Building on its commitment to drive positive change through its data and insight, Refinitiv today announced an ambitious set of global environmental and social goals to help reflect and support local communities, combat climate change and to help bring about a decade of environmental and social action.
In January 2019, Refinitiv committed to three core pledges on environment, social impact and sustainable solutions that support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Ahead of its year-end 2020 target date, Refinitiv is now carbon neutral and powered by 100% renewable energy at a regional level.
The firm has also doubled engagement with its community support programs, reduced carbon emissions despite an increase in footprint, expanded its suite of sustainable finance products, launched Refinitiv Charities, has 40% women at the executive leadership level, and continues to support and promote an inclusive workplace that embraces diversity of every kind. New diversity goals are being worked on to help focus efforts on this priority.
The new 2025 & 2030 environmental and social goals are the next step in Refinitiv’s mission to deepen climate action, be a leading sustainable and responsible business and use the power of its data and insights to help the global investment community shift towards sustainable investments.
On World Environmental Day, Refinitiv announced new environmental and social commitments, which further define its contribution to the upcoming decade of sustainable and social action:
By the end of 2025 Refinitiv will:
Reduce its business and commuting travel by 25%
Commit to 65% of its suppliers setting science-based emissions targets
Achieve 1 million volunteering hours and engage 50% of Refinitiv colleagues in its community support programs
Be a top 3 provider of sustainable finance data and analytics solutions, enabling global sustainable investment and ethical supply chain development
By the end of 2030 Refinitiv will:
Halve its business carbon emissions
Plant and conserve 1 million trees
Support 1 million people through Refinitiv-sponsored donations and social impact activities, focusing on 4 UN SDGs: good health and well-being; reduced inequalities; climate action; peace, justice and strong institutions
David Craig, CEO of Refinitiv, said: “We are at a critical time in history, requiring us to think and act strategically for our long-term collective benefit. Our data tells us how important sustainable and social change is and what is needed to create a lasting impact. These commitments for the next decade will significantly change the footprint we make in the world and will require action from those we work with. We want to drive change and provide the data to help others do the same.”
“This crisis is proving that investing in ESG makes financial sense. Our data shows that US-listed companies with an ESG score above 80 (out of 100) outperformed the S&P500 by an average 6.5 percentage points in the year to date. It’s a similar story for funds where data up to April shows most conventional funds underperformed their respective technical indicators, while the majority of ESG funds outperformed theirs,” added Craig.
Luke Manning, Global Head of Sustainability and Enterprise Risk for Refinitiv, said: “Refinitiv has become a sustainability leader in the financial sector, through our own actions and our sustainable finance data and expertise. These new, robust targets continue to put sustainability at the core of what we stand for, building on our original pledges to: lighten our operational footprint, reflect and support the communities in which we operate and put sustainability at the heart of our product offering.
“To celebrate the launch of our new targets, we are unveiling an ambitious Refinitiv Global Forest project, to help kick-start our 1 million trees target, with the opportunity for colleagues, customers and partners to help expand new sites across the world throughout the coming decade,” added Manning.
Refinitiv recently launched The Future of Sustainable Data Alliance to accelerate the mobilization of capital into sustainable finance. Refinitiv re-signed the Women in Finance Charter and is committed to putting sustainability at the core of its product offering, as demonstrated by its Diversity & Inclusion Index which ranks the top 100 most diverse and inclusive organizations globally and was used to create the financial industry’s first Inclusion & Diversity ETF fund in partnership with Blackrock.
Paul Sinthunont, Senior Analyst at Aite Group, said, “The global momentum towards a more sustainable approach to capital allocation continues to accelerate and it is positive to see Refinitiv’s commitment to environmental and social pacts. This aligns well with its own ESG data and insights business that will continue to help bring greater transparency and clarity to ESG issues for investors and corporates alike.”
Will Jan, VP & Lead Analyst, Outsell, said, “With the surge in public policies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, actions taken by companies to align to these and related policies served as a true test of corporate social responsibility. We are encouraged to see ongoing commitment to this journey with specific targets, actions and timelines. To be truly sustainable, companies must embed all aspects of business, social, and environmental ethics into their mission statements.”
Refinitiv is a strategic partner to the UN Task Force on Digital Financing of the SDGs committed to harnessing the power of data to bring about insight and drive informed decision making. As participants of the UN Global Compact, Refinitiv is part of a community of 9,000 businesses across 135 countries that are committed to operating with responsible business practices at its core. Refinitiv is also a member of the Technical Expert Group (TEG) on Sustainable Finance advising the European Commission on the sustainable agenda alongside other private sector experts.
Refinitiv has been serving the financial industry with ESG data and solutions for over 15 years and offers one of the richest ESG databases in the industry – a fully transparent resource that is trusted by investors and corporates to drive positive impact and provide comprehensive analysis.
