Can the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures solve the global ecological crisis?
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) officially launched on Friday (4 June) with an overarching aim to align corporate reporting and financial spending to alleviate nature-related risks. Here, edie explores whether the new initiative can generate enough momentum to deliver tangible change.
The TNFD has officially launched today
There has been a recorded 83% extinction of wild mammals and a 50% decline in the species of plants, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). Those stats alone are stark, but not necessarily useful in helping corporate decision-makers understand the consequences of the impending ecological breakdown.
Finance for the Future judge John Lelliott outlines the vital role the awards play in raising the profile of sustainability in the business environment.
The application period for the Finance for the Future (F4TF) Awards has been extended to Friday 18 June 2021. John Lelliott OBE is one of this year’s judges. He says applicants must demonstrate that sustainability is embedded in their organisations.
Lelliott knows what it is like to be a winner. The Crown Estate, where he was the Finance Director, won a F4TF Award in 2014 for its integrated reporting and Lelliott subsequently became a judge.
He is an experienced non-executive director (NED), including working as a NED for the Environment Agency, the Covent Garden Market Authority, and the University Hospital Dorset. He has been Chair of Capitals Coalition (formally the Natural Capital Coalition) since July 2016 and a member of HRH The Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) Advisory Council
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As corporate sustainability goes mainstream, ESG reporting is being embraced beyond early adopters exuding good citizenship. Investors, markets and regulators are picking up on the value of environmental, social and governance data, which is being integrated more often into financial disclosures. People have realized that sustainability disclosure and sustainability information has significant value, said Janine Guillot, CEO of the standards-setter SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board).
Soon, more companies will be forced to divulge environmental and social data, whether due to new laws and regulations, investor demands or simply to remain relevant and competitive, experts shared at the GreenFin 21 virtual event Tuesday.
40 McNuggets for $13.99 sounds like an unbelievable deal. So, maybe it is.
Groups like the Sustainable Food Trust are on a mission to demonstrate how, in the current commodity food system, big corporations can offer shockingly low prices and still rake in profits because they cut corners at every step along the supply chain, offloading long-term costs onto the public while duping them into thinking their dinner was a bargain.
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For example, companies pay wages too low to support families, shifting a portion of their labor costs onto taxpayers (in the form of nutrition benefits and housing subsidies). They concentrate hundreds of thousands of chickens in one place, and when waste pollutes waterways, taxpayers pay to clean them up. Ammonia from the concentration of animals in confinement leads to high rates of asthma in surrounding communities, raising healthcare costs for neighbors.