The ESG Committee of CFA Society Sweden has decided to present the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) with the CFA Sweden ESG Award for 2017.

The ESG Committee of CFA Society Sweden has decided to present the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) with the CFA Sweden ESG Award for 2017.

Human Rights is a challenging and sometimes complex topic for business, investors and governments. 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 to both clarify expectations but also to quantify to the extent it is possible, the efforts of companies in this area is much needed.

With the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB), a consortium of Aviva, APG, Business & Human Rights, EIRIS, IHRB, VBDO and Nordea are addressing this issue in a very ambitious manner and taking the topic to the financial markets through transparency, accessibility and a form of standardization previously missed.

The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) aims to measure the human rights performance of the world’s 500 largest publicly listed companies. "CHRB provides a comparative snapshot from year to year of the largest companies on the planet, looking at the policies, processes and practices they have in order to systematize their work on human rights and how they respond to serious allegations of human rights violations. CHRB is publicly available to all stakeholders at no cost."

The award was accepted by Magdalena Kettis PhD, Head of Thematic Engagement, Group Sustainable Finance, Nordea and CHRB Advisory Council Member.

CFA Society Sweden would like to thank the members of the ESG-jury for their commitment: Henrik Malmsten (CEO, Durable Vision Invest), Jenny Askfelt Ruud (CEO, Enwise), and John Howchin (Secretary-General, Council on Ethics of the Swedish National Pension Funds).

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. ESG represents concepts and approaches that influences and governs how asset managers construct portfolios and evaluate investments, examples including as examples carbon footprints, board independence and different codes of conduct.