ESG Archive

How did the ESG function come about at Microsoft, and how did you get involved? I’ve been at Microsoft for 11 years, always in an ESG [capacity] although we’ve used other terms. It started off being called citizenship and we evolved that term to CSR, but it’s really focused on the ESG topics at Microsoft. We sit within what’s now called our corporate external and legal affairs department. [We report] up to our president and chief legal offic...

Back in 2000, CDP’s decision to ask every business worldwide to disclose its climate change-related data seemed to many to be over-ambitious. Recently we have seen a dramatic upswing in the importance the business and financial community attaches to ESG issues, partly due to an increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events and widely publicized human rights-related investigations. This means strong management and reporting on ESG issues, such...

How does the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) approach ESG reporting? An industry-led initiative, the TCFD developed a voluntary framework for climate disclosures at the request of the Financial Stability Board. The TCFD recommendations have specifically been designed to solicit decision-useful, forward-looking information that shows the financial impacts of climate change on a business. The focus lies on companie...

The OECD, World Bank and UN Environment Program have joined together to call for placing sustainable finance at the center of an overhauled global financial system. The three organizations are working on an agenda for governments around the world to align financial flows with global climate and development goals - as signatories to the Paris climate accord agreed to do. ‘A deep transformation of existing infrastructure systems is needed for both climate and...