“A sustainable world must be the equilibrium between society, environment, and economics,” says ... [+]
Stephanie Ricci contributed to this story.
Protecting the environment has always been an important issue for Chelsea Cavanagh. But with the arrival of her first child, the urgency of addressing the ecological crisis that threatens the future of our planet became more apparent.
“It was a wake-up call,” says Cavanagh. “I felt I needed to do more.”
Cavanagh holds a bachelor's in anatomy and cell biology and received her Ph.D. from McGill University’s Integrated Program in Neuroscience. She then worked on operational and non-financial risks as a senior consultant, eventually specializing in climate risk.
“In consulting, we were working with a lot of different financial institutions,” she says. “We gave them recommendations, but it wasn’t often you had a chance to implement the work. I wanted to be on the ground where the action was happening.”
In February 2022, she joined National Bank Investments (NBI) as the chief analyst in Sustainable Investment, where she works on the development of strategic initiatives in responsible investment.
“Our team does all the diligence and monitoring of different portfolio managers,” she says. “One of the things that we do is evaluate them on how they incorporate ESG in their investment processes.”
Her work also extends to NBI’s strategic vision, including the development of a climate plan and strategy for compliance with evolving regulatory expectations around ESG investing.
Earlier this month, at the UN Biodiversity Conference COP15, NBI joined 150 financial institutions in calling world leaders to adopt a policy mandate to align financial activities with biodiversity goals.
The signing is a commitment to support the convention’s vision for the reversal of nature loss by 2030 “Living in Harmony with Nature by 2050.”
For the better interest of business
Besides the pressing global need to do the right thing, environmental awareness is proving to be a sound business decision. A 2020 report from the World Economic Forum revealed that more than half of the global gross domestic product is moderately or highly dependent on our ecosystems.
“For example, imagine all the different types of extreme climate that can happen all over the world and how that can impact all the different supply chains everywhere,” says Cavanagh. “Any business, no matter where you're located, has got to be thinking about this.”
The long-term advantage of ESG can be instrumental in helping investors better manage investment risk.
Moreover, new research by Moore Global shows that companies that have embraced the ESG agenda in the past three years have seen revenues boost by almost 10% in that time. This compares to the 4.5% revenue growth for companies that showed comparatively poorer ESG engagement.
And yet, NBI's Chief Officer Risk and Execution, Terry Dimock, says ESG is a relatively new concern for much of the bank's client base.
“On the retail side, [ESG] has been less part of the conversation until four or five years ago when people started to pay attention and ask questions,” says Dimock. “NBI added an extra pillar to integrate ESG in the management of our open architecture platform in 2018.”
Transition as an opportunity
It must be noted that sustainability, by definition, goes further than environmental initiatives.
“A sustainable world must be the equilibrium between society, environment, and economics,” says Dimock. “The other area where there are issues is the time frame. We talk about profits. It may hurt your profit in year one if you're starting to implement a transition, but these changes are being made for long-term sustainability, and a lot of shareholders are very short-term focused.”
It is therefore essential to be pragmatic in considering ESG factors to ensure a sustainable future. He believes that part of their job is to guide polluting industries to become part of the solution by reducing their emissions, adopting new technologies, educating their employees on ESG, and seeing the green transition as an opportunity.
