Understand sustainability. Make better decisions.

 Zero Emissions Day has been designed to give the world a break from fossil fuels and to raise awareness about the harm caused by carbon emissions. The goal is to engage people towards more climate-friendly choices in their personal life.

There has been a significant rise in the number of disruptive platforms, apps, new products and services emerging in the ESG space in recent years. As sustainability has become more integrated into the corporate landscape, and targets and reporting are enshrined in legislation, ESG technology catering to these changing requirements has fast become an industry in its own right.

Welcome Anna! Please tell us about yourself. I'm joining Rio from a corporate sustainability background. My experience has focused primarily on sustainability strategy, policy and reporting within the FMCG/Food and Beverage and Agricultural sectors. I have a passion for working with Nature-based Solutions (NbS), which involves working with nature to address societal challenges, providing benefits for both human well-being and biodiversity, and have conducted research in regenerative practices and biodiversity, for various sectors. I recently completed an Executive MBA in Sustainable Business with a thesis in ESG training for executives, which revealed to me the importance of ESG training at work, and how the top universities, and MBAs, are training the minds of the future about sustainability and finance. Connecting the dots between business strategy and sustainability has been my driver for decades, and I am delighted to see the rise in technological solutions which help to make positive change faster and easier to implement.   What is your professional background and experience? I was first exposed to the topic of environmental awareness at work, while in a forest of cork trees, near Porto. I was writing an article about a cork producer for a food publisher. The ancient art of cork production covers many areas of sustainability. A cork tree is planted by the parents with a view to their children harvesting the cork because cork bark takes decades to mature. I learned that the preservation of nature has multidimensional benefits to the environment, society and culture. This topic, in all of its complexity, captivated me -and continues to today. I worked for public organisations on social awareness projects and as a consultant for an Indian tea producer in Darjeeling. In 2015, I was invited to join a global conglomerate to develop its sustainability department from the ground up. Over the last year, while completing my MBA, I worked with a number of organisations and start-ups in defining their sustainability/ESG policies and strategies.  Why did you decide to come to Rio? There is a wealth of sustainability information across sectors and industries which remains siloed, because we rarely see cross-sector sharing of knowledge, at the practical level. Consultants have the unique capacity to bridge knowledge. Rio's approach is to build technology which harnesses broad learning in sustainability, making it accessible to all. I admire the aesthetic attention to detail of the technology and its ease of use - these attributes are important because they take into account the person using the technology. I share these approaches and principles with Rio. I would like to support the development of the technology and consulting services for ESG strategy and NbS, hoping to support clients to implement them.  What subjects are you most passionate about in your work? Finding ways to make sustainability profitable is up there as one of my favourite topics. I am passionate about dismantling the notion that sustainability is easy on the conscience and heavy on the balance sheet. In reality, it is not so binary. I am passionate about environmental economics. For me, Dasgupta (the writer of The Economics of Biodiversity), is a celebrity. I have also been a long-term follower of the topic of Human Rights, particularly relating to social justice and the fairness of inclusion and diversity. 

  In lucky number 13, we speak with Robbie Epsom, EMEA Head of ESG for CBRE Investment Management, about transparency, change and constant improvement in the industry, the effects of ESG on the property sector, and the need to think more broadly to achieve the SDGs.  

  In this episode, we chat with Mandhy Senewiratne, Director of Sustainability and Communications at Fyrefly Global Sustainability. Dan and Mandhy discuss the challenges within sustainability in Australia, her background in water and construction, why we all need to lead by example and more. Enjoy!  

  In this episode, we chat with Helen Wiggs, the Head of Corporate Climate at ShareAction, a non-profit focused on driving responsible investment. Dan and Helen discuss whether ESG is here to stay, the Investor Decarbonisation Initiative, her journey from investment banking to responsible investment and more. Enjoy!

Rio was proud to sponsor The Future of Climate Finance last week; an exclusive one-day conference held in the heart of London that addressed the escalating mobilisation of finance in favour of sustainable global development. As well as sponsoring the conference our CEO and founder, Dan Botterill, sat on a dynamic panel discussing the evolution from ESG to sustainability and real impact. The conference saw a discussion amongst lead investors, policy makers and CFOs on the multi-billion dollar climate-focused funds investment industry. Specifically, over $650 billion poured into climate-focused funds worldwide in 2021 and 2022 is set to be another record-breaking year for green finance. As the environmental stakes increase and the vocal and natural warnings grow menacingly stark, pressure on the global investment industry to tackle climate change is higher than ever before. There is no vaccine against the potential of a climate crisis and the rapidly shifting change in sentiment towards those that can assist in delivering a greener future is already widening the gap between winners and losers. There is no end of money to be made by those who anticipate the number of opportunities brought about by this uneven pace of change. Moreover, the politics of climate change continues to have significant implications for how capital markets are expected to perform. It seems increasingly possible that the owners of capital will either die alone in the pursuit of growth or share a bed with the concepts of sustainability and social well-being.   Is this endless pursuit of growth compatible with an urgent need to slash carbon emissions? Or is this the end of capitalism as we know it? Click here below to listen to the key takeaways from some of the excellent speakers including Olga Hancock, Deputy Head of Responsible Investment, Church Commissioners for England, Amanda Young,  Chief Sustainability Officer, abrdn and our very own Dan Botterill, CEO and Company Founder, Rio ESG LTD.  

'Fashion accounts for 10% of the world’s carbon emissions and is the second-most polluting industry in the world. But in an increasingly climate-conscious society, there are pressures to present sustainable performance to appeal to customers.' (Reference take from the Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/09/why-eco-conscious-fashion-brands-can-continue-to-increase-emissions?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other) What does Rio ESG have to say on this?  “There is a lot of noise around sustainability and the fashion industry but when you drill it down there is no clear or consistent scoring methodology for a consumer to simply understand these big fashion brand’s calculations,” says Faye Bennett-Hart, Chief Sustainability Officer at Rio ESG. This article lays the blame on the CDP scoring methodology, allowing high scores for big fashion brands despite their overall emissions increasing. “The CDP scoring methodology is not solely based on emissions changes per unit revenue, it’s far more complex and takes lots of other metrics into account. However, we are in a climate crisis and increasing revenues should not be at the cost of the planet. That is why science-based targets for net zero require absolute emissions reductions and with near-term and long-term targets. We have to have clear and consistent methods and scoring to reduce overall emissions, meet net zero and clearly see our way to a sustainable future."

Our Manifesto At Rio, we stand by our manifesto and that means practising what we preach. To do this, last year we set science-based targets to achieve Net Zero within our organisation. So, a year on, we’re looking at the targets we set, what practices or policies we put in place to achieve them and where we are now.