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"Investment Consultants and Responsible Investing" was released by the Social Investment Forum in December, 2009.  Forty U.S. investment consulting firms were surveyed regarding client interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria.  Survey results indicated the "nearly unanimous view that client interest in ESG is not a passing phenomenon, but will grow over the next three years" due to "climate change, and impending climate regulation, a growing public interest in 'green' issues, and social responsibility, and foundations' embrace of mission-related investing."  12.09

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:15 AM - 10:15 AM
Room: Macdonald A–D

Speaker(s)
Michelle Chan Program Manager, Green Investments Project, Friends of the Earth - US
Michael Jantzi President and Founder, Jantzi Research
Kenneth G. Lay JD Vice President and Treasurer, The World Bank
Sandra Odendahl Director, Corporate Environmental Affairs, Royal Bank of Canada

Description
Bank credit and lending policies are closely linked to global sustainability principles and practices - in both positive and negative ways. Banks are critically positioned to address the impacts of global concerns such as climate change and the human rights of indigenous peoples. The broader field of sustainable finance is being shaped by the banks themselves, concerned investors, and other stakeholders, including NGOs. This plenary panel will engage in dialogue on progress made to date, and challenges that remain for redirecting the flow of capital to sustainable development.

Speaker Biographies
Michelle Chan is Program Manager of the Green Investments Project for Friends of the Earth and President of BankTrack. She has 13 years of experience in sustainable finance and bringing environmental advocacy to Wall Street. The Green Investments project engages in shareholder activism, promotes corporate environmental disclosure, and works with major financial institutions to develop environmental management systems. Recently, she has begun focusing on Chinese overseas investment, and in 2007 authored a report on the Chinese banking sector. BankTrack is an international NGO advocacy network dedicated to advancing sustainability in the finance sector. Ms Chan founded the Corporate Sunshine Working Group, an alliance of investors and environmentalists working for improved corporate social disclosure requirements at the Securities and Exchange Commission. She has served on the Board of CERES, the Council for Responsible Public Investment, and the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment. She is a founding member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index Advisory Committee, and received the industry?s SRI Service Award in 2002. She has degrees in Economics, Development Studies and Geography from University of California at Los Angeles.

Michael Jantzi is President and Founder of Jantzi Research. He has been active in the social investment field since 1990. He is one of Canada's leading spokespersons on SRI and is the co-author of The 50 Best Ethical Stocks for Canadians: High Value Investing. In recognition of his significant contribution to corporate social responsibility and social investment in Canada, Mr. Jantzi was the recipient of an Ethics in Action Award in June 2001. In 2006, Jantzi Research won the Capital Markets Award for Sustainable Investment & Banking, awarded by the GLOBE Foundation and The Globe and Mail as part of the prestigious GLOBE Awards for Environmental Excellence program. Mr. Jantzi has served as a director of KLD Research & Analytics, was appointed to the Task Force of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy's Capital Markets and Sustainability program. He sits on the Advisory Circle of the TIDES Canada Foundation. He is a former director of Canada's Social Investment Organization. Mr. Jantzi holds degrees from the University of Western Ontario and Dalhousie University.

Kenneth G Lay is the Vice President and Treasurer of the World Bank. He leads the teams of finance professionals that manage more than $70 billion in reserves and other funds for the World Bank and other official-sector investors. Mr. Lay is responsible for carrying out the World Bank's financing program in international and domestic bond and derivatives markets, conducting asset and liability management for the World Bank's balance sheet, overseeing development and outreach related to the financing and hedging products the Bank provides for its developing-country clients, and collaborating with World Bank member countries to help build their capacity in public debt and national wealth management. Earlier in his career, Mr. Lay served as director of the World Bank's operations in several countries in Southeastern Europe and as head of its financial sector practice. Prior to joining the World Bank in 1982, he was an enforcement lawyer with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, heading its branch of corporation finance enforcement. Mr. Lay is a member of the State Bar of California and holds a Chartered Financial Analyst designation from the CFA Institute. He received a BA from Dartmouth College and a JD from George Washington University law school.

Sandra Odendahl, CFA, is Director of Corporate Environmental Affairs at RBC Financial Group (Royal Bank of Canada), where she leads a team with responsibility for corporate environmental strategy, environmental credit risk policies, and corporate environmental programs at the bank.

Ms. Odendahl has chaired the North American Task Force of the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) since January 2006. She was formerly the Co-Chair of the Conference Board's Business Council on Sustainability, and was a member of the Commodities Research Advisory Panel for the Conference Board's "Canada Project." She is on the Advisory Board of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto, and the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy.

Prior to entering the banking sector, Ms. Odehdahl was an environmental consultant in Toronto and Vancouver, specializing in Environmental Impact Assessments for resource sector development projects in Canada and Indonesia. She has a B.A.Sc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ottawa, and an M.A.Sc. in the same field from University of Toronto.