Newsletter

SMI Quarterly Newsletter – July 2022

July 2022 Newsletter

Welcome to the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Summer newsletter. We are pleased to share several exciting updates from the last three months. As ever, this would not be possible without the ongoing work of our SMI Task Force CEOs and companies, in addition to our wider network of partnerships and supporters. We would like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for all you are doing to advance the vital aims of the SMI.

A selection of key highlights are included below, with further detail in the main body of the newsletter:

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2022 (CHOGM), June 2022: SMI hosted the first ever Terra Carta House at CHOGM, including a two-day events programme for SMI CEOs, CHOGM delegates and High Commissioners. The Terra Carta House held 20 events and welcomed over 400+ persons, including heads of state, ministers, and high commissioners, representing most of the 54 Commonwealth nationalities.
Terra Carta Design Lab: On 27th April, to mark International Design Day, the SMI and the Royal College of Art have announced the winners of the Terra Carta Design Lab. Out of 125 original submissions, four teams of the Royal College of Art have been chosen as the winners of the inaugural Terra Carta Design Lab . Winners will receive £50,000 funding to support their project, in addition to mentoring from Sir Jony Ive, Chancellor of the Royal College of Art, and the corporate members of the SMI network.
SMI CEO Summit, May 2022: Following the successful SMI CEO Summit of May 2022, new CEO vignettes have been created and published on social networks. They have being positively received across SMI social media channels. These new vignettes include testimonials of CEOs from Santander Group, Octopus Energy, John Lewis Partnership and State Street.
Climate Leadership Awards Hall of Fame: The Climate Leadership Conference and Awards, based in the United States, recognised SMI organisations to be inducted into the Climate Leadership Awards Hall of Fame. These organisations have shown leadership in reducing GHG emissions.

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2022 (CHOGM)

Taking place in Kigali, Rwanda at the end of June, the CHOGM 2022 programme included roundtables, panel discussions, “in-conversation with” events, dinners, receptions, and nightcaps, all focused on the main SMI themes for CHOGM: Green Hydrogen, E-mobility, Healthcare, Scaling Climate and Nature Finance and the Global Fund. The SMI also hosted a roundtable focused on the launch of the SMI-Fast-INFRA-Sustainable Infrastructure Foundation Partnership, with Brian Moynihan and Christophe Dossarps.

The team also hosted an exhibition stand at the Commonwealth Business Forum, where the stand’s design highlighted the SMI, Terra Carta, Terra Carta Design Lab, and The Prince’s Trust Foundation. The stand attracted great interest, with a number of CEOs discussing the Terra Carta and signing up as Terra Carta supporters. The SMI stand was honorably one of the few selected to be visited by Rwandan President, Paul Kagame.

The Commonwealth supports the Terra Carta: As a key outcome of CHOGM, the 54 members of the Commonwealth lent their support to the Terra Carta in the 2022 Leaders' Statement . The Leaders "commended His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales for the creation of the Terra Carta for Nature, People, and Planet, and recognised its value as a blueprint for public-private collaboration in making markets sustainable for the future".
Launch of the Sustainable Infrastructure Accelerator Partnership: At CHOGM, the SMI also launched the sustainable infrastructure accelerator partnership with the Sustainable Infrastructure Foundation and FAST-Infra Platform to provide a catalyst for global transition to a sustainable future and accelerate private sector investment into sustainable infrastructure. This roundtable was co-hosted by Brian Moynihan, SMI Co-chair and CEO of Bank of America, and Christophe Dossarps, CEO of Sustainable Infrastructure Foundation.
Private sector investment: In reference to earlier communications, the SMI commissioned Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC to develop project delivery tools to improve the scaling of private sector investment in support of sustainability priorities. These include a project development tool to help project sponsors develop projects in a robust way; and under development is a Project Development Unit Network, which will facilitate stronger collaboration between public and private sectors to achieve global goals.

SMI CEOs addressed an Op-Ed to the G7

As G7 leaders gathered for this year’s summit in Germany, SMI CEOs urged the G7 governments to put in place the market signals that will stimulate private investment. The 22 CEOs signatories of the letter included Bank of America, bp, Deloitte, EY, HSBC, KPMG, Mahindra Group, PwC, Shell, Sustainable Food Trust, and WaterAid UK.

In this open letter, CEOs are asked for ambitious government climate policies "that offer the private sector clarity and stability" and called for measures to boost demand for clean technology. The Op-Ed reinforced that transformation of industry practices must start now. SMI presented three critical opportunities to effectively overcome the barriers as we move towards sustainability:

Establishing a meaningful carbon price and effective carbon markets;
Optimizing the impact of public funds;
And setting government mandates that offer the private sector clarity and stability.

Spotlight on the Energy Transition Task Force

In the past weeks, the Energy Transition Task Force has published two important reports:

How to accelerate the pace of renewable energy deployment : This report, compiled by some of the leading renewable power companies across the globe, makes recommendations to scale up the deployment of wind and solar developments. It provides guiding principles across three cornerstones needed for an effective renewable energy strategy: Regulatory Best Practices; Enabling Grid (transmission and interconnection); and Enabling Environment.
Putting customers at the heart of the energy transition : This second report provides tools and resources to guide companies in putting their customers at the center of the Energy Transition, showing how energy companies can make it easier for customers to do things that benefit the whole energy system. The report also touches on how the finance sector has a role to play in providing funding at different scales and with different risk profiles to meet the needs of customers large and small across the globe.

For a complete view of the outputs of the Energy Transition Task Force, visit their page

Terra Carta Seal

To date, we have over 480+ Terra Carta Supporters. A list of the Supporters can be found here , and this list is updated on a regular basis to reflect new Supporters.

The TC Seal process for 2022 is in full swing after invitations were sent to companies in late May. Since then, many positive responses have been received confirming the willingness of companies to apply for this honorable award. Companies have until August 5th to submit their application and provide all required evidence of their journey to net-zero. Once applications are submitted, our partner, Corporate Knights, will assess which companies have met the Terra Carta Seal criteria:

Being a Terra Carta Supporter;
Providing evidence of the existence of, or the development of, a credible roadmap for reaching net-zero by 2050 and/or reaching a 50% greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction by 2035;
And providing evidence of the use of globally standardised sustainability reporting metrics

What's Coming UP

September: The next CEO summit will be held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York – which happens at the same time as New York Climate Week. Brian Moynihan will host SMI CEOs at the Bank of America New York offices. The team is already preparing the several events it will host at Goals House.

September: The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Great Green Wall Accelerator and the World Economic Forum are planning an event at the NYC Climate Week, planned in September 2022. The event will focus on the Great Green Wall value chains and reporting on a study being undertaken by the World Economic Forum.

November: The Terra Carta Action Forum has been scheduled to take place at the start of COP27. The team has developed an engagement strategy around COP27, that will be offered to all Task Forces members, key contacts, Terra Carta Seal awardees and the S30 to drive engagement.