How Nasdaq Is Embracing the Era of Impact
On June 14, 2024, Nasdaq published its 2023 Sustainability Report which details how the Company is delivering on its core purpose to advance economic progress for all.
The report focused on three strategic areas: solidifying Nasdaq’s business to drive sustainable growth, supporting our clients’ Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) journeys, and enabling positive outcomes across the financial system.
“Nasdaq’s approach to ESG is focused both internally and externally. Internally, we manage our businesses’ ESG-related risks and opportunities and the corresponding impact we have as an organization across our own operations. Externally, we focus on the impact we have on the world through our ESG-related solutions that support our clients’ objectives in their sustainability journey,” said Nina Eisenman, Vice President, Head of Corporate ESG Strategy and Reporting, Nasdaq.
Solidifying Our Business and Driving Sustainable Growth
Starting with an internal viewpoint, Nasdaq is focused on solidifying business resilience and driving sustainable growth by managing and reducing long-term risks and advancing ESG practices across our entire organization.
Within our environmental activities, Nasdaq is committed to minimizing our environmental footprint, meeting our net-zero goals, and solidifying our business against long-term risk. We aim to implement initiatives to decrease our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while ensuring transparency of our processes and programs that help us reach our long-term targets.
“Our commitment to reducing our emissions to meet our verified science-based targets drives our environmental programs and priorities,” said Jase Gregoric, Senior Director, Global Head of Corporate Sustainability, Real Estate, Facilities & Security, Nasdaq.
Across our social initiatives, Nasdaq grew as we integrated Verafin and Adenza. As a result, Nasdaq’s inclusive culture is driving a new era where our three high-performing organizations are now working together to bring new solutions and capabilities to our clients.
“In 2023 and 2024, we welcomed new colleagues to Nasdaq through the integration of Verafin and Adenza, expanding our teams across 38 countries. Our team’s excitement is evident in our record high employee engagement and historically low turnover, signaling a collective commitment to this transformative journey,” added Bryan Smith, Chief People Officer, Nasdaq.
And finally, Nasdaq's robust corporate governance structure is essential to our mission of building stronger economies. We remain dedicated to our long-standing tradition of ethical, forward-thinking governance practices, transparent disclosures, and effective Board performance, which we believe benefits all our stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, clients, and the communities we serve.
“Nasdaq’s sound corporate governance structure is key to how we help create stronger economies, encourage more equitable opportunities, and contribute to a more sustainable world,” said John A. Zecca, Chief Legal, Regulatory & Risk Officer, Nasdaq.
Through our ESG initiatives, we achieved several notable highlights in 2023 including:
- Earning a place on CDP’s Climate Change “A List” — recognition of our leadership in corporate transparency and performance on climate change.
- Continuing our carbon neutrality program for the sixth consecutive year.
- Launching new career development and training initiatives for our workforce designed to deepen employee engagement.
- Publishing our first Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT)-aligned climate transition plan index.
Supporting Our Clients’ Sustainability Journeys
Nasdaq's unique position in the corporate and investment communities enables us to support our clients in achieving their ESG-related goals. We assist public and private companies throughout their ESG lifecycle, helping them navigate the capital markets and a complex shareholder landscape. Additionally, we provide workflow, data, and analytics capabilities to asset owners and managers to enhance their decision-making processes and help financial institutions manage their ESG reporting and disclosure obligations.
Highlights of how we helped support our clients’ sustainability journeys in 2023 include:
- Introducing eVestment ESG Analytics and launching Nasdaq MetrioTM and Sustainable LensTM.
- Hosting our inaugural New York Climate Week conference at MarketSite and our inaugural Stockholm ESG Summit at the Stockholm Nasdaq Office.
- Publishing a report on “The State of Sustainability and ESG.”
Enabling Positive Economic, Environmental and Societal Outcomes
We strive to enable positive outcomes through the broader economic and societal impact of our solutions and services – creating opportunities for businesses to grow, addressing the world’s growing financial crime problems, and making sure our markets are resilient.
As a world-class market operator and premier technology provider serving the global financial ecosystem, our Financial Technology division is at the heart of Nasdaq’s purpose to power stronger, safer, and more inclusive economies.
Nasdaq enabled positive outcomes in 2023 by:
- Pioneering a carbon trading and registry technology to expand our capabilities beyond carbon trading with digital issuance, registry, settlement, and custody.
- Integrating AxiomSL to help firms manage fast-moving ESG reporting and disclosure obligations.
- Publishing Nasdaq’s Global Financial Crime Report to examine the state of financial crime, its deep human impact, and how it threatens the integrity of global financial system.
- Providing grants to more than a dozen organizations through the Nasdaq Foundation and supporting critical projects through the New Investor Initiative.
“Overall, Nasdaq strives to enable positive outcomes through the broader economic and societal impact of our other solutions and services – addressing the $3 trillion financial crime challenge, making sure our markets are resilient and able to power opportunity through the world, and supporting our communities through purpose-led initiatives aimed at advancing economic progress for all,” concluded Eisenman.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this communication contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. This report contains forward-looking statements relating to Nasdaq’s operations that are based on management’s current expectations, estimates and projections regarding the ESG matters described in this communication. Words or phrases such as "aims", "targets", "believes", "goals", "objectives", “enable”, "opportunities" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements.
Nasdaq cautions readers that any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and that actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to statements about our climate, ESG or sustainability policies, programs, products or initiatives. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors beyond Nasdaq’s control. These factors include, but are not limited to, Nasdaq’s ability to implement its strategic initiatives, economic, political and market conditions and fluctuations, government and industry regulation, interest rate risk, U.S. and global competition and other factors detailed in Nasdaq’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, which are available on Nasdaq’s investor relations website at ir.nasdaq.com and the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Nasdaq undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
