The laboratory is focused on:
- better communication of core non-financial performance as a necessary precursor to a broader and more informed dialogue on the contribution of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors to business performance;
- better understanding the dialogue that currently takes place between business and investors on non-financial performance;
- identifying the key issues that interest investors and how business could better communicate its performance on these issues;
- understanding why businesses see non-financial issues as critical to delivering their business strategy and a fundamental part of the internal performance story but do not include those messages as obviously in external dialogue with investors;
- exploring how ESG performance could be used by individual companies to better articulate their non-financial performance to investors and enrich the story on non-financial contributors to key business strategic priorities.
The laboratory is seeking to develop a framework for dialogue between business and investors that is based on material issues of interest to both. It aims to promote:
- the idea of a common set of core non-financial performancedrivers that are relevant across businesses, sectors and markets;
- an acceptance that these core drivers are influenced, at least in part, by the performance and perception of the business by a wide range of stakeholders, reflected in ESG factors, in a way that is more sector or business specific.
