It felt like we finished 2021 with a few intense weeks of discussion around what could be done do maintain the target of 1.5 degrees at COP26 and then we fell into the world of Covid again and what it would mean for Christmas. It was really a jump from COP to Omicron . The big question is, was COP26 just 15 minutes of fame for ESG or should we expect more focus in 2022 and beyond.

The news since COP26 has been driven by Covid numbers and Covid drinks parties. This somewhat masks what is going on behind the scenes when it comes to environmental targets where governments are implementing measures with a view to 2030 initially and more broadly 2050. The social side of things may not have diarised targets, but is still front and centre in minds in particular with migration (somewhat climate driven) in the UK & EU, but also gender safety aspects in particular in Ireland the incredibly sad news about 23 year old Ashling Murphy who was ‘just going for a run’.

Governance and regulation will be what drives much of our focus as an industry in the coming decade, but lets leave that for next time and try some crystal ball gazing of what to expect.

Post COP26, we can review the outcome and assert that 1.5 is still alive. But what does this mean for companies? 2050 is 28 years away. I’ve never seen a business plan for a 30 year horizon, so is it really possible to do so? Maybe not, it may be better to look at this as 7 Olympics, 7 world cups or 14 Ryder cups, whichever takes your fancy. The focus on the model athletes use to train for such events is something industry can use to develop more near term targets and more achievable goals.

And we can see this happening in the markets as has been reported about State Street Global Advisors “One of the key expectations set by SSGA is a requirement for disclosure from companies aligned with TCFD recommendations, including reporting on board oversight on climate-related risks and opportunities, Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and targets for emissions reduction”.

Expect to see more of this going forward as others line up similar programmes. Expect more questions on ESG to hit your desks from not just clients, but also employees or potential employees. Expect your firm to be, if not rated, at least judged on your actions.

Time to start training your firm for the first of those 7 Olympics!

John Dowdall, CRO Pulse Market

For more info about our ESG passport contact John Dowdall today or get all the details at ESG Passport

As a start-up we have the added advantage of being agile and can respond quickly to the needs of our clients and their suppliers. And that’s exactly what we’ve done for buyers and suppliers in the financial services industry. We have listened, developed, tested, and launched the Pulse Market ESG passport in under 4 months.  

The ESG Passport has been exclusively developed by members of the Pulse team together with the Scottish Investment Operations (SIO). It is the first major outcome from our ESG working groups that we have been hosting throughout 2021 for the financial services sector.  

The working group is the ESG forum led by John Dowdall our Chief Revenue Officer and John Ellis our Chief Operating Officer who meet regularly with group members from leading Financial Services companies in the UK. It has fast become the place to learn from each other and openly discuss the challenges we are each facing including the new regulations surrounding ESG reporting and the knock-on effect on the supply chains. Discussions resulted in the gem of an idea – the ESG Passport. 

Members of the forum were all in agreement an affordable ESG solution was essential to enhance suppliers’ knowledge and showcase ESG credentials as financial service providers are expected to measure and report on ESG.  

Unfortunately, too many suppliers looking to do the right thing are missing out on RFP opportunities. It is not because suppliers lack the skills, knowledge, and expertise, it is because they lack ESG credentials and cannot afford the high consultancy fees to gain them. To continue servicing the financial services sector, suppliers will be expected to provide evidence of ESG credentials.  

Enter ESG Passport for Suppliers 

The Pulse Market ESG passport addresses the potential knock-on effects to supply chains in the financial industry due to the requirement to report ESG activity.  

The ESG Passport is designed to support and enhance companies understanding of their Environmental, Social and Governance behaviours, helping businesses, their clients and supply chain, building business awareness and knowledge on their ESG journey to be better for good.  

Businesses complete the ESG Questionnaire quickly and easily online, in return receive a personalised ESG report, a comprehensive ESG guide to enable them to act now and reach ESG goals faster, and they may publicly display their company’s new ESG credentials with the downloadable Pulse Market ESG Passport. 

Get a passport 

For Suppliers: 

The ESG Passport is available to suppliers to buy now. Find out more about the exclusive offer and bonus available for a limited time at www.pulsemarket.com/esgpassport.  

For buyers 

If you are in procurement or vendor management and are interested in supporting your supply chain through the ESG Passport, email a member of our team at exec@pulsemarket.com to discuss support material and supplier codes.  

P.S Watch this space! 

The ESG Passport is the first of many planned with further Passport launches coming in 2022 to support SMEs with their information security, GDPR, risk and governance challenges. 

There’s been a real buzz in my hometown of Glasgow with COP26 in the heart of my city for 2 weeks.  It’s been fascinating to see world leaders, politicians, businesses, activists, celebs, and people walking, cycling, sailing and flying into town from all over the globe. 

Although I’m only a few miles away I was feeling one step removed from COP26. It was only the sound of helicopters buzzing overhead that was a stark reminder something major was happening across the river. As I doom scrolled through my news feed there was a sense of disappointment in COP26, accusations of green washing and empty promises. I decided to see for myself. So on a typical rainy Saturday in Glasgow, I headed out for a not so typical day across to the Science Centre for COP26. From the minute I walked into the Centre, the whole place was buzzing.  The centre was filled with a sense of energy, enthusiasm and above all a sense of urgency around tackling the climate emergency.

What immediately struck me was the diversity of people and businesses present and that for me is significant. As a marketer I know the power of the story telling and how people will listen to a real-life story rather than the hard sell. Every person attending COP26 has their own community who they can share their unique story with and influence others – whether it’s on social media, where they live or work. That’s why I’m typing this now and hope you read this and ignore the cynical opinions and look to the millions of people taking action. As Reckitt says: ‘From big changes to small habits we can all make a difference.’

Having worked with the team at Pulse Market since June I’ve been caught up with their passion for ESG. With my Pulse Market head on I spent the morning touring round the big-name sponsors like Microsoft, Sainsburys and Royal Bank of Scotland. However, it was the remarkable conversation I had with Marcus and Ollie of the coffee company North Star that was the most inspiring. Every chapter of North Star’s story from starting up to having many, many outlets across the UK has been punctuated with doing better. Not only have they introduced the UKs first 100% compostable packaging, but they monitor every step of the supply chain and prioritise the suppliers needs to align with North Stars ESG values.

Working with Pulse Market I cannot help but think seriously about weaving ESG into the fabric of what I do in business, as marketeer and above all as a parent.

At COP26 I listened to the people behind the businesses who are driving change and that was a hugely positive experience for me. I do hope the politicians stepped off their podiums to listen to the individual stories being told by the scientists and the real people who travelled from the areas already experiencing the devastating impact of climate change.

I’m so very proud to be working with Pulse Market with founders who are driving change and weaving ESG into the fabric of the organisation, ready to change their story too. 

I leave you with an ‘S.O.S From The Kids’ choir singing ‘It’s time to change the story’ as it’s their planet to inherit.

A muddled mind of tangential thinking by John Dowdall

Picture it. Midway through 2020 during one of the strangest times the world has seen (let’s not go there), 3 middle aged white guys, some going grey, discuss a new venture they believe will change the way we do business for the better.

At the start of this journey, simple ground rules are agreed:

• We’re going to make money
• We’re going to, above all else, enjoy it!
• We’re going to improve how we do it, when it comes to people, planet and responsibility

You see, the 3rd one is the one we always discuss the most. As one of our founders said, “I want to be able to tell my kids over Sunday dinner, that Daddy does something to make a change for good, something they’ll value and respect.”

So, the decision was made early on that Pulse Market would embrace the values embedded in ESG and focus on the journey of becoming a B-Corp.

What I’ve written so far all makes logical sense and quite frankly seemed simple. It also looked like an enjoyable area to focus on, so everyone’s hand was up to get involved.

It’s only when you start the journey and turn the first corner that you realise how many turns there are and the distance you may have to travel.

With ESG there is both a business side, which can be broken into the ethical and moral side and the more prescriptive regulatory side, and there is also the personal side of how we act as individuals and at many stages there may and likely will be contradictions between the two.

A simple example:

As businesses we believe in setting objectives to reduce our CO2 emissions. This can be a belief or due to market or regulatory forces, either way businesses will do it.

I leave work, go home, have a lovely steak 5 nights a week. Cows emit methane, increasing CO2 emissions. There in lies the contradiction.

Disclosure: I LIKE STEAK

So, as it stands today, I still grapple with this and still look for ways to do things better. You see, the point here is, we will have failures, we will attempt things that don’t always work, but it’s the try, try and try again that will lead to success, hopefully.

Now consider business. How does business grapple with similar challenges? It may be different for SMEs to large corporates to start ups.

Consider the supply chain side of things for a moment. A large corporate may have 1000s of suppliers across everything imaginable, an SME a manageable 10-20, and a startup, well starts from zero. The large corporate will need to review everyone they do business with and make a decision as to whether or not they are still appropriate, whereas a startup can decide only to select appropriate firms from day one. On the flip side, large corporate has the resource to manage this, small startup doesn’t.

On a recent Pulse ESG working group session comprising primarily of large financial institutions & fintech suppliers, the question was asked “What happens if a supplier is not up to scratch when we enquire about their ESG policies & procedures? Do we have to stop doing business with them?”

And this is again an area of interesting debate. If a company has high CO2 emissions, will you likely give them time to improve? Most likely yes. If they can’t show they hit targets on diversity and inclusion % wise, will you do likewise? Maybe, with policies in place. If they are involved in modern slavery, what there? hmm.

The objective of ESG policies should be to get everyone to a better place, even in the most extreme examples. The challenge is that in certain areas, such as climate and modern slavery, people must be seen to act now.

In coming articles, we’ll try to focus on specific areas of ESG and their challenges, and hopefully on some of the solutions or at least guidance.

At Pulse we start our journey with the same challenges. Remember, we started with 3 middle aged white men. We are now 14, with hitting a 30% women and 7 nations across the globe. We are far from perfect, but we are learning.

In that regard, we believe that the journey is best travelled with companions and that community is at the heart of ESG being a success. Nobody knows all the answers, but as a group we may get to most of them.
So what is Pulse doing?

• We are now 6 months in to our ESG working group – this is a community looking to share ideas and solutions to problems commonly faced
• We are looking to issue, in the next few months, a set of ESG guide questions that firms (large and small) should consider when approaching ESG
• We will also issue a more detailed version of the ESG questionnaire for those with the ability and resources
• We will be inviting ESG solution providers to join the Pulse Market pilot in late August, which will run over the next few months

What can you do?

• If you are a solution provider with an ESG focus, contact us & we’ll set you up so that financial institutions can contact you
• If you are a Financial Institution who currently uses ESG solutions, introduce them to Pulse, so your peers can also avail of them.

Join our product ESG user group

We would be delighted to welcome new members to our ESG User Group, which helps shape our ESG Roadmap, and gets early access to features and content.

Join the group today by completing the form on our ESG page

At Pulse Market we are witnessing the rapid growth of ESG investments.

Millennials remain the most ethically focused buyers and are the largest section of society planning their investments around ESG as you will see here: “Just over a fifth (21 per cent) of UK investors plan to make an ESG investment in the coming 12 months, while 25 per cent intend to do so by 2025 – this figure rises to 48 per cent among investors aged 18 to 34.”

The growth may not be wide yet, but it is deepening as: “More than one in five (22 per cent) investors say ESG factors have played an increasingly important role in their investment decisions over recent years, with 29 per cent stating that they will now carefully consider the environmental or social impact of the business or assets they invest in.”

Are your purchasing and investing decisions influenced by ESG?

If you would like to discover how buyers and sellers can do business better request a Pulse Market demo. Simply email: exec@pulsemarket.com today.

The summer of 2021 with unprecedented floods and fires around the globe illustrates the real impact of climate change that is taking place around the world today.

In response to the disasters, individuals are demanding organisations change the way they do business. Instead of focusing solely on financial indicators, organisations are being asked to urgently prioritize ESG values (environmental, social and governance). 

Positive change is happening and is gathering momentum. Over the last decade ESG has moved from purely a marketing tool sometimes looked on as greenwashing, to being a core focus for firms. It is now a key focus area for integration into a company’s DNA. There is a palpable sense of urgency and willingness for change.

As a start-up we are in the fortunate position to fully embrace ESG at the start of our journey. For us, ESG is the beating heart of Pulse Market, and we can support companies to include ESG in their procurement processes. 

As a platform for buyers and sellers we are focusing on promoting responsibility in the areas of climate change, labour rights, diversity and business ethics. And we are helping more firms factor ESG into their supply chain.

If you would like a Pulse Market demo email: exec@pulsemarket.com

More and more businesses are recognizing sustainability ratings are influencing buying decisions. That’s why organisations are carefully considering their ESG practices. According to a report shared in Wealth Adviser “Three tenths (30 per cent) are willing to accept lower returns on an investment if it has a positive social or environmental impact. The majority (52 per cent) expect the ESG market to grow rapidly by 2026.”* 

At Pulse Market we aim to be at the forefront of ESG and are striving to help businesses to find the right business partners who can buy and sell from each other while doing business better. 

That’s why we have committed to the Pulse Market ESG pledge to do business for good. We’re pleased to say we are not alone. 

At the start of the year, we set up an ESG User Group. Our membership covers large and medium sized asset managers, insurers, Regtech and risk management firms. The User Group’s ethos is around idea sharing in an open, honest and trusted. Here at Pulse Market, we are continually learning from this dynamic forum who are leading and embracing all things ESG. Watch this space as we’ll share our findings soon.

Beyond our ESG User group we pay close attention to what is happening in Ireland, the UK and around the globe. There is an upwards trend demanding ESG investment portfolios for example: “Mortgage lender BML commissioned an independent survey among 735 UK investors, all of which have portfolios worth in excess of GBP20,000, not including any primary property, savings, pensions, or SIPPs. It found that 24 per cent had made an ESG investment in the past.”* 

Read more about our ESG vision

The pulse ESG user group set out their vision. 

With ESG at the heart of our business, we are proud to have successfully launched our industry-leading Pulse ESG User Group. Our membership covers large and medium sized asset managers, insurers, Regtech and risk management firms. Our ethos is around idea sharing in an open, honest and trusted environment.  

We have deliberately kept the user group to under 10 members (for now), as the initial focus is to define the scope, purpose and structure of the group.  

Our first session was refreshing, as challenges, ideas and much more were openly shared within the group. Each member shared their specific interests in ESG from their corporate roles and how there is a lack of standardisation and approach to ESG across the industry, With ESG being as wide as it is deep, it is no easy task to define a single topic to focus on, however, consensus was reached that the group will share their specific ESG topics. These topics will then be voted on to identify the first topic for the group. 

The key themes that the group discussed are summarised as follows:  

• ‍Regulatory compliance and data requirements 
• Investor/client requirements  
• Investment opportunity 
• ESG in procurement (ethical / sustainable procurement) 
• ESG Ratings 
  

‘We have a really good market structure basis in the US and globally to build upon. We don’t need to build a new market structure. But there’s a lot of work that’s going to have to be done. Every indication is that the Biden administration is going to be pursuing work in that area just as we’ve seen regulators in Europe and other jurisdictions do.’ 

Kenneth Bentsen, president and CEO of Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA)

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Be Part Of Our Sustainability/ESG User Group.

Firms who wish to express an interest in joining the ESG working group can contact John Dowdall.