To complement the findings of the 2023/24 Sustainability Census, we spoke to executive-level sustainability stakeholders from across the financial services sector to understand what they are seeing and feeling as they look to the year ahead.
The conversation resulted in uncovering the following key drivers:
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Regulation
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Stakeholder & Shareholder Pressure
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Commercial Opportunities & Financial Risk
"For sustainability leaders to maximise their impact against the current political and economic uncertainty, regulators must lead by setting a progressive and robustly enforced agenda with realistic timescales that allow for implementation at scale."
"Indeed, considering environmental risks for investment decisions is not ESG/sustainable investing; “it’s just investing.”
"Additional resources remain a key requirement due to the ever-increasing demands on their time, as one sustainability leader commented, “I just need many more of me to leverage.”
The paper looks at the following challenges and opportunities as key themes emerge:
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Challenge:
Political & economic uncertainty - For many sustainable finance leaders, managing the regulatory and compliance burden creates a significant barrier to driving progress on key sustainability initiatives.
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Challenge:
Inconsistent and constantly changing regulations, standards and data metrics - The challenges of responding to a rapidly evolving landscape are exacerbated in a highly regulated and complex sector, hindering our respondents’ ability to drive realworld sustainable outcomes.
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Opportunity:
Sustainability leaders look forward to the next 12 to 24 months as a significant opportunity to leverage finance as a critical tool to unlock the momentum needed to address climate change.
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Opportunity:
Embedding ESG and corporate sustainability values and initiatives across organisations promotes an opportunity for employees to better align personal values with their work, leading to higher employee engagement and retention.
Access the full paper
Upon completion of the form below, you will receive an email with a link to view and/or download a copy of the 'In Conversation with Sustainability Leaders across Financial Services' paper.
If you would like to discuss how Acre can support your organizational growth ambitions via our recruitment or talent advisory services, please contact us at mail@acre.com or call at +44 (0) 20 7400 5570.
Stay tuned for a series of global webinars in early 2024 to take a deep dive into these findings and more.
