09:00 - 10:45

Lisa Hayles (United Kingdom)
Head of Client Services (North America) - EIRIS

Ratings And The Long-Term Investor - The Case Of Climate Change

In this session we will focus on three questions:
What practical steps can investors take to avoid investing solely with a short-term perspective?
How can we apply these practical steps in the case of climate change?
Would the same approach work for other long-term ESG issues?

Christopher Greenwald (Switzerland )
Head of Sustainability Application and Operations - SAM Sustainability Asset Management

Beyond the Materiality Debate to Applications

In this paper, I will argue that the primary impediment to moving beyond the debate of the materiality of ESG factors as well as the primary obstacle to integrating ESG into the mainstream is the relative absence of models which concretely apply ESG data to financial analysis. I will then discuss such an application model that has been developed by ASSET4 in order to help investors overcome this challenge by understanding the concrete impacts of specific ESG factors on the financial valuations of companies in various sectors. Specifically, I will discuss the financial impacts of several environmental variables such as CO2 emissions, energy use, and water use relative to EBITDA for companies in different industries. I will also consider the financial impacts of several social variables such as health & safety incidents, lost days and turnover rates. In providing concrete examples of how ESG data can be incorporated into valuation models by mainstream financial analysis, I will emphasize the necessity of using objective and comparable ESG data as well as the importance of applying this data in ways that are sensitive to sector and industry differences.

Estelle Mironesco (France)
Director of Vigeo Rating - Vigeo Group

Social Ratings in a Financial Perspective: A Case Study on Corporate Restructurings

Corporate restructurings, although inherent to the market economy, are amplified by the current economic crisis.
Are there financial indicators enabling to foresee imminent restructurings? Is a responsible management of restructurings solely an additional cost for companies or does it enable companies to better control the associated risks on their human capital, their operational efficiency and their reputation?
A joint research carried out by Vigeo and SG Securities introduces an innovative approach to this theme, combining both social and financial considerations.