Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

#3BLchat Recap: Responsible Investing in a Complex Market – How ESG Limits Risk

60-minute Live Q&A with Evan Harvey, Director of Sustainability with NASDAQ

Dec 2, 2014 5:00 PM ET

Campaign: #3blchat: Your Voice, on Corporate Social Responsibility

Read the original press release.
Read the Storify archive.

Why should stock exchanges join the @SSEinitiative and why should their listed company care? #3BLchat #ESG #SRI – 3BL Media (tweet)

In 2014, numerous studies were released that revealed a common denominator for publicly traded companies; stocks with higher Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) ratings deliver superior returns and lower price volatility. This compelled us here at 3BL Media to explore the topic more in depth. To our delight, Evan Harvey, Director of Sustainability with NASDAQ wanted to discuss the topic as well. On Monday, November 24^th, along with over 150 interested Twitter users, Evan led the conversation with us using #3BLchat to talk all things ‘sustainable market’ related.

As Director of Corporate Sustainability @Nasdaq I am responsible for our #ESG metrics, investor/issuer practices & biz strategy #3BLchat – Evan Harvey (tweet)

That means I manage all internal sustainability efforts at the exchange and outreach to the economic world #3BLchat – Evan Harvey (tweet)

#Sustainability enables businesses to plan and execute long-term strategy, alleviating focus on less meaningful metrics #3BLchat – Evan Harvey (tweet)

Evan’s knowledge of sustainability in the Exchange poured through his tweets. While this topic might not always be the most active on social media, Evan shared his expertise and insights and attendees were eager for more. Attendees contributed their replies, stories and questions with Evan, such that we ran out of time before we could answer all of them! Questions asked during the chat covered a wide variety of conversation on this niche topic.

The new definition of #SRI is 'Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing (no longer refer to as socially responsible investing) | #3blchat – CliffGMJ (tweet)

#3BLchat How can investors and companies best support exchanges in taking practical actions to enhance sustainability in their markets? – SSEinitiative (tweet)

Re: Audience Q: #Susty is everyone's job. B Schools could talk more re: embedding principles into every function, every decision. #3BLchat – NAEM (tweet)

@evanharvey99 Do you believe that greater regulation will improve sustainability/reporting practices of companies? #3BLchat – advantageadapt (tweet)

A shining moment in the chat occurred when an attendee successfully made a Star Wars reference, which summed up the #3BLchat perfectly:

Finance is either the death star or it joins the rebellion; It either funds the destruction or serves life. #3BLchat - PRINCIPIUM_imp (tweet)

Evan was eager to answer each and every question – including post-chat questions that were missed during the chat before the sun had set on the west coast. Sustainability’s impact on corporations and portfolio management was evident as the chat closed.

Are large corps effectively engaging employees around CSR goals? @evanharvey99 #3BLchat – NudgeRewards (tweet)

Q: How can an organization begin to develop #ESG guidelines for their portfolio? @3BLMedia @CSRwire #3BLchat – KatieLasco (tweet)

@SSEinitiative Report #ESG data. Publicly support #NGOs. Research performance impacts. Educate workers. Divest when necessary. #3BLchat – Evan Harvey (tweet)

If you missed the chat or have additional questions, please tweet at us, @3BLMedia. Be sure to include #3BLchat and @evanharvey99 in your questions!

I'm glad to continue the dialogue with you all on these issues as well, so feel free to reach out to me via @evanharvey99 #3BLchat – Evan Harvey (tweet)

We’d like to thank our gracious panelist, Evan Harvey (@EvanHarvey99) of NASDAQ (@Nasdaq) and everyone that attended. It was a lively discussion on a topic that is new to the Twitter spotlight.

Our panelist and attendees shared a variety of resources. Below, we highlight some of the wonderful links that were shared. You can also explore the #3BLchat in our Storify recap.

Resources:

3BL Media