“The sustainability revolution has the scale of the industrial revolution coupled with the pace of the digital revolution.” Strong words from Al Gore, former US vice-president and now chair of Generation Investment Management, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2023.
This revolution is already widely affecting the way companies operate. In a new Smurfit Kappa survey of businesses across 11 major economies, 61 per cent say that sustainability is already changing how they measure financial performance.
Investors are increasingly engaging with sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are no longer a fringe concern. “Now we’re actually having meetings with some of our investors that are only about ESG.” says Mads Twomey-Madsen, VP corporate communications and sustainability at jeweller Pandora. “They want to meet us and hear about how we run that part of our business with full focus on that agenda.”
Cathrine de Coninck-Lopez, global head of ESG at investment manager Invesco, agrees that a rapid shift is under way. “Last year, we discussed ESG with nearly 3,000 companies,” she says. “That’s up from about 1,000 two years ago.” The increased dialogue reflects changing attitudes among investors, but it is also, she says, “because sustainability is becoming more and more relevant to companies themselves.”
