For the first time, the CEOs of eight Canadian pension plan investment managers are calling on companies and investors to provide consistent and complete ESG information to strengthen decision-making and better assess their collective ESG risks.
The pension plans include: AIMCo, BCI, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, CPP Investments, HOOPP, OMERS, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, and PSP Investments.
The pension plans said they further commit to strengthening ESG disclosure within their own organizations and will allocate capital to investments in areas that can deliver long-term sustainable value creation.
Need to provide relevant information
"How companies identify and address issues such as diversity & inclusion, human capital, and climate change can significantly contribute to value creation or erosion,” the group said in a joint statement. “Companies have an obligation to disclose their key business risks and opportunities to financial markets and should provide financially relevant, comparable and decision-useful information."
The pension plans also ask companies to measure and disclose their performance on industry-relevant ESG factors by adopting the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework.
The statement recognizes the ongoing impact of COVID-19 and recent events that have highlighted long-standing inequalities revealing business strengths and shortcomings concerning social inequity, including systemic racism, environmental threats, and board effectiveness.
"A strong commitment to environmental sustainability, diversity and inclusion and good governance principles will not only make our economy and financial system more resilient, it's also the right thing to do,” said Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada. “Leadership from Canada's financial sector is essential as we focus on building an enduring and more equal economic recovery from the pandemic.”
