Singapore, 15 April 2024 – Successful business operations and a climate-secure world go hand-in-hand. The urgency of climate change, interest in sustainability disclosures, and emerging regulations call for change to be driven from within. The Board of Directors, being at the helm, needs to consciously steer sustainability.
Sustainable business practices and effective climate governance contribute to long-term value creation for companies. This was the key message of The Climate in the Boardroom, a forum and networking session organised by the Council for Board Diversity (CBD). The Ecosperity Week 2024 partner event – attended by 70 board directors and C-suites – addressed climate-related risks and opportunities through effective, climate-cognisant board governance.

“Incorporating sustainability and climate considerations into board oversight ensures that the issues are integrated into the company’s overall strategic direction. This helps align the organisation’s goals with emerging trends, stakeholder expectations, and long-term opportunities related to sustainability and climate action,” observed Loh Boon Chye, CEO and Board Director, SGX Group, during the event’s 30-minute panel discussion.

Mr Loh, who also serves as a Co-chair of CBD, was joined on the panel by global thought leader Mindy Lubber, CEO & President, Ceres, and Deborah Ho, Country Head of Singapore and Regional Head of SE Asia, BlackRock; and Co-Chair, Singapore Sustainable Finance Association.

Recent CBD data underscores substantial growth in board-level sustainability governance, with more than a quarter of top 100 SGX-listed issuers having established a board sustainability committee as at end December 2023. Of these, some had extended the remit of a board committee, for example, an audit committee into an audit and sustainability committee. In comparison, in FY2017, the year sustainability reporting became mandatory for SGX-listed issuers, only six of the top 100 SGX-listed companies had board committees with responsibility for sustainability.

Established by the Singapore government in 2019, CBD produces an annual report on the state of board diversity covering organisations listed on the Singapore Exchange, all statutory boards and the 100 largest Institutions of a Public Character (IPCs). The 2024 report is slated to be released in a month.