... unless they make significant efforts themselves to align their own communications to investors on sustainability issues and on 'mainstream' business issues!
Companies often comment on a 'twin-track' within investment firms whereby a gap exists between:
- the analysts that care about sustainability issues and
- the analysts that care about 'mainstream' business drivers.
There is no point denying this. The gap exists … although it is closing fast as mainstream investors start to take sustainability factors into account and sustainability-focussed analysts work harder to integrate their analysis into investment decision-making.
Are companies also integrating?
In our recent Working Paper, Capital Naturally - Alignment, we ask whether companies include:
- Sustainability information within their 'mainstream' investor presentations
- 'Mainstream' business information within their sustainability presentations
… in a way that enables investors to connect these two aspects of their interest.
Having reviewed both types of presentations from 69 companies with exposure to the food & fibre value chain, we found that:
- The majority of companies achieve very little alignment between sustainability and 'mainstream' factors in their presentations
- There are some interesting exceptions - which we have highlighted as case studies - that point a way for other companies to follow
Companies can 'fix the problem' by …
- Reading our working paper
- Ensuring that their presentations to investors in 2022 draw on the 'best practice' case studies identified within this
- Browsing sustainable-ir.com for everything an IRO needs to know about efficient sustainable investor communications
- Taking advantage of any of these [grant-funded support for companies' sustainable investor relations programmes]
Others can contribute by …
Sharing examples - in the discussion thread below or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.- of good integrated communications by companies - perhaps from sectors other than those that we have covered or that reference key value drivers other than the ones that we have identified.
We are hoping to develop this one-off study into a growing library of good practice on www.sustainable-ir.com