KRISTINA TOUZENIS - HOW TO USE A RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH IN SUSTAINABILITY

Do you want to build a strong sustainability strategy to show your asset owners or investors that you are at the forefront of what happens at the regulatory level on sustainability? Do you want to be ready for consumer pressure when an unprecedented amount of wealth changes hands to a generation that puts sustainability at the core of their decisions? There is a common framework that can be used to help you in your governance, reporting, and engagement!

We will discuss how to build robust Sustainability Strategies, report on real effects of investments or production, go beyond “impact” and address sustainable investment in a systematic fashion.

This proposed workshop is an introduction on how to use a “norms-based approach” to sustainable investing – including reporting and being prepared for mandatory regulatory requirements.

We will also look at how to actively and meaningfully engage in policymaking so you can be proactive in the regulation setting as well as multi-stakeholder engagement, including policymakers, regulators, and NGOs. A rights-based approach is a conscious and systematic integration of human rights and rights principles into all aspects of activities and policies. We focus on implementation.

Investors and boards will increasingly be asked what their policies and indicators for the S (social) are in their decision-making. Most reports or communication today revolves around the E (environment) – and even when “social” or “societal” is mentioned, the focus is often on environmental factors.

The social is a challenge because it seems less concrete. How do you measure impact on society, individuals, and groups? G (governance) criteria can be discerned from general corporate governance principles and long experience in promoting sustainability. But for the S, the indicators are often too diverse and fragmented. This happens because the way in which the S is conceived by different data providers, lacks a common principled basis.

Topics to be covered:

• What are the most relevant international standards we have to consider as a business? Why are they relevant?
• What does it means in an ESG context to have a norms-based approach?
• What does it means to think norms-based?
• Where do the SDGs fit in? Where does traditional CSR fit in? What are the huge advantage of seeing the "S" as anchored in and an expression of international norms?
• Indicators: how to use norms to measure, including how to set medium- and long-term goals
• Going way beyond supply chain compliance when understanding social sustainability
• Engagement in policymaking with government counterparties and communities
• Using a rights-based language in communication
• Reporting beyond a compliance game and beyond filling out any number of questionnaires structuring a report around rights-based impact/sustainability
• Setting common standards for what we mean when we say “impact” and “sustainability” The linking of E and S and G to rights - cross-cutting!

Who is it for?

The target group is anyone who is aiming at integrating sustainability into their investment strategy, portfolio or product-line. Importantly, we will discuss how to make strategy-investment-governance-reporting into a cyclic activity so anyone making investment, divestment decisions- as well as reporting on sustainability and ESG, is welcome and should be interested.

This is a two-day workshop which takes place on 22 & 23 March 2021, from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm CET (including a half-hour break). The first half-day will really focus on the international legal framework to set the stage. The second day will go into e.g. reporting and indicators. Importantly, the workshop will be interactive and the aim is to have as much discussion and use real examples as possible. It will be on Zoom and you will receive the invite with the link in advance.

For WISF-members the participation fee is CHF 365.- and for non-members CHF 495.- (become a member here).

Registration closes on 20 March 2021 (end of the day).