Borsa Istanbul, with contributions from its stakeholders, updated the “Sustainability Guide for Companies”. The new guide, provides companies an up-to-date roadmap on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues. It sets out the framework that companies should pay attention to, in order to meet investor expectations on action and reporting regarding ESG. The guide is a helpful tool for companies to position themselves correctly to become more attractive for international investments.
In line with the action plan decided at the Coordination Council for the Improvement of Investment Environment (YOIKK) meeting chaired by Vice President of the Republic of Turkey Fuat Oktay on 8 August 2019, Borsa İstanbul updated its Sustainability Guide, which was published for the first time in 2014.
Borsa İstanbul’s CEO Mehmet Hakan Atilla stated on this topic: “The sustainability approach can be summarized as adapting environmental and social factors to company operations and decision mechanisms together with corporate governance principles, as well as managing the risks that may arise from these issues. This has become a necessity for companies all over the world. It is critical for companies to integrate sustainability into internal processes and to report their results to inform all stakeholders, especially investors, and the public”. Mr. Atilla mentioned that some of the world's largest funds will not invest in companies that do not report on their environmental, social and corporate governance processes, thus highlighting the importance of the guide in question. ESG is considered important by over 3000 investors who manage funds of over 100 billion USD in 2020.
The Sustainability Guide, prepared with the theme of “Surviving in the Future”, aims to help companies to benefit more from global investment flows. The guideline includes among others; a detailed reference to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to be realized by 2030, sustainable investments and methods, integration of sustainability into business activities and its benefits, international reporting frameworks and basic principles of report preparation, and examples of environmental and social performance indicators.
Borsa Istanbul Sustainability Guide for Companies reveals environmental, social and corporate governance issues that have to be taken into consideration by companies and related reporting requirements with examples. The guideline provides a critical tool for companies to fulfill the investor’s expectation of action and information on ESG and to position themselves correctly to attract more international investments.
