Real Deals ESG Conference 2024

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Registration, coffee & networking
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Chair’s welcome and opening remarks
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Opening keynote
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Private equity’s role in leading climate action - how private capital can accelerate and guide behavioural change in society
  • Examine how the sector has gone from ESG laggards to leaders in less than a decade
  • The drivers, both financial and social, behind the rapid shift in outlook towards ESG
  • Fiduciary versus finality - why the planet cannot wait for a profit-driven response to climate change
  • Exploring the need for a more harmonised regulatory framework to support the global efforts of private capital and ESG
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Case study / OOTB Speaker
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Coffee & Networking
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Tech Showcase

Build out your ESG ecosystem with five presentations from technology platforms & services

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Lunch & Networking
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Taking the lead on social action: The CEOs engendering diversity across their firm and investments
  • Reflecting on differing board approaches to organisational ‘social’ action - should change be enforced or developed organically
  • Delving into the statistics underpinning the value of diversity within organisations
  • Discussing the gender pay gap, and how firms have approached reducing the long-standing barrier
  • How developing diversity throughout a firm will create value throughout the portfolio
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WORKSHOP STREAM A: Dancing around reporting demands - how best to refine LP ESG requests
  • Information on ESG mitigation is ever-growing and increasingly burdensome, can firms cut through the tsunami of reporting requests
  • How best to engage and communicate the challenges of reporting between LP, GP & Portco
  • Aligning attitudes across the value chain, where can efficiencies be created and where are the greatest hurdles
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WORKSHOP STREAM B: AI as a tool to drive sustainability - how to use emerging softwares to maximise ESG adherence
  • What solutions can AI solve in its current forms and how it is being used by firms
  • What talent is required to use AI technologies within a firm/portfolio
  • Discuss the future of AI and where it might evolve to accelerate ESG and climate action
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WORKSHOP STREAM A: Discerning about data - the importance of selecting the correct benchmarks and datasets for your ESG strategy
  • Choosing the right benchmark and databases for your organisation, why industry-standards matter
  • Practical routes to utilising the mass of ESG data most effectively
  • Why collecting, collating and utilising your ESG data will benefit portfolio development in the long-term
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WORKSHOP STREAM B: Focusing on materiality - why firms should take a highly selective approach to portfolio company’s ESG impacts and how-to refine a hierarchy of needs
  • Developing ESG strategies can often be caught-up on climate action, but what are the alternatives?
  • Why developing a unique ESG approach can best serve your investment strategy
  • Understanding where your firm can make the greatest impacts and becoming champions of ‘your’ cause
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Coffee & Networking
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The ESG ecosystem: creating positive change throughout the value chain
  • The benefits of embedding standardised ESG policy and processes throughout a portfolio
  • Can supply chains be protected from human rights abuses, corruption or misdeeds
  • How to validate improvements along value chains, the third-party accreditations mitigating against malfeasance
  • Tools firms can use to embed ESG within their portcos and why knowledge-sharing is so crucial to the swift implementation of solutions
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Drinks reception

Real Deals ESG Conference 2024

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Registration, coffee & networking
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Chair’s welcome and opening remarks
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Expert Presentation
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LP perspective: what is the meaning of “true” ESG integration
  • An LP-only panel discussing their expectations of GPs and their portcos
  • What is and is not considered ESG action by LPs - and how to avoid unintentional greenwashing
  • A guide to greater understanding between parties on expectations on reporting and materiality
  • Why effective communication of ESG objectives will save time, money and the environment
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Coffee & networking
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Case study/ OOTB Speaker
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Fireside Chat: The commerciality of quantifying ESG. How integrating ESG becomes a core driver for value creation
  • Pragmatic approaches to quantifying and evaluating a variety of ESG metrics
  • Understanding the linkages between ESG data, material efforts and value creation
  • From due diligence to acquisition to exit - the value of ESG at different stages of the investment cycle
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Sustainability-linked loans - The Debt products encouraging better ESG outcomes
  • Do sustainability-linked subscription lines create an attractive new avenue for credit
  • What are the costs, benefits and pitfalls associated with sustainability-linked loans
  • How long until sustainability become an essential element of debt products
  • Understand the varied requirements that make sustainable-credit viable
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Lunch & networking
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The rising costs of ESG - reconsidering the balance of budget between LP/GP/Portco
  • As ESG demands grow, budgets and teams struggle with resourcing - can the financial obligations be more equally distributed between parties?
  • What is the necessary resourcing for a modern ESG team - size, scope and expertise.
  • Can ESG be linked to bonuses and carry? What KPIs define success in this regard?
  • Sunk cost or easy value-add - where is ESG adherence headed from a commercial perspective
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Coffee & Networking Break
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The Big Debate: The House believes that the utility of the EU’s ESG Fund Articles are no longer fit for purpose
  • The EU’s Article 8 & 9 classifications have come under scrutiny for the ambiguity of how or what justifies the designation. With many concerned the requirements for an Article 9 fund can be manipulated to include high-performing, high-emitting companies.
  • The panel will argue for and against examples that can be found in Article 9 funds
  • Do ‘activist’ investors create lasting change through ‘impact-focused’ funds?
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Champagne roundtable discussions
  1. Assessing biodiversity impacts - how to engage with the emerging and costly push for biodiversity mitigation
  2. The carrot & stick approach - can tying ESG KPIs to carry and bonuses drive faster change
  3. Gender pay as a reporting initiative - why removing pay gaps is essential element of equity and inclusivity
  4. SFDR/SDR/TCFD - interpreting the rules of the game, aligning your firm and portfolio to expanding regulatory directives
  5. Convergence or divergence - a conversation on where European ESG regulation is headed in 2024
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Chair’s closing remarks