Sustainable Trading, the non-profit organisation aiming to transform environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices in the financial markets trading sector, has added seven new firms from across the trading industry to its membership network. Joining the 41 firms already participating in the industry initiative are Barclays, Liquidnet, Mizuho International, Rand Merchant Bank, Schroders, State Street and Telehouse.
Since its launch in February 2022, Sustainable Trading has established a set of working groups and specialist sub-groups to assess the practical ESG issues the sector currently faces. The organisation is now working closely with member firms to develop a set of ESG best practices tailored to the trading industry.
“We’re about a third of the way through the first iteration of that process,” says Founder and Director Duncan Higgins. “We set up six detailed working groups, on subjects from technology and infrastructure all the way through to governance practices, including elements such as diversity, inclusion and employee wellbeing. We’ve been exploring these areas in some depth with our members, having people share their experiences and progress they’ve made in their firms. We’re now digesting all that information before we release it in aggregated form, showing where there are common areas of activity and where some firms are doing things that are particularly impressive. From that we can begin to document a set of best practices for those activities.”
Higgins provides a couple of examples of focus areas. “We’re looking at all sorts of things, from reuse and recycling of hardware through to how you’re set up within a data centre, how you manage power for your trading infrastructure and so on. From a Social perspective, we’re looking at practical changes such as how you write your job descriptions in your adverts to make sure you don’t put off diverse candidates, how you go through the interview process with those candidates and how you demonstrate that your firm is committed and focused on supporting diversity.”
Sustainable Trading has recently moved to an office in the City of London and appointed two Member Engagement Consultants, who will support the organisation’s delivery workstreams and work with both existing and prospective members as the network grows.
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