Key Takeaways: Making ESG Part of Treasury’s DNA

HSBC

There are a number of ways in which treasurers can support their organisation’s ESG goals, and embed them into their daily processes. Practical steps include:

Sustainable Finance

• Exploring ESG-compliant finance – from green bonds to positive impact loans – is on the rise. Many projects can leverage sustainable financing, if approached through a green lens.

Environmental

• Adopting digital processes to drastically reduce the amount of paper used by your own organisation and your counterparties. Additional benefits of digitisation include automation efficiencies and greater potential for data-driven insight.
• Embracing cloud computing to help lower carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency.

Social 

• Supporting the company’s supply chain by providing financial assistance to smaller suppliers via supply chain finance (SCF) programmes.
• Offering financial incentives to suppliers who fulfil, and continually improve, their ESG credentials.
• Considering ways to improve the wellbeing of your team. Openly acknowledge the pressures on them and the impacts these may have on wellbeing and productivity. 

Governance

• Ensuring compliance with relevant regulations, policies and procedures. 
• Keeping informed about the growing number of regulations being issued in the ESG space that tie back to the origins of financial flows within organisations. 
• Helping in the fight against financial crime through fraud controls, sanctions screening, and proper handling of politically exposed persons, in particular in relation to bribery and corruption.
• Embracing Know Your Bank (KYB) and Know Your Supplier (KYS) initiatives to encourage responsible counterparty selection practices.
• Securing your treasury systems – and ensuring they are not used to facilitate potential criminal activity.

To find out how HSBC’s Global Liquidity and Cash Management experts can support your treasury team in achieving many of these CSR goals, together with your growth ambitions, please contact your local HSBC representative or visit hsbcnet.com.