Black Rock CEO Larry Fink’s annual letter to CEOs is always closely scrutinised. As the head of the world’s largest institutional investor, he identifies the issues companies must prioritise to generate long-term value. Three key lessons emerge from Fink’s focus on ESG.

In this podcast Daniel Roach, Senior Technical Lead at Company Matters, discusses the latest developments in ESG reporting.

In this podcast Susan Stenson, a partner at Independent Audit, discusses the impact that environment, social and governance (ESG) issues are having in the boardroom. She outlines the importance of linking these areas back to the overall purpose and strategy of the organisation to enable directors to understand which issues they should focus on and how they should communicate their approach to their stakeholders. Susan outlines how governance lays the foundations for a strong response to ESG issues from boards of directors. She also argues that if the board is honest about how it has decided its ESG priorities, its approach is much more likely to be successful.

In 2018, the EU set out a clear action plan for sustainable economic growth. The EU’s objective is to maintain growth without creating problems for future generations due to depleting resources or environmental crises, such as climate change.

Sara Drake takes us through key environmental, social and governance developments.

In 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson in the USA created Earth Day to force sustainability issues onto the national agenda. Europe followed this movement with environmental laws, and The Earth Day Network went global in 1990. This network now has over 50,000 partners in 193 countries.

Such a committee is not a requirement, but there are increasing numbers of them. This guidance note sets out how to ensure this committee adopts good practice in accordance with other committee recommendations under the UK Corporate Governance Code.

Key takeaways from the BNY Mellon event on the outlook for the asset management industry in 2020 and the challenges facing the sector.