Investor & Issuer Sentiment Towards ESG Assessments

Part 1 – The New Differentiator (20 Minutes followed by 15 minutes of Q&A)
Lead by Erin Boeke Burke, Director & Lead Analyst, Sustainable Finance, S&P Global Ratings

S&P Global Ratings provides a number of types of opinions on the ESG characteristics of entities. This session will focus on the ESG Evaluation, a comprehensive look at the environmental, social, and governance strategy and performance of an entity, as well as its ability to prepare for future risks and opportunities. It will also touch on second-party opinions for sustainable finance, and how ESG factors are considered in our credit rating process.

Part 2 – Communicating your ESG Strategy to Stakeholders (20 Minutes followed by 15 minutes of Q&A)
Moderated by Susan Gray, Global Head of Sustainable Finance Business & Innovation, S&P Global Ratings
Panelist Scott Tew, Vice-President, Sustainability & Managing Director, Trane Technologies, Inc.

The ESG landscape has evolved significantly over the last five years.  Susan and Scott will discuss how Trane’s thinking and practices around ESG have evolved over this time, what steps it has taken to manage risk and capture opportunities, key considerations, and what the future may hold. Plus, what does this mean for financing? We look forward to a lively and spirited discussion!

NeuGroup formed the ESG Working Group in 2020 as a result of requests from members and the multiple ESG discussions appearing in individual peer group meetings. These more informal working sessions provide an opportunity for interested members to share experiences on common topics, document best practices and welcome outside experts to speak on current trends – including companies that are not yet NeuGroup members. The ESG group will also coordinate with virtual interactive sessions on similar topics, and is expected to include discussions on Green Bonds, ESG Risk ratings, sustainability KPIs, compliance, and ESG returns among others.

Virtual interactive sessions (VIS) are meant for any interested participants across the NeuGroup network and approved non-NeuGroup members. They are usually one-off sessions on topics that interest the broader NeuGroup network and can develop into working groups to continue the conversation further. NeuGroup has conducted dozens of these sessions since their origination in response to Covid-19 in 2020.