ESG Transformation: Conversation Series

In this episode, Mel Debenham and Isabella Kelly invite Mark Smyth, disputes partner to join our series exploring the themes from HSF’s report on Unlocking ESG Investment in Australia. With 58% of our report’s survey respondents, comprising more than 100 business leaders, seeing barriers to greater levels of ESG investment including legal, tax and tenure of investment, Mark expands on the difficulties for companies in talking about the long term benefits they expect to realise through ESG investments or announcing a strong corporate ambition on ESG.

Read our report here: https://insights.hsf.com/unlocking-esg-investment-in-australia/p/2?utm_source=Soundcloud&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=EP25

In this episode, Tim Stutt and Mel Debenham are joined by Kathryn Pacey, environment and planning partner to discuss HSF’s report on Unlocking ESG Investment in Australia, and the long road for businesses assessing their supply chain and how to balance immediate pressures with long term ambition. 60% of our report’s survey respondents, comprising more than 100 business leaders, say their company has a net zero commitment ranging between now and 2050, but 40% say the commitments don’t reflect Scope 3 emissions in the value chain. Given regulatory uncertainty and inconsistency was cited as the only barrier unique to Australia, Kathryn discusses the swathe of regulatory changes facing businesses and their goals for emissions reduction and environmental protection.

In this episode, Tim Stutt and Mel Debenham are joined by Jacqui Wootton, disputes partner and co-head of HSF’s Australian corporate crime and investigations practice. In our second episode unpacking HSF’s report on Unlocking ESG Investment in Australia, we are firmly focussed on the “S”, a key issue emerging from our survey of more than 100 business leaders on accelerating investment in ESG outcomes. 80% of respondents say they have reviewed or plan to review their ESG policies and operations, with modern slavery in particular one of the issues most identified. Jacqui shares her thoughts on the challenges ahead for companies in not only meeting rising reporting and regulatory expectations, but how they are measuring whether their approaches are effective and driving positive change.

Read our report here: https://insights.hsf.com/unlocking-esg-investment-in-australia/p/1?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=third-wheel

Melanie Debenham is joined by Anél Joubert, ESG Manager and Jeremy McManus, GM Commercial and Investor Relations from Neometals, an emerging and sustainable producer of battery minerals. Anél and Jeremy discuss the prominence of ESG in their own roles and across Neometals’ markets and operations in Australia and Europe. They discuss the global and local transition to clean energy and energy storage spanning the battery and electric vehicle value chains.

In this episode, our Employment, Industrial Relations and Safety team take the wheel, with Nerida Jessup and Drew Pearson hosting special guest, Professor Brock Bastian, School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne. They build upon an earlier episode (#14) and the concept that good work is good for people, by delving into some of the strategies that give people the capacity to respond to difficult experiences and navigate conflict, maintain positive relationships and build effective workplace cultures.

Listen to episode 14 here: Herbert-smith-freehills – The-third-wheel-podcast-esg-in-australia-episode-14

Tim Stutt and Kathryn Pacey are joined by Dr Chris Greig, Princeton University to discuss the energy transition, industry decarbonisation, technology and investment. Dr Greig shares the origin story and highlights of Net-Zero America, the research project that not only quantifies but visually displays five distinct technological pathways, using known technologies, by which the United States could decarbonize its entire economy by 2050. He breaks down the four make-or-break critical issues for energy transition: (1) the unprecedented speed and scale of infrastructure to be built; (2) a flow of risk capital never seen before; (3) maintaining the social contract with communities; and (4) major workforce mobilisation and a just transition for workers. Dr Greig underlines the importance of Australia’s strong ambition and domestic emissions targets to achieve speed and scale. As for achieving net zero and becoming a major exporter of low emission energy - you won’t have to wait long for the Net-Zero Australia study findings to be released in August 2022. To participate in HSF’s survey on unlocking ESG investment in Australia and gain access to exclusive insights email [email protected].

Melanie Debenham and Tim Stutt are joined by Kathryn Pacey to break down an historic election where climate change featured prominently. The first six weeks of a new government have provided much to discuss including the Climate Change Bill to be introduced in the first week of parliament, a review to ensure the integrity of the carbon credit system (and similarly the Safeguard Mechanism), a $20 billion investment in transmission infrastructure and a raft of commitments in relation to green energy technologies. Along with the review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, a new environmental regulator and likely greater focus on action to benefit biodiversity.

In this episode, Mel Debenham and Tim Stutt are back at the wheel to launch HSF’s report on Unlocking ESG Investment in Australia. The report unpacks the findings from our survey of more than 100 business leaders on the size and shape of the ESG investment challenges and opportunities. With the help of expert interviews across industry, the report explored the uncertainty about risk, returns and regulation to be addressed for businesses to adapt at the scale and speed to meet shifting investor and community expectations. This is the first episode in a series that will deep dive on the key report findings: insights.hsf.com/unlocking-esg-in…in-australia/p/1

In this episode, our Employment, Industrial Relations and Safety team take the wheel again, with Nerida Jessup hosting special guests Anna Creegan and Lucy Boyd. Nerida, Anna and Lucy have a conversation around how organisations are responding to the increased community and shareholder expectations on transparency around sexual harassment and other workplace conduct issues. Together they look at the key drivers of this change including how the increased focus of safety regulators on sexual harassment has changed approaches to reporting, as well as the scrutiny around the use of non-disclosure agreements.

Following the publication of our 8th consecutive annual Corporate Debt Report with the Association of Corporate Treasurers, Stacey Pang, Senior Associate and Minolee Shah, Professional Support Consultant talk to Emily Barry, Professional Support Consultant about some of the themes relating to sustainable finance that came out of that report, and where the ESG finance market might go next.