KPMG Helping Firms Measure Sustainability Performance

KPMG International and Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) bared a worldwide alliance to help companies measure and enhance their corporate sustainability performance upon which investors would base their assessment of the firm.

The alliance leverages the expertise and the capacity of SAM to measure sustainability, the official partner with Dow Jones Indexes for the publication of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, and KPMG’s Climate Change and Sustainability consulting services, to provide CFOs and investors with a tangible, results-oriented roadmap to help enhance a company’s sustainability strategy.

According to Ted Senko, KPMG’s Global CEO of Climate Change and Sustainability, the alliance provides a milestone for the globally recognized benchmarking and consulting offering in the sustainability arena.

“The alliance is invaluable for CFOs and Heads of Sustainability wishing to truly understand where they rate today; and the most effective way to maximize sustainability performance and investor appeal tomorrow,” said Senko.

The alliance is designed such that specialist investment boutique SAM, will independently analyze a company’s sustainability performance against measures established by global leaders in its sector.

Meanwhile, KPMG Climate Change and Sustainability professionals will independently review, assess and enhance a company’s sustainability strategy using the benchmark analysis compiled by SAM.

Michael Baldinger, SAM’s CEO, said companies will have better capcity to bloom in the long run if they can effectively manage risks and seize opportunities related to sustainability trends.

“Today, more than ever, sustainability trends such as climate change, resource scarcity or demographic change shape the competitive environment and have become a significant factor for investors, particularly when making longer term investment decisions,” Baldinger said.

“With our impartial company benchmarking reports, we help companies to understand their sustainability performance against their peers,” he added.

“CFOs and investors alike recognize that effective sustainability strategies are evidence of sound management. Such strategies demonstrate an increased readiness to adapt to changing markets and respond to customer needs,” said Baldinger.

He wnt on to say that “investment professionals can no longer afford to underestimate the value of intangibles such as the quality of management, intellectual and human capital when performing fundamental analysis.”

Jose Luis Blasco, a partner with KPMG’s Climate Change and Sustainability practice in Spain said the outcome of this process will enable CFOs to understand whether their sustainability investment is paying back.

“KPMG’s services can help companies improve performance by identifying leadership characteristics, gaps and opportunities in their sustainability strategy,” Blasco said.

Companies often introduce a variety of initiatives to incorporate sustainability into the business, according to KPMG.

For CFOs and investors, the crucial strategies are those which directly impact bottom-line performance by strengthening skills, increasing efficiency, attracting the best talent or opening new avenues of revenue, the business consulting firm added.

“The challenge is in understanding the competitive environment in order to implement their strategy in the most effective way,” said Blasco.