ESG Webinar Series: The First 100 Days | Session 1 – Issue Spotting

Mark: Okay. So some people logging in but we have a lot of content today so I think we'll kick it off. Hello, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to RSVP and attend today's webinar. My name is Mark Youden, and I'm a partner at Gowling WLG, with a practice focused on environmental and regulatory law. I'm also a member of Gowling WLG's Advisory Group and today's webinar comes to us from the Advisory Group. I'll obviously be your moderator today and it's interesting because today's webinar is the first of a three part series. The series focuses on the first 100 Days of onboarding and ESG plan and program in your business. This first webinar of the series will focus on issue spotting and what to consider when creating your ESG plan and program. The remaining two webinars in the series will be scheduled very soon so please stay tuned because we already have some great panelists lined up. So before I introduce today's panel I'll just cover a few housekeeping items.

For questions throughout the session please use the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen. It's a Zoom function. We'll try our best to answer some of your questions towards the end of the session and if we run out of time we'll commit to following up and getting the right people to answer your question. The presentation is also being recorded today and so it'll be posted on both on our website and some social media functions in a couple of days. So feel free to pass that along to any of your colleagues that could not attend. Now onto the legal disclaimer. We have a lawyer on the panel so we must have a disclaimer. Today's session, of course, will be very high level overview of a very specific topic. It's for general information purposes only and, of course, it does not constitute legal advice. Our advice is, if you want specific advice relating to the topics please contact your legal counsel. Finally, as far as housekeeping goes, I'd like to make a land acknowledgement. So of course we're gathering today virtually in a virtual space. I'd like to let us acknowledge and reflect on the fact that the ground beneath our feet, wherever we happen to be, is territory that has been owned by and home to Indigenous people since time immemorial and some of it is unceded to this day. So for the next slide.

I want to briefly introduce our speakers. We'll dive into a bit more of their background as part of the substantive content of this presentation but I want to introduce you to Lisa and Chris. First, and very briefly, less important, my names Mark Youden, again, I'm a partner at Gowling WLG and a member of the firm's ESG Advisory Group. Although hard to disconnect my practice focuses mostly on the 'E' part of the environmental portion of ESG. I'm currently situated in Vancouver, British Columbia and for those who don't know, Gowling WLG is a full service law firm with professionals across Canada, the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Now, coming to us virtually from Oakville, Ontario, we have Lisa Kohler. She's the Executive Lead of Climate Change Response and Sustainability at Halton Region in Ontario. Again, we'll hear more about her background in a minute. Our second panel member today comes to us virtually from London, England. Chris Miller-Jones is the Director and ESG Manager at Europa Capital Partners LLP. Now we'll switch to the agenda.

So as I mentioned the first thing we'll cover is speaker introductions, but it's more than just speaker introductions. You'll hear how our great panelists have got to their ESG roles today. Then we'll cover some challenges and the issues that our panelists have seen in the first 100 days in the implementation of their ESG plans. We'll switch gears and explore sort of the current state and the future of ESG in our two panel member's sectors, and then we'll turn to tips for implementing ESG, based on the experiences that our panel members have seen thus far. Finally, we'll answer some of your questions. So, again, we want this to be an interactive discussion so please do share your questions with us through the Zoom function at the bottom of the screen, and we'll address them towards the end of the session.

Now we're onto the substantive portion. So first, thanks to Chris and Lisa again for being with us today. We're very lucky as Lisa and Chris both have extensive expertise in the world of ESG and have held a variety of ESG roles in their respective careers. Although they come from different geographic places and different sectors, I'm sure you'll find today that there's a lot of similarities in the way they approach ESG on a day to day basis. So with that I'll turn to Lisa. Lisa, can you describe some of your former ESG roles, how you got to your role today and a bit about your current role?

Lisa: Absolutely. Thank you, Mark. Before I begin I would like to acknowledge the land on which I'm working on today. I'm Treaty 22 with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. So Mark, previous to coming to Halton I worked for 25 plus years in the not for profit space. I worked with ENGOs and my last position was Executive Director. I worked hard designing and implementing programs and initiatives that worked with partners to educate and inspire climate action. I had the pleasure of working with numerous sectors throughout my work, within community really, including the municipalities, businesses, faith-based organizations, school boards, conservation authorities and learning institutions. Now in my current role, I'm part of the Halton team. I'm part of the Region of Halton and Halton Region is a regional municipality operating in Ontario. It's comprised of the City of Burlington, the town of Oakville, the town of Halton Hills and the town of Malton. We have a population of over 550,000 residents that we serve day in and day out here in Halton. In regards to ESG and my role, I'm brand new in this role and this position that I'm fulfilling is also a brand new role here in Halton. I'm very fortunate to work with a really great team and I work in my CEO's office. I work alongside the strategic policy and government relations, Indigenous relations and equity, diversity and inclusion teams. We all work together. We support each other's work and we integrate our work. So ESG is very much embedded in what we do in the CEO's office.

In my new role I'm advancing our climate change response and sustainability actions. I have the pleasure to advance this work with the support of a climate action response team, or I like to call CART, and CART is comprised of a steering committee and a working committee. It's made up of all departments and divisions, working on mitigation, adaptation and sustainability. CART is tasked with developing a greenhouse gas target for our corporation and to develop a climate action plan. We know that the work we do is not about one department or division but about all of us working together to propel this work. The framework that we are advancing is through the partners for climate protection program, the PCP program. The PCP program is co-propelled by ICLEI, which is the local government for sustainability, and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, FCM. Over 450 Canadian municipalities are currently on this path. Here in Halton we're advancing both our community and our corporate plans. The program, the PCP program, really allows us to establish our baseline emissions. It determines a target. It helps us devise a plan and activate implementation. Then through milestone five we continually report back. We are working with a local ENGO to advance community milestones and working internally to drive our corporate plan. Externally we are also rebuilding and restrengthening partnerships and relationships so we can work with others to leverage action. We are working with our community on the PCP program, as I mentioned, but there's many other projects and initiatives that we are also involved in. When we work in community we really do want to look at climate transformation in ESG and we know that this work will not happen in a silo, Mark, so we really are trying to advance this work with all spheres of influence so that we can advance collective action. Our work really here in Halton is not about one group, one business, one municipality. It's about all of us working together hard and authentically.

Mark: Thanks, Lisa. Very, very interesting and obviously you've got your work cut out for you. Over to Chris. Chris, so same question. Can you describe some of your former ESG roles, or how you got to your role today and a bit about your current role?

Chris: Absolutely. Thanks, Mark, and thanks, Lisa, and thanks, everyone, for dialing in. I think we've got a good turnout today which is great. As Mark said I'm based in London and I'm the Director of ESG for Europa Capital. My background is very different to Lisa's. I've been in the environmental and sustainability consultancy sector for over 20 years, providing support to financial institutions and investors around ESG issues, since it's been known as ESG but really before then, sustainability issues as well as sort of looking at corporate and social responsibility. I mentioned I have been in the sector for over 20 year. I've worked for firms like RPS, WSP, KPMG and Arcadis and more recently in the UK, BWB Consulting, prior to joining Europa. But I started out doing contaminated land investigations for developments, for where there was known contamination concerns and I guess sort of cut my teeth in the winters up in the Yorkshire region of the UK. But I was lucky. I was working for a multi-disciplinary consultancy which gave me exposure to a far broader range of opportunities and advisory opportunities as well. One of those was being involved in providing environmental risk management advice to banks and financial institutions for loan security purposes and commercial lending purposes. I guess this gave me a really early insight into understanding environmental risks, more from a commercial lending perspective rather then just a pure environmental risk perspective, and understanding how those risks could impact business operations was really key to me. This led me down more of an environmental due diligence path, providing corporate advisory solutions and support to real estate investors as well as to private equity investors, financial institutions and advising corporate mergers and acquisitions. Through that work I've been really lucky to work on a really wide range of projects, Pan-European and global. I spent a period of time living in Boston as well where I got to work on a major financial institution's global compliance office program.

I think what my experience gave me was a really broad and diverse knowledge of environmental issues across a range of business sectors, but also quite heavily focused in the real estate sector as well, across a whole range of assets that real estate is. So when the opportunity came to join Europa Capital to help them implement their ESG strategy, for me that was a really interesting and exciting opportunity, because Europa Capital is a dedicated real estate investment manager focused on the European markets and, since its formation, committed to over 160 transactions across 21 different countries in Europe. But Europa, prior to my joining, already had a very clear sustainability strategy net zero policies in place. Really strong charity and community engagement programs, primarily focused on education, and so there was a lot of building blocks already in place I was keen to build on, and bring the knowledge and experience that I've had throughout my year to providing not just the strategic solutions and direction that the company is now heading on, but also the sort of technical knowledge and broad understanding I've built up over my years of experience. But I've got to say, Mark, this is week 9 for me. I was counting back the weeks to say so still well within the 100 day window so I don't profess to have all the answers and solutions. I think anyone working in this field, in the ESG field, I think we all understand it's rapidly evolving. There's a lots of different challenges based on the sectors that you work in and there isn't one size that fits all. But we can all learn from each other as we go along. It's a really exciting time and I think the ESG sector as a whole has got a really, really crucial role to play as we see the changing dynamics, partly driven by the pandemic that we've had. Here in Europe there are other pressures as well with energy crisis sort of looming large, as well as potential financial implications as well. So there's a lot to go at but ESG is kind of core to everything. So, yeah, exciting times. Busy times.

Mark: Thanks. Chris, one thing I didn't pick up on when we were planning for today was that you and I have a very similar background in the sense that we started out as environmental consultants and doing site assessments and dealing with dirty dirt and such. It's very interesting didn't pick that up before.

Chris: I have to say it was for a very short period of time and I quickly realized I wasn't massively suited to being cold and wet.

Mark: Fair enough. In case the audience didn't pick up, both Chris and Lisa are generally starting in new roles. Lisa started in December, 2021 and Chris is about 9 weeks in. So not by design but out of luck both of these folks are within there, or close to, the first 100 days. So with that I'd like to shift over to next topic which is challenges. Here I want to explore some of the challenges and issues that you both have faced in your new roles. So let's start with Lisa. So Lisa, can you touch on scoping your ESG plan, and describe some of the issues and challenges that you've identified in the first few weeks and months in your role, and how you've addressed them?

Lisa: Absolutely. Thanks, Mark. It is still early days, as you just mentioned, for me for sure. But we do have that framework, and we are really lucky to have that PCP program in place, and that we're activating that as a direction from counsel. So really lucky that we have that in place and also I would say, when it comes to implementation of ESG at our workplace, again, fortunate that I'm working in the CEO's office with EDI and Indigenous and strategic policy and government relations. Already it's kind of baked in. When you look at that way it's already there. We're working together as a team. Not really looking at one specific indicator, it's all kind of one and the same in trying to advance our work collectively, I think really gives it some substance. When it comes to challenges or key issues, you know Mark, I have to highlight that. This work is still very much in silos unfortunately. We here at Halton, we've been doing a lot of really good work, but looking at things holistically is really that next step for us. I like to think of ESG and our climate work as an ecosystem. Really it needs to be brought together and we really need to make sure we have solid alignment on all fronts. If we take out the 'E' or the 'S' or the 'G' it just doesn't give the strength that we need to really advance the work that is ahead of us. Having those common values, shared goals, mutually reinforcing activities, is really key to kind of breakdown that silo and rebuilding relationships and trust within the organization is also very important. We've gone through a lot with COVID. We're all still working virtually so really rebuilding those relationships, and for me establishing new relationships with my colleagues, is fundamental to overcome that obstacle I would say. Again, really elevating that it's not about one of our departments or one of our division. No one is higher than the other. We all are kind of in this together and leveraging the work of CART, bringing us all together in a shared space and place, and talking about the challenges and not working in silos but working collectively is one thing I'm doing to try to overcome that obstacle.

I think the other thing that I know, Chris, you and I kind of briefly chatted about was really about the abundance of knowledge and information right now in our space. It's a great problem to have but it is challenging, to say at the very least. Every day there's new reports, new research, new data coming out that we have to interpret. We have to determine is this something we share with our teams. What do we need to bring to the front? What can go in the back? What will really elevate our work and our work plans when it comes to ESG? Mark, that's a pretty big challenge really, to be honest with you. How we're trying to overcome it here in Halton is we've built a compendium. So kind of a living, breathing library where we have all the resources organized. We met with all the team members of CART. They kind of told us this is the resources we need and we update it every other week. So everyone in the CART team have access to the latest climate action plans, to reports from the IPCC, NASA, NOAA, they have all of that at their disposal, Mark, so I think that helps, hopefully, with all the information that is shared on a regular basis and then being part of communities of practice is also really key with that knowledge, mobilization. So learning from others within your space and learning from others across Canada is something that I do quite regularly. Again, it helps synthesize what is important; what do we need to listen; what do we need to share and how do we mobilize all the information and all the knowledge that's shared on a regular basis. I would say those are probably the two biggest challenges or obstacles these days for me.

Mark: Thanks, Lisa. So, Chris, coming from your perspective in your sector, same question. Can you touch on scoping your ESG plan, and describe some of the issues and challenges that you've identified in the first 9 weeks of your new role?

Chris: Absolutely, Mark, and I think, as I said, I'm really lucky. I'm joining an organization that already has a lot of policies and procedures in place around sustainability, statements and policies. We have a net zero strategy. A lot of investor reporting that's required anyway and that includes ESG metrics on a regular basis. So there's a lot of structure already in place and sustainability is already an intrinsic part of how Europa does business. For me that was one of the attractions but there is a long term focus as well. We manage our assets for improvement and for growth, looking to enhance our value and we recognize that one of those key factors is their sort of sustainability performance. So as part of that we're striving towards our properties across our portfolio having green certification, for example. We conduct sustainability audits for every asset as they get acquired, creating sustainable asset management plans for those properties that we work with asset management teams on. The key thing, and Lisa touched on this, is data. We have a large number of assets across our different funds. So gathering energy performance data, waste management data, water consumption data is a really key aspect to what we need to do to report on those metrics because they have a direct correlation to how we look at our net zero strategy and how we can implement greenhouse emissions, etcetera. So there's digitization of that data is a key work stream that I'll be working on. We have a green loan facility which has key performance indicators that we're working very closely with our property partners across Europe to implement. I mentioned before, we are actively participating in social engagement activities, with a particular emphasis on, we have links to Sheffield Hallam University when doing programs with them. There's an awful lot to fit in daily and there's an awful lot that comes in, in addition to that, that sort of can you provide some technical support and advice around it, a certain issue or a question that the teams have. So for me the challenge has really been about prioritizing my time, but also prioritizing those issues that need to be addressed with more or less urgency than others, and sort of trying to create a bit of roadmap as to how we then sort of implement an overarching ESG strategy.

As I said, all the building blocks are there already so it's a very nice problem to have. But a lot of the work really revolves, for me, around collaboration. So it's collaboration internally with whether it's our management team and our leadership team, or whether it's at a property level with the property managers, but a lot of my time is spent with fund managers and asset managers as well but learning that the properties that we have across our portfolio, and the key focus of that is to understand where key opportunities might be. Obviously sometimes identifying where we can progress things more quickly than are planned and how we're doing against CapEx plans, etcetera. So I really see my role as an influencer, both internally and externally, because as I said, a lot of the structures are in place already and I bring that kind of level of knowledge and experience that I've gained throughout my consultancy career. What is the best way to implement this and how do we work with that? We have a great team of advisors who work with us as well and who support us along that journey so it's absolutely not all me. We have a great support network in place and I would say, for anyone starting out on this journey, that's one of the key things; is understand who your collaborators are internally because that's really important. People will be in different stages of their cap sustainability journey or sustainability knowledge and, by and large, people perhaps have very different views around what sustainability means to them. Whether it's in their business world, or whether it's perhaps in our personal world, and it's important to recognize that and work with people to give them knowledge that we as practitioners have. I think that's one of the key strengths that we can bring to our roles. The thing that I haven't really touched on that kind of overarches all of that, of course, is the Paris Agreement, drive to net zero, we have a net zero strategy with very clearly signposted targets that we want to achieve, and all of ESG policies and procedures and practices and initiatives that we've got really need to drive towards that end goal of net zero for us. Scope one and two by 2030. Scope three emissions, so our supply chain which includes our assets that we own, by 2040. So that's ahead of certainly the UK legislation targets and that's, really, that's the end goal. That's the big challenge. That's the big challenge that we've all got.

Mark: Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Lisa. It might sound cliché but it sounds like, although some of the specific issues and challenges that you're facing, the solutions are somewhat similar in the sense that it is about relationships, especially about new initiative starting early on and it is about education. So it's clear that both of our roles have a large emphasis on those two factors. I want to shift gears a bit and next explore how ESG fits into your respective sectors. so the audience can understand how the issues you've described may or may not apply to their industries and sectors. So I think it's particularly important because both of you, Chris and Lisa, who are within or close to your first 100 days, are shaping the way ESG is implemented in your workplaces. Lisa, what's the current state of ESG would you say in your sector, where do you see the role of ESG in your sector going in the future and how do you see your role changing in your sector in the future?

Lisa: Thanks, Mark. I think ESG is evolving. I think it's definitely evolving in our sector. There's a lot of great frameworks, that I've mentioned, like the PCP program that's there for municipalities to leverage. Like I said, advancing that good environmental social and governance work is really need in all context in everything that we're really doing. Ensuring that we are all leveraging those frameworks or our organization is critical, right? Because it does have that milestone and that step program that we can adhere to. Again, when it comes to ESG in our sector, I definitely think it's evolving. New tools are out there. New things are coming out on the market and I think we need to use the tools that are best for the function in the form of specific sector. Also ensuring that the tool captures results in optimizing our work and communicates our action, is certainly critical in the ESG space. I really see the need for more partnerships, Mark, more authentic partnerships. We all need to work better together. We need to understand our space and place within the work, and we need to leverage our work to work together, but really we have to really solidify some deep partnerships and deep relationships. Since we all have our spheres, like you've heard about Chris's sphere and he works in and he operates in, Chris and I both know we need to accelerate system wide transformation of high impact sectors. Like Chris was talking about in energy and mobility, and the only way we'll get to the end goal that we're all trying to seek, is really through partnerships, in my mind. No one can do this work alone. That being said, we do need the market to establish economic diversity and we need advancements in technologies and we need capital. We need a lot of capital to ensure we have investments into this action.

I would definitely say a big need is that partnership brokering, aligned measurements is really critical and using frameworks such as the TCFDs, for instance, is a great one. Ensuring that when we are using tools that we can translate that work because maybe one entity is using TCFDs, the other one isn't, so how do we translate that work and how do we learn from others? How do we have that common language, Mark, I think is something that we need as well. I would say the only other thing is really that thoughtful discussion because I think we're kind of all that this place is, how might we? How might we work better together? How might we evolve our story? How might we better support all of our community to mitigate the risks and ensure that we really are proceeding with best practice. Then story telling and communications. If you can't share what you're doing, Mark, if you can't communicate it then why are you doing it? Our work is about story telling so I think having that need and creating that place and space for story telling is a big part of it. It's a big chapter maybe in the big book. I think, again, we all just need to get on with this work together. I'm all about partnerships, Mark. I think that's critical.

Mark: Thanks, Lisa. So Chris, we heard Lisa talk about this idea of where things are and where things are going in the municipal realm. In your sector, the real estate sector, what's the current state of ESG and where do you see the role of ESG in your sector going in the future, and how do you think that will impact your role as you move forward?

Chris: Sure, absolutely, and I think in my sector it's, and well not just my sector, but perhaps in Europe legislation has evolved slightly differently to Canada. But what we're seeing is ESG it is constantly evolving. There's no question. In Europe we had the relatively new now Taxonomy Regulations, sustainable financial disclosure, reporting requirements as well, we have TCFD in the UK and they're really important pieces of legislation because they drive a level playing field and they're driving the implementation, I guess broadly speaking, the goals of the Paris Agreement. They're trying to get everyone on the same trajectory and I think that's really the change that we're seeing. It's, whether you like it or not, there's more and more requirement to report proactively on your goals, on how you've achieved those goals, reporting requirements so far as well. For the real estate sector, it's important to understand the climate change risk that we face. The transitional risks that we have as well as the physical risks that we're seeing. We've seen over the last 2 to 3 years now increased flood risk, increased risk of fire and overheating. The heat maps are changing and this is something that is happening now, and so we have to react and respond, and the real estate sector is widely understood, accounts for greenhouse emissions globally, so through our asset management strategies we can have a huge influence on that. But it is a challenge because the goalposts are changing and changing quite rapidly in terms of local regulations, building control regulations in different countries, in different regions sometimes as well. So we have to make sure we're up to date with that but our broader objective is our own net zero strategy and, if we've got that right which I believe we have, then that will lead us in the right direction and we'll broadly be aligned with what's happening at our local country level.

I think the other thing is, and this is why things have changed rapidly in quite a short time frame is, the pandemic obviously shed a light on the importance of health and well-being and the social impact that workplaces can have on our own social health and well-being. This is something that from a built environment perspective we can have a really positive impact around. Those factors are changing dramatically. There's a lot of focus more and more on bio-diversity enhancement, environmental enhancement as developers, and so these are the challenges that we face. I think that my role, in the role of ESG, is constantly evolving, partly because of legislation is changing and there's always something new to learn. I think perceptions are changing and people's expectations are changing as well. Both the places they live, the places they work, whether that be a school, an office, a warehouse, whatever it may be. Those expectations have changed dramatically as we've come out of the pandemic situation we've been in. Now in Europe we face a sort of really significant energy crisis as well, driven by external factors, but ESG again has a role to play because if we can diversify the energy sources across our portfolio that will help in the situation that we're in. None of these are things though that you can quickly do overnight. So these are longer term strategies. I think, like Lisa said, the ESG factors are becoming more and more important. More and more prevalent and collaboration is the key. We collaborate with our partners. We collaborate with our tenants. Obviously collaboration internally with our employees and through the charity and the outreach programs that we do. It's vitally important because none of us are going to achieve the objectives we want to achieve on our own. There's winning the hearts and minds of individuals is great but also we've all got to work together. It's a really exciting time.

Mark: Nice, Chris. It's interesting to hear, obviously I'm in Canada and a lot of our participants or our audience is in Canada today, but I think it's fair to say that the UK and in Europe you're dealing with a lot more defining rules and regulation than we are, at the current state in Canada we're a bit behind, so it's interesting to hear what you're saying is current and what will come in the future because I'm sure here in Canada we'll follow suite. The last topic, before we get to some questions and I see a few have popped up in the question section in Zoom here so keep them coming, but we have one more substantive section to cover with our panelists and that is building off the forward the three topics. I want to address some tips and recommendations that Chris and Lisa have seen in their experience in the first 100 days in their roles and their sector. So, Lisa, what are some practical tips you've learned from initiating your ESG plan and maybe, put another way, if someone today was watching, maybe starting out a role in a municipality and other has the title or was given the portfolio of dealing with ESG and they're starting on day 1, what would you tell them? What are some of the tips and some of the recommendations that you'd give them, as far as moving forward through the first 100 day?

Lisa: Thanks, Mark. I think listen and learn would be two things that I would definitely highlight to everyone. Talk to your colleagues. Authentically listen to them. You have SMEs within your organization. You have champions within your organization. I was fortunate. We already had a lot of great work done in Halton. It was just synthesizing that work and then telling our story. So really creating that basis of look at all this stuff we have done, collectively. Now let's leverage that. Let's build upon that. Let's accelerate that work together. I think listening and learning are really key. I think obviously utilizing those frameworks or for municipalities, like I mentioned, we have the PCP program. We're really lucky. We also have other tools from the Federation of Community Municipalities. A tonne of resources. A tonne of tools. Every municipality should be engaged with FCM for sure, Mark. There is a lot of fabulous resources that they can provide for free, which is just an outstanding resource we have here in Canada. I think building terms of reference though for your work or MOUs, project charters, are really needed. You want to define your work. You want to define scope and you want to make sure that your team is all on the same page. Then making sure that everyone knows that they are part of this work. They feel part of the mission and keeping up communication. Everybody interprets communication differently, Mark, so I think using different tools is really important. When I facilitate workshops I'm using MENTEE. I'm using NERO. I'm having pre-meetings with some folks. I'm having post-meetings with other folks. So making sure you have the capacity and time to have those conversations to really engage with like-minded folks within your organization is really important.

Mark: Thanks, Lisa. So same thing, Chris, over to you. If someone today was watching and was starting a new ESG role tomorrow in the real estate sector, what would you tell them?

Chris: I would really echo what Lisa's just saying, actually. It is working with others in the organization. I think if you think you can do everything yourself, you've got to manage your time and you've got to look to who your supporters are and look to those that you can collaborate with. I think working closely with the leadership team or management team is a key part of that. I think ESG, for sure comes from the bottom half as well as the top down, but you've got to have that buy in management team, management committee level, investment committee level as well, that ESG factors in consideration. Get an ear and particularly at the corporate governance level I think it's really important that the 'S' is properly considered and built in as well, which often that it kind of can get overlooked. That is about making sure that if you have charity policies, or if you have data people can use to get involved in charitable activities, that they're well managed and they're well used so that you are getting benefit out of that. But also making sure that community engagement is right and at the right level. Don't forget that. I would say don't forget the 'S' is one of the key things and working at all levels of the company is critical. Those water cooler moments, don't miss an opportunity to, not necessarily be preaching, but just understanding what issues people are facing or challenged with and how maybe sometimes the sustainability angle might bring a different solution. I think one of the issues we sometimes face is people consider sustainability as a challenge, as an uncosted challenge that's going to add time or add costs to something, and that's not always the case. Actually, when you look at things from a more cost benefit analysis perspective, you can see payback periods with new technologies are dropping rapidly. We can see that in some of the projects that we work on. So I would echo Lisa. I would also say remember you're not on your own within the sector as well. There's lots of really good working groups. There's lots of good groups such as the Better Building Partnership in the UK. We have the Green Building Council that have a lot of good initiatives going on. So there's a lot of learning that you can do. I think Lisa said there's an awful lot of online learning. If you're not careful you're just sort of learning various things all the time. So you've got to remember, I think the other important thing is, keep the application in your mind. How does it apply to your industry? That is key. I think it's a collaboration piece, for me. That's the biggest thing and that will be your collaboration team, the team you're working with, who will be your biggest supporters, once people understand the positive impacts that you can have.

Mark: Great. Thanks, Chris, and thanks, Lisa. So we have about 14 minutes to the hour which is great because we have some great questions from the audience and I even have a few, just in case. Maybe what I'll do is I'll start with a question that I think applies equally to Chris and Lisa. So I'll ask it to both of you, starting with Lisa. I think it sort of builds on something that you both have touched on so far which is the idea of a new initiative ESG and any stigmas or pushback that you see in your sector, and more specifically, Ben Stanfield has asked, in starting your ESG strategy work which has been the hardest group of stakeholders to work with? Internal colleagues, customers, investors and how do you win those hearts and minds? So, Lisa, do you mind briefly touching on that for us?

Lisa: Sure, Mark, and thanks, Ben, for the question. The hardest group of stakeholders. You know, I never look at stakeholders as hard. I always look at them as opportunities and I kind of look at them like, again, I think it's that authentic listening, Ben. Try and understand where they're coming from, and who they are and then trying to find that one shared value that you have with them, then building on that value. I think when we talk about this we all want a world that is resilient and that has equity and that we're including everybody on our journey. So I think there's a lot of things, a lot of common ground, that you can have those conversations with. You just have to find out what that stakeholder cares about, and the minute you find that out, I think you'd have a really great conversation with them and then that's where you go from there.

Mark: Thanks, Lisa, and I want to ask you the same question, Chris. I think you probably come from a little bit different perspective because you do have a focus on the bottom line. Where are you seeing the hardest group of stakeholders to work with?

Chris: I think about what Lisa said, I wouldn't say anyone is hard. I think some of our institutional investors have very rigid investor information requirements and requests that they do every year that, obviously, we're always happy to answer but some can be incredibly long and quite detailed. So that can be sometimes quite challenging, just in terms of the data that we need to analyze and interpret. But I think it's the same in all walks, isn't it? Some people can come across as quite demanding but I think what it is, by and large, is when people don't necessarily understand how a strategy can benefit them or how it can influence them. So I think that's what I always try and focus on. But the biggest hearts and mind piece, I believe, is with the internal colleagues because the more people internally you have on your side, whether it's the Chief Investment Officer, Junior Firm Manager, whoever it may be, if they're understanding and everyone's on the same message and same trajectory then the consistency in that messaging is really, really key. Whether it's to our tenant, whether it's to our partners, whether it's to those investor queries, that is really key. I think getting everyone on board and on side is fundamental. Thanks, Ben. Good question.

Mark: Thanks, Ben. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Chris. I want to move through these and I really appreciate the nice comprehensive but concise responses. I think the next one, because I think you both touched on this but I think it would really benefit the audience to hear it again, and that is, and this comes from Anna …, thank you. What are the particular recording standards that either Lisa or Chris find are the gold standards or applicable to multi-types of industries? Anna highlighted the GRI, the SBTI, CDB, the SASB, etcetera, and then she finishes the question with, or is it perhaps best to look at multiple as they each provide some unique criteria? So, Lisa, could I get you to briefly answer that first?

Lisa: Sure. Thanks, Mark. Thanks, Anna, for the question. I think it is where you're coming from, and your organization is coming from, determines the best tool that you're using to advance your work and to accelerate the system-wide transformation that you're trying to achieve. I think it really depends on your organization and what fits best. But that being said, Mark, I think I highlighted this before, whatever everyone's using I think is really important that we have that common language and common conversation, that we can actually interpret and understand what tool you're using and how do we synthesize that just on the same level, the same field. Because without that we can get lost, I think sometimes, in certain standards. I think there's over 25 standards currently right now for ESG. There's a lot of them and it could fit the forward function of different entities better. So I don't think that I would ever want to predetermine what could fit better for an organization. But again, I think whatever you use, if we can just go back to some common language, that would really help as well. I think I'll leave it to that. I'll throw it back to Chris and you.

Chris: I do agree with that. I think it's going to be very dependent on your sector. In the real estate sector we have GRESB, which is a global real estate benchmark, and there's an annual report that they do every year. So as funds we feed into that. You get ranked in relation to your peers. So it's actually really nice way to understand how your funds are performing on sustainability and ESG factors in relation to others. But I appreciate not all sectors would have that. I think it really does depend on what your strategy is, what the key ESG factors you're pursuing. So for example, on there there's SBTI. So if you're implementing a net zero strategy and you want to have your science based target approved, SBTI have got their new standard that they launched earlier this year, or was it last year now? So there's a lot of change going on, I guess is the point here. You've got to be little bit careful, I think, as to what is relevant to you. But look to your peers and see what others are doing and try to understand that. But also understand what your shareholders, investors, stakeholders, what they want to see and that will then lead you in the right direction.

Mark: Thank you both. Thank you, Anna, for the good question. I've got a question for each of you. You can both answer but I think based on my reading it might be best answered by Lisa in one circumstance, and Chris in the other. So maybe first, just given your background, Lisa, there's a good question from Kathryn … and that is, regarding partnerships what role do you see for non-profit environmental organization? She says, I'm asking as a board member of an environmental organization and I know you have extensive background in that field. So, Lisa?

Lisa: Thanks, Mark. Thanks, Kathryn. I think it's a critical role actually. As I mentioned, there's so many different spheres and we all need to work together. I think the not for profit organizations really have quite a large role to play. They are within community. They exist in community. Their function, their form is in community. They can reach stakeholders and have different conversation than a municipality can, than a business can, than many others can. So I do think that they are a sector that we do need to solidify relationships with and we do need to determine a path forward. Here at Halton we do have an MOU with a local ENGO and they are advancing the PCP program in community. So we're not determining, or we're not dictating community, we're working authentically with a community partner, with an ENGO to develop that community climate action plan in that community target setting. So I definitely think that there is a big role for many community organizations to be involved in this work. It's just not about one municipality or one group. It's really about all of us together, one business community, all of the sectors working together and then determining how that work should be conducted and putting an MOU together, I think Mark, is always a great idea just because then you have that good governance to ensure the work is getting done.

Mark: Thanks, Lisa. Chris, I didn't want to not allow you to answer that question, but I have a very similar question that maybe comes a bit more from your angle and that's from Beth … She says, how do you recommend Toronto Stock Exchange listed company select a board committee for board oversight of ESG's initiatives, and I think you can apply this to generally in the financial sector or any company that might be on a public exchange.

Chris: I think for that it's selecting the ball committee. What you've got to ensure is that they're representatives for each key area of the business and that needs to include risk and governance and it needs to include, if it's an investment organization, someone who has input into the investment committee. Probably the Chief Investment Officer, potentially, and I think it then needs to also be someone who's sort of taking on board the social responsibility elements and that might be an HR Director, Head of HR type person. I briefly mentioned earlier that I do believe that sustainability and ESG management is a bottom up as well as top down approach, but in terms of that board oversight, you need people who are in key influencing roles within the business to make sure that trickle down influence is coming. That's the key thing is to think about the environmental and the social and the governance aspects and how they fit within the structure of our business, and there needs to be oversight as well. You need to make sure that you're pulling in the relevant expertise so whether it is an ESG Manager, or a Development Director, bringing in those nuanced insights that are going to inform the board and inform that committee because I think that's the other thing that is really challenging. A lot of those people have very busy roles already and so it's making sure that they have the knowledge at hand to inform the decisions that they need to be making in leading their company down its ESG strategy. So I hope that helps.

Mark: Thanks a lot, Chris. We have a few more questions and I do want to stay on time but I think we have a quick low hanging fruit one for Lisa, because she touched on it earlier. We will commit, for any that we didn't answer, to responding. But Mira … has a question, has Halton Region worked with Indigenous Nations in the ESG sphere? If yes, what type of role Indigenous Nations played in this work? Lisa?

Lisa: Thanks, Mark. Thanks, Mira, that's a great question. Specifically with ESG, I'd have to pause. I'd have to actually go to Eddie Robinson. He is our Indigenous lead and he has actually developed an MOU with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. So we have a memo of understanding with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and anyone can check it out, actually, on our website and read about that relationship and that agreement. There are elements that we talk and we do work together with climate for sure, Mira, but specifically I'd want Eddie to respond to that. But we do have an MOU with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and we are doing other work as well with other Indigenous Nations throughout the Halton Region.

Mark: Thanks, Lisa. So we're on the hour. Thank you so much to everybody that attended today. Like I said, we'll endeavour to answer any questions that we didn't get to. I really want to thank Lisa and Chris for taking the time. We really appreciate it. I think you guys did a great job, and obviously come from different perspectives, but we saw a lot of synergies and I think our audience benefitted greatly from hearing from both of you. Also to our Marketing Team, thank you very much for helping to put this on, and with that, we'll wrap it up. But please do stay tuned. There are two more webinars in this series and the dates will be coming out soon so stay tuned. Hope everyone has a great day. Thanks a lot. Bye.

Chris: Thanks. Thanks, Mark.