The President of CSE speaker at the New York, 2012 Wall Street Green Summit

Nikos Avlonas Founder and President of CSE in his keynote speech at Wall Street Summit in NY on March 20th about “How GRI and CDP Reporting criteria Facilitate Investment Decisions” for mainstream investors, underlined the need for more corporate transparency though Sustainability Reporting and also the growing trend of investors to take under considerations ESG risks.

Mr. Avlonas emphasized that non-financial performance indicators (ie those related to ESG risks) are regarded as important by senior executives, investors and Sustainability (CSR) Managers while Companies are slow in integrating non-financial performance measurements in the mainstream business strategy internally and communicating these externally. At the same time, now, investors are incorporating non-financial indicators into valuation models more than they did in the past. Sustainable and Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) in the United States continue to grow at a faster pace than the broader universe of conventional investment assets under professional management. In an effort to highlight the professional asset management strategies based on SRI, Mr. Avlonas noted that in 2010 these strategies stood at $3.07 trillion, representing a rise of more than 380 percent from $639 billion in 1995. Finally, referring to Sustainability Reporting, he highlighted the importance of adhering to international reporting standards such as GRI, UN Global Compact and CDP.

The Wall Street Green Summit is the longest running and most comprehensive environmental market event in the industry, launched in 2002 in New York.