Ceres President Mindy Lubber Statement, in Response to the World Federation of Exchanges' Sustainability Reporting Guidance Launch

November 4, 2015 /3BL Media/ - “After several years of Ceres and our investor members working with individual exchanges and the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) on sustainability reporting standards, we welcome today’s development. Though there is a lot of work ahead of global exchanges to bring sustainability reporting consistency to the market, the guidance launched by the WFE was truly a collaborative effort of over 20 stock exchanges, and we welcome the coordination in order to unify and strengthen reporting standards across borders.

While this initial guidance does not solve all environmental, social & governance (ESG) reporting challenges, it does take the capital markets in the right direction of more consistency, comparability and better quality information—something that was a key priority for investors in our network. The tough work of figuring out where exchanges had consensus on sustainability-focused performance indicators is commendable—especially as the market continues to juggle dozens of different ESG reporting frameworks, rating systems and indicators in use. The WFE guidance—including 33 material performance indicators on ESG topics and a matrix of recommendations for exchanges and companies--sets a baseline of ESG information in the market, which can be built on in coming years.

Ceres welcomes the opportunity to now galvanize investor comments on this guidance, bringing clear feedback to exchanges on the real-world utility of the items being recommended to report. Ceres also acknowledges that the WFE’s first round of reporting recommendations overlaps significantly with the Ceres-organized Investor Listing Standards Proposal from 2014—a document generated through feedback from over 100 institutional investors globally on what exchanges should prioritize in listing rules and guidance for public companies.

We look forward to every WFE member committing to rolling out this ESG reporting guidance in their own market in 2016, and developing listing rules in the coming years—making good use of the WFE outputs—and driving substantially-improved sustainability reporting around the world.”