ISO prepares for UK launch of ‘landmark’ sustainable finance standard

The ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organisation with a membership of 165 national standards bodies. Its expert members share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market-relevant international standards that support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges. Its sustainable finance standard is the flagship standard developed as part of ISO’s global sustainable finance workstream.

Hayden Morgan, sustainable finance expert at Pinsent Masons and global ISO convenor since 2019, has led a group of experts drawn from 26 participating counties and 18 observer countries in the development of the standard. He said ISO’s standard, originally announced as part of the UK government’s Green Finance Strategy (43 pages / 12.2MB PDF), was a “landmark achievement” that recognised the “mutually-beneficial relationship between global sustainability and commercially successful financial services organisations”.

“The standard is designed to support organisations in the financial sector navigate the increasing complex landscape of emerging sustainability initiatives. While this can seem like an a unwelcome administrative burden or cost, responding to these challenges could present the ‘growth opportunity of the 21st century’, as demonstrated by the recent UK ‘net zero’ review. To thrive in this changing landscape, firms have no option but to engage on sustainability matters.  They will need to evolve and adapt business models and strategies to respond to these shifting market forces, at a pace and scale previously not experienced,” said Morgan.

“This new international standard supports integration of key principles of sustainability into operations, activities, products and services. When the standard is implemented, organisations can demonstrate alignment with key sustainability principles, using good practice guidance, and achieve real-world outcomes and commercial success,” Morgan said.

He added: “It is one of the first global standards to approach sustainability from an integrated and holistic perspective, to enhance organisational performance and delivering real-world sustainable outcomes over time. The sustainable finance principles are aimed at supporting organisations in aligning their business strategy and operational performance with sustainability goals and objectives that are material to the organisation and its stakeholders.”

The UK launch of the standard will take place this evening in London, co-hosted by Bloomberg and the BSI – the secretariat for the ISO technical committee tasked with development of the standard. The event will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session.