About Us
History
Formed in January 2010, the Finance & Sustainability Initiative is a Not-For-Profit organization that follows from the financial sector's desire to widespread sustainability as a best practice in finance.
It comprises over 65 participants/members, representing mainstream financing and investment community, social and green finance, academia and academia service providers, civil society representatives.
Vision & Mission
Our vision is built around the idea of "a world in which mainstream finance and organizations always invest with sustainability in mind".
Our mission is to transform the traditional business model — enabling the finance community, business leaders and government institutions to make and value socially and environmentally responsible (SER) investments, many of which have global impacts.
We offer sustainability perspectives on decision-making, investments, valuation and policy-making in the investments arena. Our scope of activities includes education, awareness-building, research, and services.
Values
The Finance & Sustainability Initiative...
- Focuses on where sustainability and finance intersect
- Is not-for-profit
- Is created by professionals for professionals
- Has a membership of individuals only
- Is developing a common language around ESG and sustainability
- Provides web enabled professional certification and development opportunities
- Engages a range of stakeholders, including the social economy
- Is based in Montréal, Québec
- Is global in scope
- Is multicultural and multilingual
- Provides a neutral platform for dialogue
- Allies, partners and collaborates with other organizations
Approach
The Finance & Sustainability Initiative is engaging the "mainstream" financial and investment community to promote increased awareness and understanding of how sustainability / environment, social and governance considerations affect the value and performance of investments, companies and society more broadly. Linkages between the traditional finance community and both social and green finance are being fostered.
The need for the Finance & Sustainability Initiative is clear:
- Sustainability is a competitive issue in a resource-constrained, population growing world that is transforming the way leaders plan and execute business strategies;
- Investors are increasingly recognizing that sustainability (environmental, social and governance) issues may have an impact on the value of their investments over the long-term;
- The use of sustainability metrics can help to better assess the potential risks to and/or opportunities that lie with a corporation's business strategy.
The Initiative is taking a collaborative, learning and partnership approach to increasing understanding, sharing best practices, developing new approaches and opportunities for the cross-section of traditional, social and green financing sectors.