BEI

The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s (CISL) Banking Environment Initiative has published a new guide to bank-client engagement, which aims to address the need for a market-wide transformation in how banks and their corporate clients interact.

October 2018 – The concept note proposes a new approach that would help pension beneficiaries make better decisions regarding the sustainability performance of their pensions.

October 2017 – This report presents recommendations on how to design collaboration between multinationals, financial institutions and start-ups in order to better harness fintech to help solve sustainability challenges in the real economy.

September 2016 – At the invitation of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) and the Banking Environment Initiative worked with the Chinese banking industry to ask whether it is possible to green the finance of China’s commodity imports, and thereby address the risks associated with unsustainable agricultural production.

April 2016 – This discussion paper explores how to scale up the role that banks can play in supporting the shift towards sustainable soft commodity supply chains.

September 2014 – Barclays Chief Executive Antony Jenkins led a group of representatives of global banks meeting in Hong Kong on June 24, 2014 to explore ways that banks can work with companies to promote sustainable means of production, starting with agricultural commodities.

October 2014, report – The BEI’s focus to date has been driving sustainability standards into banking products and services by working with groups of leading customers. Its work in soft commodity supply chains has seen banks aligning with clients to develop commercially viable trade finance products and services that incentivise sustainable resource management. However, it has always been clear that those who regulate the financial system have a role to play in identifying and mitigating the potentially destabilising effects of environmental risks across the banking system as a whole.

November 2012 – A group of six Banking Environment Initiative (BEI) banks and six energy companies argue in this paper that using traditional investment valuation models is not always the best approach for valuing clean energy investments.

January 2014 – The first tangible result of the ‘Soft Commodities’ Compact has been produced. The BEI’s Sustainable Shipment Letter of Credit is a financing solution that can be used by banks to incentivise the international trade of sustainably produced commodities. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has confirmed it will offer preferential terms for this type of shipment to its partner banks, offering the potential reductions in the cost of capital.