Singapore Exchange publishes proposed ‘comply or explain’ sustainability reporting guidelines
Singapore Exchange (SGX) has published its proposed guidelines that will form the basis of sustainability reporting starting financial year 2017 and is inviting the public to comment on them. The new set of sustainability rules will be enforced on a ‘comply or explain’ basis, giving the more than 800 public companies in Singapore some flexibility to report in a way which best suits their industries and circumstances, SGX said. They are the result of a six-month dialogue with listed companies, investors and sustainability consultants that started in May last year. Yeo Lian Sim, special advisor, SGX said that the proposed rules are timely and appropriate, coming a few weeks after the historic Paris Agreement was signed by 195 nations. Sustainability reporting is “something that’s needed and asked for by investors as well as other stakeholders like customers, suppliers, staff, regulators and bankers,” she said. (Eco-Business, Singapore Exchange)
Vigeo and EIRIS become Vigeo Eiris
Vigeo and EIRIS, two established global environmental, social and governance (ESG) research agencies from France and the United Kingdom officially completed their merger on December 22nd, 2015. Originally announced in October 2015, the merger was approved by Vigeo’s General Assembly of Shareholders, which also approved the raising of €6.3 million in new capital by Vigeo for the future development of the new entity. With a team of 180 employees, the new entity will analyse up to 10,000 issuers. The pooling of their resources and tools will enable Vigeo Eiris to offer a wide product suite tailored to the needs of a range of global investors, the new agency said. (Vigeo; EIRIS)
Corporate Reputation
“Happy Manipulating”: Takata emails show brash exchanges about data tampering
Two months ago, Honda Motor Company announced that it would no longer use Takata as supplier of its airbags, because testing data had been “misrepresented and manipulated.” Now, newly obtained internal emails suggest the manipulation was both bold and broad, involving open exchanges among Takata employees in Japan and the United States. “Happy Manipulating!!!” a Takata airbag engineer, Bob Schubert, wrote in a reference to results of airbag tests. In another, he wrote of changing the colours or lines in a graphic “to divert attention” from the test results and “to try to dress it up.” Takata said in a statement that the exchanges concerned only the formatting of data and were unrelated to defective airbags that are under recall. Takata’s airbags, which can explode when they deploy, sending debris flying into a car’s cabin, have been linked to eight deaths in the United States and more than 100 serious injuries, prompting the recalls of almost 20 million vehicles. (NY Times)
Environment
Trees can help UK farming cut emissions, says study
Increasing yields produced in UK fields and using the spare farmland to plant trees and restore wetlands could greatly reduce emissions, says a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Combining this approach with strategies to cut food waste and meat consumption could help the farming sector cut its emissions by 80 percent by 2050, it adds. Crop and livestock agriculture accounts for about 9 percent of the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers said that increasing UK tree cover from 12 percent to 30 percent by the middle of this century and restoring 700,000 hectares of wet peatland would help the farming sector to deliver its contribution to the legally binding target of cutting carbon emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050. “Every sector has to lower its emissions – that’s a commitment outlined in law and part of what we signed up to in Paris last month,” said co-author Andrew Balmford, professor of conservation science at the University of Cambridge. (BBC)
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