Resources

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Board of Directors Resource Center

These resources are designed to enable corporate directors to steer their companies toward a more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive future.

State Street Resources

These resources from State Street provide guidance to boards on how they can effectively advance ESG issues within their companies.

The Board's Oversight of Racial and Ethnic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Best practices for effective oversight of racial and ethnic diversity, equity and inclusion.

Climate-Related Disclosures in the Technology Sector

March 9, 2021 — While technology companies tend to include climate considerations in some areas, they could improve in communicating the business imperative for managing climate risks, and in creating a standard approach to identifying material risks.

The ESG Opportunity for Corporate Directors

February 2021 — At the recent National Association of Corporate Directors event, Ron O’Hanley, our chairman and CEO, presented five key questions for corporate directors to consider when it comes to ESG oversight.

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ESG Oversight Framework for Directors: Demystifying ESG for Board Members

January 28, 2020 — While board members have a critical role to play they continue to seek clarity on how to prioritize ESG within their organizations. This framework provides guidance on key priorities.

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Climate Change Risk Oversight Framework for Directors

December 2020 — Following the 2021 UN Climate Conference, this framework provides directors with methods overseeing risks pertaining to climate change and insights into investor expectations.

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Academic Resources

These resources from academic publications provide expert board guidance for how boards can best prepare for the future.

Future-Ready Boards

February 10, 2021 — The competitive landscape in nearly every sector is changing rapidly. This paper from the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance provides guidance for boards seeking to remain relevant and support a mission while making changes that reflect shifts in society, including specific, concrete steps to becoming such a “future-ready board.”

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ESG and Sustainability: The Board’s Role

June 29, 2018 — In light of evolving — and sometimes actively debated — perspectives on the role of public companies with respect to sustainability, corporate social responsibility and other ESG, this paper from the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance provides a high-level overview of how boards of directors and senior management teams may wish to approach these issues.

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The Board’s Role in Sustainability: A New Framework for Getting Directors Behind ESG Efforts

September 2020 — A clear and compelling mission should be at the heart of every company’s efforts to enhance its positive impacts on the environment and society. The Harvard Business Review describes a framework called SCORE to help boards deliver on purpose through five actions — simplify, connect, own, reward, and exemplify — that can help articulate and foster a firm’s durable value proposition and its drivers.

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Advocate Resources

These resources from advocacy organizations helping to transform our economies enable boards to improve their climate competencies and make ESG an essential part of their core considerations going forward.

Climate Action 100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark

March 2021 — Developed in 2020 with 50 signatories, investor network experts and leading climate research and data NGOs, this framework will be used to assess companies’ alignment with ten indicators that together reflect the key commitment priorities of the Climate Action 100+ Initiative. All company specific data is based on companies’ publicly disclosed information, i.e., annual reports, financial filings, CDP disclosures, etc.

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Running the Risk: How Corporate Boards Can Oversee Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Issues

November 2019 — The leading nonprofit Ceres provides guidance to corporate boards on how they can effectively oversee ESG, including questions for directors to ask management throughout the risk identification, prioritization and mitigation processes, as well as concrete recommendations to improve a company’s resilience.

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A New Roadmap for Corporate Climate Governance

September 19, 2019 — These climate governance principles developed by the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers, are designed to raise awareness and promote board ownership of this topic, increase board-level understanding, and enhance climate competence to enable informed investment decision-making, effective oversight of enterprise and systemic risk, as well as long-term strategic planning consistent with a zero-carbon economic system.

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Getting Climate Smart: A Primer for Corporate Directors in a Changing Environment

May 2018 — Coauthored by Ceres and The B Team, this paper is designed to help corporate directors understand why climate change is a board-relevant issue, when climate change should fall within their mandate, and how they can oversee climate-related risks and opportunities.

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Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures

June 15, 2017 — The report from the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures provides recommendations for disclosing clear, comparable, and consistent information about the risks and opportunities presented by climate change, the adoption of which will ensure that the effects of climate change become routinely considered in business and investment decisions.

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View From the Top: How Corporate Boards Can Engage on Sustainability Performance

October 2015 — This Ceres report outlining key strategies for boards to take a leading role in championing sustainability across their entire business enterprise by developing robust sustainability oversight.

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