John Davies
John Davies leads the Trellis Network, a member-based, peer-to-peer learning forum for sustainability professionals. The network is made up of senior executives from $1 billion-plus corporations working together to share best practices and lessons learned for implementing sustainable development programs. Davies is an experienced entrepreneur and innovator who has applied his business and management skills to launching start-ups as well as improving the operations of existing businesses. Davies is a frequent keynote speaker at international events, is well-known for his supply chain and sustainability expertise and is the author of numerous articles in business, industry and educational publications. John received his bachelor’s degree from SUNY at Fredonia and his master’s degree from the University of Delaware.
Ratings, Rankings and the Rise of the S in ESG
The initial impetus for discussing rating and ranking organizations was a member’s question regarding how much the score given their company by Sustainalytics influenced investor sentiment. Opinions about the ratings organizations soon evolved into a discussion of how COVID-19 will get addressed in future reporting and member expectations that reporting on social issues will increase as boards and investors increasingly focus on ESG efforts. Read More
Ratings & Rankings
Has anything changed in your company's approach to the various ratings and rankings organizations? Which ones do you prioritize? As we head into reporting season, has your investor relations team reached out to you (especially about the "S" in ESG) and also in terms of COVID-19? This request came from a member specifically interested in how effective some of these ratings are, particularly citing Sustainalytics. Read More
Thoughts on a Virtual Earth Day
The 50th anniversary of Earth Day will take place on April 22, 2020. Given the projections for the apex of the coronavirus still weeks away, the world is going to look a lot different on Earth Day. While it may be best to tamper our optimism, with a few members suggesting pausing efforts until World Environment Day, other members are moving ahead, transitioning their efforts to a virtual engagement strategy. Read More
It’s just numbers: A ROSI view of corporate sustainability
How do you justify a company's sustainability investments? There's an app for that. Read More
Trend: The bots are coming (to ratings and reporting)
Automation and artificial intelligence are being leveraged to both generate and evaluate ESG data. Is that a good thing? Read More
Reporting in the time of Covid-19
One member asks, "Are members evaluating their annual sustainability reporting practices and amending based on COVID-19, including what information they are including, if they will be providing a pared down report this year, or otherwise? We are evaluating our approach as a critical business to responding to COVID-19, and whether we will request as much information from our partners given their necessary focus on response and management of the crisis. Appreciate all thoughts!" Read More
Scope 3 Emissions Tracking
One member asks, "If you have a Scope 3 target, how are you tracking your supply chain emissions to measure progress against your target. What systems are you using (spreadsheet, CDP Supply Chain, other third-party systems, etc.) to collect this emissions data from suppliers?" Read More
Employee Competitions
One member asks, "We’d love to hear from members about employee competitions or contests that they have hosted to raise awareness on sustainability and to engage the general employee population. Did you focus on something fun? Something relevant for business? Was it among individual employees or teams or sites? How did the “winners” get acknowledged? What was the long-term impact and would you do it again?" Read More
COVID-19 Communications
One member asks, "I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of a company that is developing and deploying really good internal policies and comms on COVID-19? I know that is a very broad question in a very fluid area but the head of HR asked for some help on answering the following. We are already actions and steps on many of the questions below, but want to benchmark our response to ensure we are capturing best practices. Read More
Modern Slavery Statement
One member asks, "What team(s) within your company manages the annual updates of the Modern Slavery Statement? Our company is receiving customer requests to review and attest to various policies and statements, related to mainly Modern Slavery. What systems and/or processes are in place to manage and address these requests? What role does the sustainability team play in such process?" Read More