European Sustainable Development Week provides an opportunity for CACEIS to confirm the group’s environmental, social and governance priorities and commitments.
In January 2024, CACEIS set up a dedicated CSR-ESG strategy business line that reports directly to General Management. Already, the business line has implemented a series of initiatives to enable the group to achieve its strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) objectives. These initiatives will help CACEIS take an increasingly sustainable and responsible approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors across its network and in all its activities. It also aims to promote these attitudes among suppliers and other stakeholders.
‘Inspire, Raise Awareness, Commit, Act Together’
CACEIS’ CSR strategy, guidelines and action plans are defined at Group level, however their deployment at a local entity level is a key consideration. The entities that make up CACEIS’ international network are afforded the flexibility to design additional CSR initiatives to best suit their local business culture, the national regulations in force and the involvement of their staff.
“The goal of the CSR-ESG Business line is to ensure CACEIS is an exemplary company in terms of adopting the principles of ESG and ensuring compliance, whilst using our influence to promote positive change in the market.”, explains Géraldine Valentini, Group Head of Corporate Social Responsibility.
What are the principal challenges regarding CSR?
Systemic challenges are external or environmental factors over which we have little to no control. These include things like new local or international regulatory initiatives or the progress of climate change. We have to adapt our organisation’s strategy to enable us to better handle these environmental changes.
Social issues concern CACEIS staff and to an extent people employed by clients and suppliers. CACEIS is fully committed to Crédit Agricole group’s ‘Human Project’ which aims to quicken the pace of progress in terms of corporate culture, managerial attitudes and staff empowerment by promoting a flatter and more agile company framework. “During our recruitment process, we explain the importance of our social, environmental and governance commitments, which also plays a central role in retaining talent, particularly the younger generation”, says Géraldine Valentini. CACEIS also has a strong commitment to upholding and spreading its values in terms of inclusion and diversity. During the process of building our common culture, known as ‘One CACEIS’, a working group was dedicated to this topic.
Business challenges concern being proactive in meeting clients’ business needs whilst incorporating the essential values of ethics, trust and sustainability. In practical terms, this involves following ethical business practices, ensuring data protection and security, and keeping pace with regulatory change. However, aside from the duties and responsibilities, ESG factors offer many opportunities to add value for our clients such as assisting with compliance obligations, providing regulatory and investor reporting on investments’ ESG performance, and even depositary control services that ensure ESG-related investment limits and investment policies are not breached.
Promoting ESG principles internally and externally
CACEIS’ CSR strategy governs the entire scope of our activity, across all entities in our international network, and extends to our client selectivity procedures and procurement process.
As a company, CACEIS is involved in major regulatory projects including CSRD reporting (for which CACEIS is a contributor to Crédit Agricole's group report), drives its carbon footprint reduction policy and deploys its strategy in all CACEIS Group entities, particularly following the acquisition and integration of CACEIS IS (formerly RBC IS Bank).
As a provider, CACEIS is constantly expanding the range of products and services we offer, such as a carbon assessment and portfolio decarbonisation services for private equity funds that will soon be available through one of our fintech partners on CACEIS’ Connect Store. CACEIS also seeks to promote awareness of ‘impact’ funds’ (Article 9 under SFDR for which we are closely monitoring the latest regulation developments), assisting clients with the design and launch of these funds that have a sustainable, environmental or social investment objective without significantly harm any other environmental or social objective.
As a client, CACEIS includes ESG factors in procurement process questionnaires. The ESG factors account for 15% of the total possible score and CACEIS’ decisions are positively influenced by a supplier’s shared commitment to ethical, social and environmental issues”, explains Géraldine Valentini.
European Sustainable Development Week
To mark this year’s ‘European Sustainable Development Week’, which ran from 18th September to 8th October 2024, CACEIS organised a series of staff activities to raise awareness of environmental issues such as competitions, training sessions, workshops and the distribution of best practice guides.
Companies today are faced with pressing environmental and social challenges, and incorporating sustainability and ESG into their business is a key factor that could impact their long-term survival. We understand that CSR is no longer simply an option, but a necessity if we are to meet the expectations of our stakeholders and play our part in meeting the challenges we face on a global scale. “By integrating responsible practices throughout our network, CACEIS aims to actively contribute to shaping a more sustainable and equitable future for the generations to come”, concludes Géraldine Valentini.
