The Annual Report that BM&FBOVESPA published on its website (www.bmfbovespa.com.br) on Thursday contained a combination of economic-financial, social and environmental aspects for the first time ever. The publication of the integrated report is based on the understanding that these three dimensions are interlinked and should be communicated simultaneously, granting the market better conditions to analyze the company’s performance in the period covered.
The document follows the guidelines proposed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), an international standard for the publication of reports, and thus represents the fruition of efforts made since 2009 to implement this methodology. To date, the GRI standard has been adopted by around 2,000 companies throughout the world, around 200 of which are Brazilian. This integrated report is innovative in that it simultaneously publishes information about sustainability, which is normally only made available two to three months after meeting with analysts and investors.
With this initiative the Exchange intends to encourage the inclusion, in analysis and in investment decisions, of firms’ environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) practices.
Main activities in 2010
The annual report presents the main advances that BM&FBOVESPA has made in 2010 as regards sustainability and social investment, including:
- In March, BM&FBOVESPA adhered to the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and also took part in the PRI working group in Brazil to stimulate the involvement of companies.
- In May it became the second Exchange in the world and the first in the Americas to publish an annual report in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines.
- Between June and July, BM&FBOVESPA promoted Dialogs with Stakeholders in the Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE), with the intent of debating the five years of this index’s existence. The invited publics – press, experts, companies, employees and investors – also put forward suggestions and proposals for the development of the index.
- In another commemoration of ISE’s anniversary, in November, the Exchange held the “International Sustainability Indexes Seminar: Analyses and Perspectives” and the book launch for “ISE: Sustainability in the Capital Market”.
- In September, BM&FBOVESPA published the first Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory. Based on the methodology of the Brazil GHG Protocol Program, the inventory showed that in 2009 the Exchange released 1,577 tons of CO2 equivalents – a measure used as a standard for various types of greenhouse gas emissions.
- In December, the Exchange and the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) launched the Carbon Efficient Index (ICO2), which recalculates the IBrX-50 based on companies’ greenhouse gas emissions.
- Another highlight was the work developed by BM&FBOVESPA as interlocutor and representative at the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), to encourage debate about sustainability in the capital markets.
- Social investment activities in the private sector were reorganized from legal, financial and conceptual standpoints in 2010. The social initiatives stemming from BM&F and BOVESPA were maintained and brought together within the BM&FBOVESPA Institute for Social and Environmental Responsibility, whose statue was revised and broadened.
Click here to read to the report.