materiality” (ESG information that drives valuation and is of importance to investors) and “double materiality” (information of interest to stakeholders even if it is not of interest to investors today), but should significantly reduce greenwashing and social washing by defining concrete steps to implement sustainability commitments.
Building on our unique membership and ecosystem including financial institutions and corporates, the OECD as its strategic partner, multilateral and workers organisations, philanthropies, and academia, B4IG will contribute to this work by providing a set of impact pathways covering the Pledge areas.
The Actions
B4IG Tools
Following their adoption at the December 2 Board meeting, three B4IG tools will be published soon:
Responsible Transformation Guidelines to encourage companies to adopt inclusive actions in the design, implementation, and monitoring of restructuring activities.
Ethnic Diversity & Inclusion Operational Recommendations to provide a holistic view on actions to adopt to ensure equality of opportunities and fair treatment at work for underrepresented ethnic and racial groups.
Inclusive Sourcing Practical Methodology to integrate Inclusive Sourcing practices into the procurement decision-making process. It provides tools and best practices to render value chains more socially sustainable.
Communications and stakeholder engagement plans are currently being prepared for each of these tools, in coordination with the working group leads. The objective is to drive change beyond company members and create impact within the wider business community.
Digital Divide
The Digital Divide Working Group led by Capgemini, Salesforce and Microsoft is building three projects with the support of partners:
a mobile application to support digital literacy in France;
an online learning platform with the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) in the USA and;
a platform aggregating a selection of existing technical digital skills online trainings with French and UK employment Centers.
As we enter the piloting phase, we need support from more member companies to deploy the solutions at larger scales. The upcoming March 18 working group meeting will be reviewing the progress of each of these projects and provides the opportunity to discuss potential collaborations within the coalition. Don’t hesitate to reach out to marie.basso@b4ig.org if you want to join the workstream!
Living Wage
In order to help member companies advance on their living wage journey, B4IG is launching a work cycle on Living Wage with the support of IDH - the sustainable trade initiative.
This work cycle will consist of two strands of sessions focusing on key topics and challenges for beginner companies (Identifying the living wage, Measuring the living wage gaps, Verifying calculations of living wage gaps, Closing living wage gaps) and more advanced companies (Challenges related to internal processes, Engaging with suppliers, Measuring the impact, Engaging with stakeholders). Each session will include a presentation on key topics and useful tools, complemented by best practices sharing when relevant and followed by a Q&A. The sessions will be digitally operated from the end of March until July 2022. Complete program and invitations to follow shortly.
B4IG Training Program
The B4IG Incubator is launching the 2022 Collective Training program. Open to all B4IG members, the program has been co-designed with experts and academics, with the objective to strengthen inclusive business capabilities within B4IG member organizations and equip project leaders with the fundamentals of inclusive business management.
There will be six Training Sessions: Designing a robust value proposition and revenue model, Building financing strategy, Designing impact measurement processes, Enhancing robust partnerships, Engaging stakeholders & communicating efficiently, and Connecting to consumers & clients.
Further information here. Do not hesitate to reach out to incubator@b4ig.org if you are interested in joining the sessions.
From the OECD
The OECD WISE Centre has published a working paper and an accompanying policy brief that use the OECD Well-being Framework as a basis to provide conceptual clarity and identify measures of the social performance of businesses. The WISE Centre’s framework on measuring the non-financial performance of firms identifies four broad categories of stakeholders whose well-being are relevant from the perspective of measuring performance in the social area: employees, consumers, communities, and society as a whole. The proposed measurement framework focuses on the well-being of employees and the resources that businesses contribute to (or detract from) society. The measures proposed are heavily inspired by the lessons of the “Beyond GDP” movement: the importance of considering the various dimensions important for people’s lives, the need to measure outcomes (rather than only inputs or outputs), to consider both self-reported and objective measures of performance, and the need to measure inequalities in a transversal manner.
The OECD is eager to work with companies on this topic, and you may get in touch with vincent.siegerink@oecd.org to learn more.
Around the Globe
The European Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence yesterday. This proposal establishes a corporate sustainability due diligence duty to address negative human rights and environmental impacts. It applies to EU companies with 500+ employees and €150M turnover or 250+ employees and €40M turnover in specific sectors and non-EU companies with an EU turnover of €150M or €40M in specific sectors. The proposal will be discussed within the coalition, starting with the WG on Human Rights.
The World Benchmarking Alliance’s (WBA) issued the Social Transformation Baseline Assessment in January. Based on the Social Transformation Framework, it provides “a global state of play focused on three themes of respect for human rights, decent work and ethical conduct, looking at 1,000 key companies across more than 60 countries”.
Another contribution to the debate over corporate sustainability strategies: a new report published by think-tank FCLT and the Wharton School assessing more than 3,000 companies on both “talk” (mentions of sustainability-related issues in their annual reports) and “walk” (financial, environmental, social and governance outcomes), found that those that scored highly on both “walk” and “talk” generated 4% higher investor returns and 1.5% greater revenue growth than the average over a 3-year period, with lower volatility. They also invested twice as much in research and development as peers, relative to sales, and were 50 % more likely to issue long-term guidance.
Save the Date(s)
B4IG will organize a workshop on March 10 from 3pm to 5pm CET. The overall objective is to discuss and advance the ongoing projects of workstreams, and the B4IG Roadmap for 2022. Sherpas, company experts, OECD participants and other B4IG partners are invited to participate in the different sessions, on:
3pm-4pm CET: Collective session - B4IG 2022 Roadmap (key objectives for this year, advocacy strategy and proposal to involve B4IG in a TSFD). Target Profile: Sherpas and ESG reporting and impact measurement experts.
4-5 pm CET: Session I – B4IG Local (key findings of the exchanges in the B4IG South Africa network over the past year and discussion on possibilities for expansions in different geographies). Target Profile: Sherpas and SA Network.
4-5 pm CET: Session II – Access (relaunching of the workstream on Access to Essential Goods and Services, focusing on creating access to individuals. Target Profile: Sherpas and teams working on access-related initiatives.
4-5 pm CET: Session III – Inclusive Sourcing (presenting the B4IG inclusive sourcing methodology and discussing the next steps). Target Profile: Procurement Teams.
Other Upcoming events and Working Group meetings (all times CET):
B4IG Local – SA Network: March 2, 10:00-11:00 am
WG2, Responsible Transformation: March 2, 3:00-4:00 pm
IGFF, Investor Meeting, March 14, 3:30-4:30 pm
WG2, Digital Divide: March 18, 3:30-4:30 pm
Incubator Launch event: March 22, 3 :00-5:30 pm
You will find additional details on each of the sessions here. If you have not received the calendar invitation, please send an email to contact@b4ig.org.
Thanks for reading, and be sure to follow B4IG on Twitter and LinkedIn!
The B4IG Team