Resource List

The Due Diligence for Responsible Corporate Lending and Securities Underwriting provides a common global framework for financial institutions to identify, respond to and publicly communicate on environmental and social risks associated with their clients. Its aim is to advance human rights and positive outcomes for people through investor stewardship.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Implement: Cease, prevent or mitigate negative impacts, and provide for or cooperate in remediation where appropriate.

The environmental, health, and safety (EHS) guidelines are technical reference documents with general and industry-specific examples of good international industry practice (GIIP).

Use this resource to:

• Identify: Understand the performance levels and measures that are generally considered to be achievable in new facilities by existing technology at reasonable costs.

The Equator Principles are a financial industry framework for determining, assessing and managing environmental and social risk in project finance

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Identify: Understand potential environmental and social risks/impacts, including those related to human rights, climate change and biodiversity.
• Measure, assess and value: Conduct an appropriate assessment process to address the relevant environmental and social risks, as well as the scale of the potential impacts, of the proposed project.
• Implement: Prepare an Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) to address any issues raised in the assessment process, and to incorporate the steps required to comply with the applicable standards.

Regulation that sets out performance thresholds for organisations to classify their economic activities as “sustainable” according to European policy objectives.

Use this resource to:

• Identify: Find the economic activities that correspond to the financial institution’s activities and review what the taxonomy says about likely impacts on sustainability. This can be an input into identifying sustainability topics to measure. This regulation is based on research connecting economic activities to likely significant impacts on six environmental objectives. Currently, research related to objectives of climate change mitigation and adaptation are most developed.
• Measure, assess and value: Assess whether underlying assets are sustainable. Underlying assets that fall under the taxonomy regulation will report on the portion of their revenue, capital expenditure and operational expenditure that are ‘taxonomy aligned’, and therefore considered a ‘sustainable investment’ according EU policy objectives.
• Set targets and plan: Set objectives for a portion of the portfolio to be ‘taxonomy-aligned’. Regulation provides investors with a set of performance thresholds that have to be met for an underlying asset to be viewed as operating sustainably in relation to one the EU’s six environmental objectives. Underlying assets that are ‘taxonomy aligned’ are generating sustainable outcomes and are therefore also ‘Benefiting stakeholders’.

The Finance Sector Supplement is a specialised framework, in addition to the Natural Capital Protocol, to guide financial institutions in measuring and valuing natural capital impacts and dependencies across the entities and portfolios that they finance, invest in or underwrite.

This is a cross-cutting resource, meaning that it supports the internal impact management process as a whole, rather than one or a few of the Actions of Impact Management.

The Financial Sector Science-Based Target Guidance helps financial instituions to set science-based targets related to climate.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Set Targets and plan: Set a portfolio target for greenhouse gas emissions.

This report recommends a set of sector-specific, SDG-related metrics by drawing on metrics from existing standard setters and benchmarks. It was published by the Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) Alliance, a group of 30 large investment firms that aims to scale-up long-term finance and investment in sustainable development. The GISD is steered by UN DESA.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Communicate: Include recommended SDG-related metrics in stakeholder disclosures.

This guide is the first of its kind globally for managing ESG risks in risk assessment and insurance underwriting. It has an initial focus on non-life insurance business, also known as property and casualty insurance business.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Identify: Understand the materiality of ESG risks to various lines of business and economic sectors, including characteristics that might affect the ability to assess and mitigate such risks.
• Implement: Address the growing concerns by stakeholders across society (e.g. NGOs, investors, governments).

The Green Bond Principles (GBP) seek to support issuers in financing environmentally sound and sustainable projects that foster a net-zero emissions economy and protect the environment.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Implement: Use global guidelines that outline best practices when issuing bonds serving social and/or environmental purposes.
• Verification, assurance and certification: Illustrate alignment with the four core components of the GBP.

GRI is developing standards for 40 sectors to compliment their current topic standards.

Use this resource to:

• Identify: Identify sustainability topics to measure using the list of topics listed for each Sector Standard.
• Measure, assess and value: Identify metrics to measure for each significant topic. The standards themselves provide guidance on selecting metrics to report.
• Communicate: Report to all stakeholders on ‘material topics’ that reflect the organisation’s most significant impacts. The Sector Standards are a helpful starting point for identifying likely significant impacts.