Nasdaq announced the milestones achieved in 2020 to advance its environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices, as part of its company-wide commitment to sustainability. Nasdaq’s ESG efforts are successfully reflected both in its work with corporate clients, and within its own operations.
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“Nasdaq has always been driven by purpose – to create better markets by leveraging innovative technology and empowering people to reach their potential,” said Evan Harvey, Global Head of Sustainability, Nasdaq. “Our commitment to corporate and environmental sustainability underscores our efforts to ensure all stakeholders can achieve growth and prosperity.”
As Nasdaq nears its 50th anniversary, which will be celebrated in February 2021, the company remains deeply committed to long-term ESG advocacy, innovation, and philanthropy to engage with stakeholders at all levels.
Nasdaq’s 2020 ESG highlights:
| Corporate & Community Efforts | |
| Initiative | Description |
| Purpose Initiative | Launched Purpose Initiative to advance Nasdaq’s mission of inclusive growth and prosperity. Our philanthropic, community outreach, corporate sustainability, and employee volunteerism programs seek to support communities with the resources needed to grow and sustain their businesses. |
| Nasdaq Foundation | Relaunched the Nasdaq Foundation in September with a renewed mission to advance financial literacy and financial independence through our commitment to entrepreneurship. The foundation’s work and philanthropy will focus on providing financial and entrepreneurship education to under-served communities. |
| Corporate Philanthropy & Community Engagement |
In a time of unprecedented crisis, Nasdaq leveraged its GoodWorks charitable giving program to maximize philanthropic impact to communities in need. Total funds raised by employees, and matched by Nasdaq, was approximately $7.5 million2 in 2020. GoodWorks also transitioned to virtual volunteer activities to keep our employees and partners safe while reaffirming our support to the communities in which we operate.
In addition, Nasdaq pledged cash and in-kind donations totaling $9 million to organizations and business partners focused on COVID-19 relief and social justice-related causes. |
| The Board Challenge | Nasdaq signed on to The Board Challenge as a Charter Pledge Partner to accelerate change and drive visibility around the importance and value of increasing board-level diversity. Established in September 2020, The Board Challenge encourages boards of directors of U.S. companies to add a Black director by the end of 2021. |
| ESG Reporting & Performance |
Nasdaq continued its commitment to advance its sustainability disclosures with key stakeholders in the investment community through annualized ESG reporting. Nasdaq scored in the seventh percentile by Sustainalytics, which noted Nasdaq’s “strong management of material ESG issues and corporate governance performance.” Nasdaq also received notable score improvements from EcoVadis, MSCI ESG Research, and Institutional Shareholder Services.
For the first time, Nasdaq published comprehensive diversity statistics regarding gender and ethnicity in its annual Sustainability Report, achieving a commitment made by the executive leadership team. This data serves as a benchmark for Nasdaq’s on-going commitment to equality. |
| Carbon Neutrality & Environmental Sustainability |
Nasdaq achieved its continued commitment to be carbon neutral3 across all business operations through the purchase of green power, carbon offsets, and renewable energy certificates. In addition, Nasdaq has implemented a new program to remove single-use items from all office pantries to reduce waste. |
| ESG Index Inclusion | Named to the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index for the fifth consecutive year. |
| LGBTQ Equality | Named “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality” by the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for the second consecutive year. |
| Commitment to Workforce Equality |
Nasdaq is committed to advancing equality across its global workforce by increasing investments in its diversity and inclusion efforts. This includes enhancing the company’s communication, training, development, professional advancement, and talent acquisition programs. |
Nasdaq is intensely focused on ensuring its clients are able to navigate the future of sustainable business. Leveraging the company’s unique position where the financial, corporate, and regulatory communities intersect, this expertise will allow Nasdaq to develop a range of ESG-focused technologies and solutions that can enable clients to achieve their ESG objectives.
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| ESG Services & Solutions for Clients | |
| Offering | Description |
| Nasdaq OneReport | Acquired OneReport to accelerate delivery of Nasdaq’s ESG reporting and workflow solution to corporate clients. The platform will help companies streamline the data gathering and response process to provide an efficient way to send ESG-related data to ratings agencies and other important stakeholders. |
| Strategic Investment in Matter | Announced a strategic investment in the sustainability and reporting provider Matter to advance sustainable investing capabilities through transparent ESG information, analytics and reporting that powers the Nasdaq ESG Footprint solution. |
| Nasdaq Sustainable Bond Network |
The Nasdaq Sustainable Bond Network, launched in December 2019, now includes data on 4,500 bonds as well as allocation and impact data for over 250 sustainable bond issuers from 27 countries and multinational entities. In December 2020, Nasdaq announced a partnership with SGX to expand coverage of sustainable bond data to include the Asia-Pacific region. |
| Nasdaq IR Intelligence’s ESG Advisory |
Nasdaq’s ESG Advisory analysts work with companies to help them capture the growing pool of ESG-dedicated capital and investors that incorporate ESG metrics into their investment process. Growth in ESG Advisory client engagements has tripled since its launch in 2019. |
| ESG Index Futures Milestone | OMXS30 ESG Index Futures has reached 2.5 million contracts since its launch in 2018. |
| eVestment ESG Data | eVestment’s ESG data now includes asset flows data on more than 1,071 firms globally, with over 8,800 strategies constituting $25 trillion in AUM managed with ESG considerations. |
| eVestment’s next-generation ESG Questionnaire | In October, eVestment debuted a new ESG questionnaire to bring increased transparency and value to the reporting, sharing and reviewing of asset manager ESG data. |
| ESG Data Portal | The Nasdaq ESG Data Portal, launched in 2018, now includes ESG-related data from 626 companies. |
| Advancing Board Diversity |
Filed a new proposed U.S. listing requirement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that seeks to standardize board-level diversity statistics through a consistent disclosure framework. The proposal includes a recommended minimum diversity goal of two diverse directors through a ‘comply or explain’ framework and is subject to SEC approval. |
| European Diversity Network | Collaborated with the Allbright Foundation to promote diversity and gender equality work among listed and non-listed companies in the Nordic region. |