Switched-on non-executive directors will ensure climate change remains on a board’s agenda.
The exciting world of the non-executive director (NED)! Just as you thought we were emerging from Covid, companies are thrown back into the choppy waves of ‘climate change, with a surge of motivated interest groups, governments and ‘woke’ investors. With plenty of isolation time to fill during the pandemic, COP26 and the plethora of climate change documentaries and shows became avid viewing. The increasing profile of the ‘eco warrior’ became galvanised by the enigmatic personality of Greta Thunberg. Climate change is increasingly on the boardroom agenda and rising up that agenda with a vengeance. The climate change maelstrom is demanding that all boards demonstrate their eco credentials, The investor communities, through the pension and investor funds, have switched on to the consumer mood, especially the giant public pension and sovereign investor funds, who are looking to ‘do good’ as well as advance their portfolios. Also, the leading investment management companies are seeking to respond to their consumers and also recognising the waning potential for growth in ‘unwoke’ companies and sectors. There are still boards where the response to this growing pressure is somewhat parochial, seeing Greta Thunberg as unrealistic, childish and out of touch with reality. They fail to recognise her as a catalyst, mobilising her generation to a greater awareness of the global impacts of climate change on their futures. In addressing this climate imperative, she is not addressing our stale and pale boards, but a generation who are open and ready to listen to her powerful strategic message.
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