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• Sustainability Reporting Standards


  • ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance)
  • CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
  • SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)
  • Hong Kong BSI (Business Sustainability Index 2023)
• ESG


  Environmental, Social and Governance
• CSR


  Corporate Social Responsibility
• SDGs


  Sustainable Development Goals
• Hong Kong BSI


  Business Sustainability Index 2023

  
• The world is full of different sustainability reporting standards
• It is easy to get mired in a maze of acronyms
• Some of the most prevalent sustainability reporting standards are ESG, CSR, and SDGs
• Risk Society


  A society increasingly preoccupied with the future (and also with safety), which generates the notion of risk
• Civil Society


  Second modernity witnesses the end of the antithesis between nature and society. That means that nature can no longer be understood outside of society, or society outside of nature
• Elements of a Global Governance System


  • The entrenchment of cosmopolitan democratic law
  • A global parliament connected to regions, nations and localities
  • The separation of political and economic interests
  • An interconnected global legal system
  • The establishment of accountability of international transnational economic agencies to regional parliaments
  • The permanent shift or growing proportion of nation state's coercive capability to regional and global institutions
• Soft Law


  Non-binding rules or instruments that lack the formal force of law but may have practical effects

  
• Hard Law


  Legally binding rules or instruments
• Some recent changes in media messaging (Western) may influence how an environmental strategy is perceived
• Countries are shown as having a net-zero target if they have (i) achieved net zero already, (ii) have it written in law, (iii) in their policy document or have made a public pledge

  
• Emissions Trading Systems (ETS) are systems that allow the trading of emissions allowances
• The evolution of Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCM) has been a timeline of development
• The European Union has implemented a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to place a charge on the carbon content of emission-intensive goods imported into the EU from 2023 onward
• Sectoral labeling schemes have been developed to provide information on the environmental impact of products
• China has released a policy to accelerate the establishment of a Unified National Market
• ESG


  Investors have applied these non-financial factors as part of their analysis process to identify material risks and growth opportunities
• UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)


  Promote well-being and meet the needs of today's population without compromising the needs of future generations
• The 17 SDGs apply to all countries and have a timeline for success by 2030
• CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)


  Includes the intention of bringing value to the community and generating a positive impact
• Four main types of corporate social responsibility


  • Environmental responsibility
  • Ethical responsibility
  • Philanthropic responsibility
  • Economic responsibility
• Businesses can practice social responsibility by donating money, products or services to social causes and nonprofits
• Larger companies tend to have plentiful resources that can benefit charities and local community programs
• Small businesses' efforts can make a difference in corporate social responsibility
• Strategic Note on Philanthropy


  • Don't choose unrelated initiatives, stick with business core
  • Don't use CSR opportunities solely for marketing purposes, can backfire if your business doesn't follow through
  • Stick with long-term social responsibility
• LEGO and Scratch are examples of sustainability disclosure reporting
• NIKE presents their sustainability disclosure report very clearly
• ISO 26000


  Aimed at most types or categories of organization, mostly guidance rather than a requirements based standard
• ESG, CSR, and Sustainability (SDGs) are undergoing changes and comparisons/contrasts
• When choosing a sustainability reporting standard, can choose one or a combination, check if government mandated, favor industry segment standards, and use relevant disclosure standards
• Sustainability reporting standards should be adapted within the business model and strategy
• Quadrillion BTU


  Equal to the amount of energy in 45 million tons of coal, or 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or 170 million barrels of crude oil
• 45 million tons of coal


  • A pile 10 feet thick, one mile wide and about 3.3 miles long
  • It would take about 9 minutes to drive around the pile at 60 mph
• Energy content of 1 quad


  • Equal to about 293 terawatt-hours or 33 gigawatt-years
  • A typical steam-turbine power plant burning fossil fuels is only able to capture about a third of the energy in the fuel, so 1 quad of fuel actually produces about 11 gigwatt-years of electricity

  
• Stopped finding supergiant oil fields 50 years ago (Alaska, Kuwait, North Sea)

  
• Declining reserves and increasing costs of oil