About the BEI
The BEI was convened in 2010 to identify ways in which banks can collectively redirect capital away from environmentally damaging activities towards environmentally beneficial ones, including sustainable, low carbon growth.
The group currently comprises 10 global banking institutions stretching across Asia to Europe, the United States and Latin America: BNY Mellon, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Nomura, Northern Trust, Santander, Sumitomo Mitsui and Westpac. John Varley chairs the CEO Panel. Jeremy Wilson, Vice Chairman, Barclays Corporate, chairs the working group.
The secretariat is provided by the University of Cambridge (CPSL).
Workstreams
Three workstreams were initially proposed for the BEI: policy, standards and iconic projects.
The policy workstream will be informed by the other two workstreams.
The standards workstream has embarked on two nine-month enquiries (‘collaboratories’) on the banking industry’s role in financing sustainable agriculture and clean energy.
The iconic projects workstream is being piloted in Kenya initially with a view to developing a successful model for deployment in other countries around the world.
How does the BEI work?
The BEI is laying the foundations for an exciting new approach to tackling key sustainability issues through innovative bank-corporate partnerships. The success of the BEI now depends on execution and, with representation from the banks, corporates and other stakeholders, working groups will be taking forward the group’s priorities over the next 6–9 months drawing on world-class research and expertise.
It is hoped that by Autumn 2012, the BEI will be in a position to host a major convening of banks and corporate clients from around the world to showcase the output of its work.
What is the BEI trying to achieve?
At the heart of the group’s vision lies a simple thesis: banks work for their clients and an initiative like this will only work if it is aligned with their interests and vice versa. CPSL’s core business is with major corporates known for their leadership on sustainability, and in October 2011 a workshop was convened in Washington D.C. to explore the specific areas where transparent, open and collaborative bank-client partnerships could make the biggest difference in the areas of clean energy and sustainable agriculture.
Over the next six months the following work will be taken forward under the standards workstream:
1. A partnership with the Consumer Goods Forum to help its 650 global corporate members meet their goal of achieving zero net deforestation in their supply chains by 2020
Over the last decade stewardship standards have been developed by producers, traders, manufacturers and retailers around the world to guide the responsible production of agricultural commodities such as palm oil, soy, cattle, biofuels and sugar. The largest of these global companies are working together through the Consumer Goods Forum to align their procurement standards and drive change through commodity value chains. These corporations argue that banks could make a real difference to the uptake of the standards by aligning their lending conditions with these procurement standards. Many BEI members already have policies in place to do this so the opportunity exists to move from a situation of multiple, inconsistent bank policies, towards an effective, joint response from leaders in the banking industry. This could send ripples across the entire spectrum of commodity value chains, supporting growth of markets and demonstrating BEI members’ tangible support for their clients’ needs.
2. A voluntary bank-client partnership to unlock investments in clean energy
This collaboration aims to identify specific financing and investment challenges that corporates looking to lead the clean energy transition are experiencing and explore ways in which international investment banks might better support those corporates. Where solutions exist within current market structures, the collaboration will create visibility for the strategic significance of these challenges to the corporates amongst the banking community, spurring action. Where market conditions prevent immediate solutions, the collaboratory will explore options through which a partnership between investment banks and clients could encourage changes to those market conditions. Examples include exploring whether moving beyond traditional, narrow metrics in business valuation decisions that are not appropriate to the business rationale for prioritising a clean energy strategy would make a meaningful difference to market valuation of corporates, and therefore their ability to raise finance and investment.
Under the iconic projects workstream, a concept is being developed in Kenya initially on behalf of the BEI members, involving a public-private facility to finance clean energy, sustainable agriculture and conservation projects in cooperation with the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). If a successful model can be developed then there is strong potential to apply this elsewhere in the world.
How can you get involved?
The BEI is open to working with banks or corporates from anywhere in the world that have an interest in working together to advance the sustainability agenda.
Contact
For more information, including fees and resource requirements, please contact the BEI Secretariat:
Dr Jake Reynolds, Director of Leaders Groups
jake.reynolds@cpsl.cam.ac.uk
Office: +44 (0)1223 768830
Mobile: +44 (0)7921 799929
Andrew Voysey, Senior Programme Manager, Finance Sector
andrew.voysey@cpsl.cam.ac.uk
Office: +44 (0) 20 7216 7530
Mobile: +44 (0)7595 106458