Private Equity European ESG Summit 2022 - Hosted by Private Equity Wire

What should your business know about SFDR and where should you be on the timeline to compliance?
Article 8 funds v. Article 9 funds – relative benefits of these categorisations and the accompany reporting burdens
Collecting and reporting on data for SFDR - what are the solutions?
Discussing the different reporting standards for SFDR principles – e.g. many are struggling with Article IV’s freedom of expression score
How do the EU Taxonomy Rules complicate the SFDR
How to factor in the complexities of different underlying investments and asset classes
What are the added complexities for asset managers in adapting to the EU taxonomy and the sustainable finance disclosure regulation
Following changes in Europe is SEC regulation on the way? How will this play out?
How do managers deal with a patchwork of regulation and regional peculiarities – like challenges around tracking employee diversity in France?

Making progress: aligning manager and investor interests on ESG – how to collaborate in the reporting process and what are the operational headaches?
How do investment consultants think about and judge asset managers’ ESG capabilities, from portfolio approaches to gender diversity within investment teams and across-the-board ESG risk management?
Is there a disconnect between asset managers and allocators/consultants when it comes to ESG expectations from funds?
How do ESG expectations now play into the investor due diligence process

Making sure you are focused on the right elements of ESG – where do you need to prioritise and how to get it right? How can smaller firms do this practically and not lose out in the ESG arms race with the big players?
How much budget do you assign to ESG and how do you spend it wisely and effectively?
How do you introduce and integrate the different tenets of ESG?
How to create a compelling ESG policy and roadmap – do you start from scratch or pull in other strategies around climate, governance or diversity?
How can your business become operationally ESG mindful?
What do you focus on first? Carbon footprint, diversity etc
How to coherently showcase these initiatives to portfolio companies and LPs – do you use an annual report or ESG AGM

With multiple standards and reporting options, what represents best practice?
How to partner with service providers to get your reporting right
Using ESG benchmarks, scorecards and third-party data sources – are these genuinely useful? And how best to leverage an array of different reports and rating standards
Is ESG data the new edge for PE firms? How is the lack of high-quality ESG data hampering PE’s efforts to invest responsibly?
With across-the-board disclosures and consistent reporting standards still lacking, how should asset managers discriminate between companies?
How much should asset managers rely on ESG ratings providers for a picture of a company’s sustainability?
Are we reaching a tipping point with regulation such as the EU SFDR providing an answer to the problem of reporting, or should asset managers themselves be doing more to motivate investee companies to disclose non-financial data?