The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark has been given the CFA Society Sweden's ESG Award for 2017.
The ESG Award is given to persons and organisations that contribute to "raising awareness of the importance of ESG issues in the investment process". ESG (environmental, social and governance) refers to the three main areas of concern that have developed as central factors in measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of investments.
"With the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights setting a de-facto standard on the responsibilities for business, investors and governments, the need for transparent tools both to clarify expectations, and to quantify to the extent it is possible the efforts of companies, in this area is much needed." said CFA Society Sweden.
"The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, a consortium of Aviva, APG, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, EIRIS, Institute for Human RIghts and Business, VBDO and Nordea, addresses corporate human rights reporting in an ambitious manner and takes the topic to the financial markets through transparency, accessibility and a form of standardisation previously missing."
The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark aims to measure the human rights performance of the world’s 500 largest publicly listed companies. The Benchmark provides a comparative snapshot from year to year of the human rights policies, processes and practices of the world's largest companies, in order to systematise their work on human rights and how they respond to allegations of human rights violations. CHRB is publicly available to all stakeholders at no cost.
The award was accepted by Magdalen Kettis PhD, Head of Thematic Engagement, Group Sustainable Finance, Nordea, and CHRB Advisory Council Member.
