{"id":561,"date":"2011-12-08T11:01:20","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T15:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/?p=561"},"modified":"2011-12-13T11:57:21","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T15:57:21","slug":"sec-climate-change-disclosure-guidelines-second-bite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/sec-climate-change-disclosure-guidelines-second-bite\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC Climate Change Disclosure Guidelines &#8211; a second bite in the apple"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I appreciated the opportunity to bring our panel on <strong>SEC Climate Change Disclosure Guidelines<\/strong> to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/sec-climate-change-disclosure-guidelines-panel-new-york-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">New York audience<\/a> last week.  When we first presented the topic <a href=\"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/bsas-panel-on-sec-climate-change-disclosure\/\" target=\"_blank\">at the Boston Security Analysts Society<\/a> last December, several people recommended repeating the session in New York.  It took some time to arrange, but the engaged audience made the effort well worthwhile.  <\/p>\n<p>The intervening year has, if anything, highlighted the importance of the panel&#8217;s central message. <b class=c>These guidelines offer investors, investment managers and analysts a rare opportunity for new insights into the companies they follow, but they have to be prepared and willing to ask the right questions.<\/b>  <\/p>\n<p>\n<b>Selected takeaways<\/b> from the panel:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom:0.5em\">The guidelines are not &#8220;new&#8221; &#8211; they simply reflect a recognition that climate change may be a <b>material<\/b> issue and therefore should be evaluated and considered for appropriate disclosure.<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom:0.5em\">Companies are asked to consider:\n<ul>\n<li>legislative and regulatory risks, including international agreements<\/li>\n<li>business risks as well as <b>opportunities<\/b> arising from climate change &#8211; increased\/decreased demand for products, opportunities for new products<\/li>\n<li>physical risks to operations and supply chains<\/li>\n<li>reputational risk<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom:0.5em\">Climate changes risks and opportunities reach deeply into a company&#8217;s operations and supply chains and future profitability.  Through and thoughtful disclosure is evidence of the depth of management&#8217;s understanding.  Boilerplate disclosure should raise questions to management.<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom:0.5em\">Multiple public frameworks for disclosure exist and provide a wealth of information outside the SEC disclosure process.  Investor disclosure should be evaluated with reference to company and industry information provided through these frameworks.<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom:0.5em\">Early results on disclosure are mixed &#8211; more companies are reporting, but the depth of information is limited, with many companies reporting only on legislative &#038; regulatory risks<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom:0.5em\">Guidelines as well as examples of good disclosure are available &#8211; use them as leverage with peer and competitor companies..<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom:0.5em\">SEC enforcement is all domains is limited and has never been the primary driver of increased disclosure and transparency.  <b>Investor and analyst demand is the most effective driver.<\/b>  This is even more true as the agency is fully occupied with Dodd-Frank implementation and a target of political pressure in the current environment.<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom:0.5em\">More investment firms are incorporating ESG information and disclosure into their investment process.<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-bottom:0.5em\"><b>If you don&#8217;t ask, they won&#8217;t tell<\/b> &#8211; Far too few analysts and investment managers ask companies these questions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/secclimatechange\/\">Resources on Climate Change Disclosure<\/a> referenced during the panel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My thanks go to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nyssa.org\" target=\"_blank\">New York Society of Security Analysts<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu\/centers\/zcci\" target=\"_blank\">Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity<\/a> for co-sponsoring the session, to the Zicklin Center for hosting us and to our outstanding panelists <strong>Adam Kanzer<\/strong> of Domini Social Investments, <strong>Jim Coburn<\/strong> from CERES and <strong>Karoline Barwinski<\/strong> of Clearbridge Advisors.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I appreciated the opportunity to bring our panel on SEC Climate Change Disclosure Guidelines to a New York audience last week. When we first presented the topic at the Boston Security Analysts Society last December, several people recommended repeating the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esg","category-investments","","tg-column-two"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":575,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions\/575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}