BSR Insight

A Weekly Newsletter for BSR Members | August 31, 2010

In This Issue

• In Depth: Preparing for the Unpredictable: Lessons on Adapting to Climate Change
• Spotlight: ESG Performance Reporting by Mainstream Data Providers
• Toolbox: Practical Frameworks to Help Business Prepare for Climate Change
• Blog: Preventing the Next Crisis Through Sustainable Consumption

Editor's Note

Preparing for the Unpredictability of Climate Change

While it's clear that climate change will impact business, it is difficult to get an accurate picture of just what those impacts will look like in the future. Yet there are ways that companies can prepare for the unpredictable.

In this week's feature article, BSR Research & Innovation Manager Ryan Schuchard describes four key elements of preparedness: developing literacy, identifying plausible impacts, evaluating priorities, and building resilience.

Related to this, Schuchard lists several practical frameworks for climate change preparation.

Lastly, as more mainstream financial data providers include information about companies' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, we highlight ways companies can ensure that investors receive an accurate picture of their ESG performance.

In Depth Preparing for the Unpredictable: Lessons on Adapting to Climate Change By Ryan Schuchard, Manager, Climate and Energy, BSR In the absence of accurate predictions of climate change impacts, there are four ways to prepare your business: develop climate change literacy, identify plausible impacts, evaluate priorities, and build resilience. Read more →

Spotlight

ESG Performance Reporting by Mainstream Data Providers

By

Over the last two years, more mainstream financial data providers—including MSCI, Thomson Reuters, and Bloomberg—have launched environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data services or acquired socially responsible data providers such as KLD, Asset4, Innovest, and Risk Metrics. While this shift has made data on ESG performance more accessible to mainstream investors, companies are concerned that the data will lack the context necessary for accurate interpretation.

To ensure that mainstream investors understand the nuances behind the data, BSR recommends that companies:

1. Learn which data providers are capturing and publishing data on the company's ESG performance by checking online or directly with the providers.
2. Verify that the data accurately reflects the company's ESG performance.
3. Communicate with investors about the context behind the data and what the data mean for the company's performance.

For more information on ESG trends, read our report on ESG integration.

Toolbox

Practical Frameworks to Help Business Prepare for Climate Change

By Ryan Schuchard, Manager, Climate and Energy, BSR

While it's impossible to predict the exact impacts climate change will have on business, several practical frameworks are designed to help managers understand and prepare for climate change:

• UK-based Acclimatise's briefing paper: Introduces adaptation to business and offers questions that accountants should discuss with senior executives
• Alberta Sustainable Resource Development's framework: Shows how companies and other organizations can conduct vulnerability and risk assessments and identify adaptation options
• Economics of Climate Adaptation Working Group's report: Provides development practitioners a framework to identify risk, calculate expected loss, and build and implement a response portfolio
• Pew Center on Global Climate Change's 101 guide: Provides an introduction to key adaptation issues for business and outlines screening questions to evaluate potential climate impacts
• Risk Management Solutions' Guide to Catastrophe Modeling: Explains the components of catastrophe modeling, which include defining hazard types, assessing hazard levels, quantifying physical impacts, and measuring monetary losses

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BSR Blog

Preventing the Next Crisis Through Sustainable Consumption

Aron Cramer, President and CEO, BSR

Now that oil has stopped flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, it is time to consider the lessons that can be drawn from the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Read more →

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