ESG Criteria and Risks to Corporation and Boards: Establishing Measurements, Oversight, and Assessment
Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
- work Practice Area
Corporate Law
- event Date
Thursday, September 23, 2021
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
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This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE course will provide corporate and in-house counsel an overview of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria and the framework and legal requirements for ESG reporting and disclosure. The panel will examine directors' fiduciary duties related to ESG measures and decision-making, discuss finding the balance between company priorities and investor and other stakeholder demands, and address developing legal and business requirements.
An experienced trial and appellate lawyer, Mr. Brightbill was the nation’s lead environmental law enforcement official as Acting Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. He is uniquely positioned to represent clients in government enforcement and investigations, regulatory challenges and counseling, and business disputes, class actions, citizen suits, CERCLA allocation, and other complex litigation. Mr. Brightbill is a national leader on legal issues relating to climate change, ESG disclosure, and “green” advertising.
Ms. Orr advises clients around the world on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. She has almost two decades of experience working with private equity, public company and financial institutional clients on hundreds of complex environmental matters and is a thought leader on sustainability and ESG issues. Her practice specifically focuses on sustainable finance, corporate sustainability programs, ESG reporting and disclosure, ESG due diligence, Equator Principles and IFC Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability, innovative climate solutions, and other ESG risks and opportunities. Ms. Orr’s experience includes advising sponsors and lenders on multiple conventional and energy transition-focused projects and transactions, including wind, solar, biomass, and carbon capture, utilization and sequestration.
Ms. Hopkins helps companies through high-urgency regulatory investigations and the complexities of financial and accounting processes and controls improvement, concurrently identifying areas for cost reduction and increased compliance. She has more than two decades of experience in project management, process improvement, controls integration, forensic accounting investigation, compliance remediation, and intellectual property litigation matters. With professional certifications in compliance, fraud, valuation, and forensic analytics, Ms. Hopkins offers her clients innovative solutions through automation and analytics while considering their business models and operational strategies.
General and in-house counsel need to be familiar with the ESG criteria that investors, regulators, and other stakeholders are using. Boards of directors are being called upon to consider how ESG impacts business strategy, operations, and oversight, as well as how boards should approach ESG decision-making and risk oversight.
While standards organizations publish guidance for voluntary reporting of ESG performance, governments around the world are moving toward mandatory disclosures. In environmental matters, focus is on the disclosure of a company’s impact on the climate and its use of sustainable resources. The social aspect of ESG includes a business' contribution to society and managing relationships with customers, local communities, the public, and the government. Finally, governance issues focus on the management of the business' ESG risks and opportunities. Altogether, ESG initiatives are meant to create communal and financial value for companies and their stakeholders now and into the future.
ESG issues have come further to the fore during the COVID-19 crisis and social justice movements. These have increased pressure on companies to communicate how they manage ESG (particularly around employee health and safety and their supply chains during the pandemic).
Listen as our authoritative panel provides best practices on creating ESG policy that best serves the company, the board, and investors.
- History of ESG
- Investor requirements
- Voluntary frameworks and regulatory requirements
- Adopting an ESG program
- Values
- Goals
- Compliance
- Best practices and work with experts
This panel will review these and other topics:
- What are ESG criteria, and should a board incorporate the management of ESG risks and opportunities into its business culture?
- How does a board balance the needs of ESG management for the company vs. the requirements of investors?
- What are the different standards for reporting on ESG that a board may consider?
- What are governments and investors looking for when evaluating a company's ESG performance?
- How can companies implement an ESG program?
