Ceres, a sustainability nonprofit organization that works with influential investors and companies to build leadership and drive solutions throughout the economy, issued a report on 14 September titled "Lead From the Top: Building Sustainability Competence on Corporate Boards." The report posits that company boards must be sustainability-competent in order to achieve long-term financial performance goals, increase the company's competitive advantage, and meet their fiduciary responsibilities to the companies.
The report identifies key characteristics that make up sustainability-competent boards and provides key practices that corporate directors can utilize to ensure their boards are competent to make thoughtful decisions on issues such as climate change, water scarcity, and pollution. Specifically, Ceres argues that a sustainability-competent board has the following characteristics:
- Integrates knowledge of material sustainability issues into the board nominating process to recruit directors that ask the right questions
- Educates directors on material sustainability issues to allow for thoughtful deliberation and strategic decision-making at the board level
- Engages with external stakeholders and experts on relevant sustainability issues
Watch a video on sustainability-compentent boards from Ceres: