Big investors seek global standard for sustainability reporting

AT a time when customers are demanding information on a company's carbon footprint, an advocacy group has joined forces with asset managers and institutional investors to ask global stock exchanges, including the Singapore Exchange (SGX), to adopt a uniform standard for sustainability reporting.

Ceres, whose Investor Network on Climate Risk boasts more than 100 institutional investors with collective assets totalling more than US$12 trillion under management, said the move was aimed at increasing harmonisation and disclosure of sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters across all stock exchanges.

The lobby, led by Ceres and supported by BlackRock as well as several global institutional investors, has submitted a proposal to the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), which comprises 60 stock exchanges.