Audrey Cauchet
Head of Sustainability
At a time when the risk of greenwashing is coming under increasing scrutiny from supervisory authorities, particularly in the financial sector, there is no denying that integrity has become a cardinal value like fairness, trust and transparency.
Our vision of integrity
In our Code of Conduct, we have made two commitments relating to the corporate value ‘integrity’, namely:
- Working with our customers and partners in a spirit of partnership, loyalty and transparency.
- Proposing solutions with integrity and conviction, avoiding conflicts of interest.
At a time when the risk of greenwashing is coming under increasing scrutiny from supervisory authorities, particularly in the financial sector, there is no denying that integrity has become a cardinal value like fairness, trust and transparency.
Increasing regulatory requirements relating to sustainability issues are often perceived as constraints. Whether in the European Union with the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and the CS3D (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive), or in Switzerland with the Code of Obligations (Art. 964 ss) and self-regulations on clients’ ESG preferences, it is now becoming difficult, if not impossible, to hide behind false pretences.
And what if, in the end, these regulations were a godsend, a safeguard promoting integrity while guaranteeing fair competition between companies required to publish comparable information?
Here’s how ONE swiss bank strives to remain honest in its approach to sustainability.
Integrity is one of the cornerstones of our sustainability strategy
Any organisation that wants to embark on a viable approach to sustainability has no choice but to do so with integrity. Why? Because beyond common sense, an organisation is part of an ecosystem and cannot be self-sufficient. Its various stakeholders (employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, etc.) who are upstream, at the heart or downstream of its value chain, need to create a relationship of trust based on a clear ‘social contract’.
In a highly competitive and increasingly regulated world, organisations are becoming increasingly fearful, and some may tend to want to ‘do too much’, by deliberately or inadvertently providing incorrect information. For example, some companies include in their sustainability reports significant figures for avoided greenhouse gas emissions, but without providing any explanation of how they were calculated. When you consider how complicated the methodology is (see the Net Zero Initiative’s Pillar B guide developed by Carbone 4 – Net Zero Initiative – The pillar B guide), there is plenty to be puzzled about…
Integrity and prevention of greenwashing in the financial sector
On 19 June 2024, the Federal Council announced that it was opting for a self-regulatory approach to preventing greenwashing in the financial sector, referring to the self-regulations/guidelines published by the AMAS and the SBA on clients’ ESG preferences.
As a reminder, in May 2024, the SBA updated its guidelines, which came into force on 1 September 2024, in which it goes further than in the previous version of October 2023, namely:
- The addition of a definition of ‘sustainable’ investments (see detailed classification in Appendix 3 of the AMAS self-regulation).
- New requirements relating to the prevention of greenwashing (risk identification and training needs).
- Verification of compliance with its directives by the external auditor.
To simplify things, we often talk about ESG funds or investments, but the acronym ‘ESG’ refers to criteria. It is better to talk about responsible investments (exclusion, ESG integration, proxy voting, etc.) to avoid any confusion.
At ONE swiss bank, we never talk about sustainable investments because we apply two approaches in our funds: exclusion and ESG integration. In the interests of integrity and transparency, we published this year our Responsible Investment Charter on our website, so that our partners and the wider market know what solutions we are offering to date.
Words are important, and the term ‘sustainable’ unfortunately tends to be overused. So, we need to be careful, without resorting to ‘greenhushing’, which is just as damaging to a company’s reputation as ‘greenwashing’.