Innovation as a key enabler of working together for Green Impact

In my CityAM article last month, I set out that I am a firm believer in the role of finance and global capital markets to help fuel these sustainability goals. I am not the only one of course, with investors increasingly focused on ESG of the companies and impact funds flourishing in private equity. By 2020, more than 2,750 institutions with over US$100 trillion of assets under management have signed the UN Principles of Responsible Investment. Green bond issuance (a green bond is a fixed-income instrument designed to support specific climate-related or environmental projects) has also set an all-time quarterly record for number of issues in Q121, exceeding US$100 billion for the first time in a quarter, according to Matt Toole’s @Refinitiv's latest report on Sustainable Finance bonds. 

“Innovation and responsibility will be key differentiators in achieving a resilient business model for tomorrow“

Societe Generale was a founding member of the UNEP “Positive Impact Finance Initiative” (signed in 2001). We also played an innovative role as the first French bank to issue a green bond benchmark aligned with the Poseidon Principles. We were one of the first ones to invest in sustainable and new business models when we acquired Lumo, a crowdfunding platform for renewable energy, back in 2018. And last month, we strengthened our position as a leader in ecological transition by becoming a founding member of the UNEP-FI Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which undertakes to align its portfolios with trajectories aimed at carbon neutrality by 2050.

Of course for traditional actors of finance there is still much more to do. But we can’t stand still and we need to play our key roles to support: every little helps. It’s not enough to pursue ESG goals by themselves.

You need to anchor them at the heart of your organisation, in the same way we are doing for our approach towards innovation.

Leveraging ‘digital’ in this journey is a powerful way to standardise, amplify and accelerate the deployment of responsible solutions and a responsible approach. Delivering new digital propositions is also a way to integrate responsibility by design, enabling us to better support vulnerable customers and foster inclusion. As I pointed out in my blog last month, social media provides us with the opportunity to create a platform for all.

For example, Societe Generale actively supports the award-winning movement Teens in AI launched at the UN”s AI for Good Global Summit in May 2018, whose mission is to improve diversity & inclusion and aims to give young people early exposure to the development and deployment of AI for social good. Last, but not least, we can foster collaboration with fintechs to achieve this: following a recent post on the flourishing green fintech landscape, it was easy to measure the vast interest but also associated challenges.

“Responsibility for all of us”

I recently asked Albert Loo (Societe Generale’s Deputy Head of Sales for Global Markets) how we can build a more sustainable future in markets centred around support for the real economy. Specifically, this involves providing hedging solutions to non-financial corporations, and delivering relevant advisory and sound risk management for financial institutional clients. Pushing this agenda even further, we launched a competition with 50inTech to source green fintech startups solving world challenges and led by women. Our winner, Lubomila Jordanova, built a large network through the Green Alliance, got sponsors and mentors, and was very ambitious through her SaaS solutions to calculate business carbon footprint and reduce emissions. I can only encourage you to have a look and support Plan A. Because there is no Planet B!

In addition, we can see the tremendous efforts by the likes of neobank Shine (acquired last year by Societe Generale), leading the charge by +200 French fintechs to go above and beyond the current regulatory framework for measuring CO2 emissions and commit to carrying out a complete carbon footprint before the end of the year as signatories of "Climate Act”.

Shine also serves as a role model for all of us as they are one of the only financial services companies to have obtained their B-corp label.

Every little helps

These initiatives - from working under a “Sustainable and Positive Impact Finance” framework, to issuing inaugural green bond benchmarks, to working closely with green fintech startups - all contribute in their own way towards the larger cause of ensuring a more sustainable future for our planet. And that’s why @SocieteGenerale, ‘Sustainability’ is one of our top priorities, alongside ‘Client centricity’ and ‘Efficiency’, we are aiming to achieve by 2025.

It is when we all, from large global institutions down to the individual, play a role in fuelling and supporting sustainable innovation that we will truly start to make a difference.

Lastly, I’d also like to give a shout-out to our CSR Director Sylvie Prea who has been recently awarded one of the top influencers in CSR, and to my IT colleagues (@christophe leblanc, @jean-sebastien goetschy, and @stephane leclerc) who deserve special mention for embarking on an ambitious #Greentech agenda as well as the signing of the Sustainable IT Charter.

?? ????