More than $115 billion in annual revenue is up for grabs in the US banking market alone, along with an opportunity to establish a 12 percent market premium from investors, the management consulting firm Kearney estimates. The study indicates that 85% of investors now take ESG factors into account when deciding where to invest. In other words, banks that do right by the environment and society can also do well financially.

It’s a win-win. “Some sources of value may be more established, such as funding ESG investments, while others are in the earlier stages, such as ESG-focused products and switching. The key is to recognize the trade-offs between the incremental costs and the expected benefits and to establish an ESG strategy that helps the bank reach its objectives”, says the report.

Not by chance, the green ESG strategy and the growing demand by investors for companies that effectively adopt it will be the theme of the first panel of the EDP Business Summit 2022 international conference, to be held in Lisbon on October 27. This year’s event will focus on the importance and promotion of solar energy for companies.

This theme will be addressed by Roger Ballentine, who will frame the decarbonization of companies as a very relevant axis in the context in which we live. Roger Ballentine was an advisor to former US President Bill Clinton on climate change and is president of Green Strategies Inc, which provides consulting services to companies on ESG strategy, a perspective that he will bring to the conference.

“Instead of investing in lawyers and lobbyists to resist change, we want companies to invest in smart executives and engineers whose job is to innovate for better environmental performance”, Ballentine said at TED&Foggy Bottom in 2018.

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Source: Kearney | EDP Business Summit | TEDxFoggyBottom