ESG enters Investor Relations agenda
The ESG agenda, which involves environmental, social, and governance issues, has entered the day-to-day area of Investors Relations (IR) The expectation of investors and society itself is that the IR area understands topics such as biodiversity, low carbon economy, renewable energies, among others. This scenario, in addition to the greater entry of individual investors on the stock exchange, requires new skills and competencies of these professionals.A survey conducted by Deloitte in July 2020, with IR leaders from 63 companies, the majority (70%) listed on the stock exchange, has already pointed out that the pandemic required more agility from the area. The study shows that new reporting formats and the development of own channels of communication with small investors and crisis management plans were the most adopted actions during the Covid-19 crisis.According to the consulting and audit company BDO, there was a 40% growth in the demand of its clients for work related to the sustainability agenda, which involves the ESG aspects. Recently approved in Brazil, the technical standard that guides the production of integrated reports is beginning to be adopted by a greater number of companies. Although it is not mandatory, the document has become a reference as a methodology for integrating financial and non-financial information. "In general, there are several ESG initiatives in companies. What is lacking is report structure. They don’t know where to start, how to collect this information," says Viviene Bauer, a partner in the audit and sustainability team at BDO.In the opinion of executives of five large companies listed on B3 stock exchange consulted by Valor, the IR desk can no longer ignore the issues related to the ESG agenda. There are cases in which this agenda becomes a direct assignment of this professional, but it is also common to create an ESG team, which is constantly in contact with the Investor Relations team, including providing data for reporting and communication with stakeholders.At Cosan — a holding company that includes Raízen, Compass, Rumo, and Moove — the ESG theme is central in the area headed by Paula Kovarsky, an executive who took over as director of RI six years ago and, since 2017, also leads the holding’s office in New York. "We discovered a lot of sustainability initiatives and processes that already existed in the company and were not being valued as they could. I joke saying we uncovered a lot of ‘little...
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