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Billed as the “biggest climate event on Earth,” Climate Week NYC 2022 is underway — and financial services firms are backing the cause.
Ralston Roberts, CEO of agency broker dealer Instinet, said the company is bringing its technological expertise, innovation and initiative to reduce carbon emissions and encourage other capital markets firms to participate.
“We’ve had the opportunity to deliver positive change in the marketplace, and we’re excited about repurposing that energy into sustainability,” Roberts said in a Nasdaq TradeTalks interview.
Instinet began its sustainability push in 2020 with a review of its operational footprint. As Roberts explained, the company used the industry-wide importance of electronic commerce as a starting point. “We recognized the growing demand for energy consumption and the footprint it was going to have on the world, and we decided we had to do something to get ahead of it.”
That “one thing” is the motivation for eStinet to reduce its carbon footprint to zero by 2025. “The quickest way to do that was to power our data centers using renewable energy sources,” Roberts said. “We’ve had great success. Our order management system, Newport, is virtually carbon neutral.
NYC 2022 Climate Week sponsors include household name corporations such as Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Google, Nike, PepsiCo and GM.
Nasdaq is a partner in the Financial Program, which focuses on economic opportunities to identify and mitigate climate risks. It provides a lens to examine the initiatives and roadmaps of the public and private financial sectors to address climate change and discuss sustainable development.
As part of Climate Week, Instinet will donate its trade day on Wednesday, September 21 to the Wildlife Conservation Society and REDD Positive, a global forest conservation initiative. On Wednesdays at 12:30 EST, they will be hosting a Zoom webinar. Join WCS to share stories from REDD Positive funded field projects and talk about the program’s plans and successes. Additionally, on Thursday, September 22, Instinet will host “Cocktails and Conservation” at the Central Park Zoo to celebrate REDD Positive.
More broadly, why should the business industry focus on climate change?
“As leaders in financial services, we have a responsibility,” Roberts said. “As part of our efforts, we focus on understanding impact from a business, environmental and social perspective. It is important that we and others take a leadership role, that we take action.
