World's Largest Investors Engage Stock Exchanges on Sustainability Reporting Standard for Companies

The proposalwas developed through consultation with over 100 institutional investors from six continents, including many of the world's largest pension funds.

The start of the exchange comment period coincides with the announcement that the WFE has launched a Sustainability Working Group.

"We need a joint solution that will help bring more consistent and comparable information to all markets, and will not leave any one exchange at a competitive disadvantage for taking leadership in this space," NASDAQ OMX CEO Robert Greifeld said.

"Cross border collaboration by stock exchanges will help shift public companies towards more comparable and meaningful disclosure of ESG (environmental, social and governance) risk factors," said Gwen Le Berre, Vice President of Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment at BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager. "This will enable investors to more accurately value companies and make better informed investment decisions."

"A global standard for sustainability reporting would give investors data to assess performance and risk, while allowing exchanges and companies to address specific market regulations and cultures," added New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund.

Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres stressed, "The time has come for a broadly-adopted sustainability disclosure standard—one that moves beyond voluntary approaches."

AboutCeres

Ceres is a nonprofit organization that advocates for sustainability leadership in the financial markets. Ceres directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, which represents more than 100 investors with $12 trillion in assets under management. 
For more information: Peyton Fleming: fleming@ceres.org, +1-617-247-0700 x 120, www.ceres.org
For full press release: http://bit.ly/1l3XRgx