Bringing ESG and Sustainability to the Top of the Investors' Agenda with Jennifer Grzech
In this episode of the Doing Sustainability podcast, Gary Baker and Roxanne "Rocket" White are joined by Jennifer Grzech, Director of Responsible Investing at Nuveen, to discuss the investor perspective on ESG and how investors can ensure their companies are improving their transparency, accountability, and impact. Jennifer has tremendous expertise in ESG research and integration, investment stewardship, and sustainability reporting. At Nuveen, she is responsible for developing a strategy of engagement with companies, policy-makers, regulators, and industry organizations around important ESG issues and standards. Data gaps have always been a big problem for companies. Most of them were looking at ESG as a marketing or branding exercise. But as an investor, it couldn't be translated into something meaningful in assessing ESG risks and opportunities. The evolution of technology addresses data gaps. ESG and sustainability progress revolve around defining best practices, setting clear standards, and improving the level and sophistication of data. Scaling all these processes ensures that ESG information is finding its way into investment decision-making.