‘Explain how it’s going to benefit all your stakeholders,’ offers Jim Siccardi, vice president of IR at Energy Recovery
Energy Recovery was awarded the best ESG reporting (small to mid-cap) trophy at the IR Magazine Awards – US 2022 only two years since it formally started its ESG journey.
Meredith Callahan, Energy Recovery’s director of ESG, told IR Magazine on the red carpet at the gala event in New York that the California and Texas-based company really undertook the work to identify the most material topics for its investors and other stakeholders in the past year. ‘Through that we were able to identify the top 14 areas to focus on, then from there narrow it down to specific goals with quantitative targets,’ she said.
The firm’s ESG program paved the way for sustainable growth through new products in industrial wastewater treatment and refrigeration while significantly reducing energy costs and emissions. Callahan said Energy Recovery’s focus was to work with its cross-functional ESG management team to achieve its ambitions.
Jim Siccardi, vice president of IR at Energy Recovery, also attended the glittering awards ceremony on March 31. He urged IR peers to be ‘proactive’ in getting their ESG messaging out. ‘If we did all this work in a silo, it wouldn’t benefit anyone,’ he said. ‘The more you talk to your investors and the more you explain your strategies and explain how it’s going to benefit all your stakeholders, the better everyone is.’
‘Build those long-term relationships’ with retail investors, says Pulse by Public.com’s Ron Zori
Ron Zori, head of business development at the investing platform Public.com and its new services arm Pulse, said he was honored to present the inaugural best retail IR strategy trophy at the IR Magazine Awards - US 2022.
The debut prize was awarded to Coinbase at the gala in-person event in New York on March 31. The large-cap cryptocurrency exchange platform engaged the retail community during its direct listing. Its strategy involved a series of retail-centric videos from the management team and a Reddit ‘ask me anything’ event with its CEO and CFO.
Asked what trends Pulse by Public.com is seeing among IR and retail investors, Zori told IR Magazine on the red carpet: ‘We started Pulse because we heard from companies we’re friendly with that they want more exposure to retail. They want to talk, engage and understand what retail wants. We’re brokered with 3 mn investors in the US and we want to facilitate that connection.’
Zori said retail for many IROs was a ‘black box’ but it was here was to stay and going to grow. ‘A lot of retail investors are long-term investors – they’re not here to speculate, so branch out, engage with them, learn about them and build those long-term relationships,’ he advised.
IR Magazine's Investor Perception Study – US 2022 explores why the winners won, publishing the findings from the researched awards, as well as an overall ranking of the top companies for IR in the US.
View the 2022 winners here
‘Don’t look for perfection, but rather progress,’ says Natali Ganfer, senior vice president for sustainability
Moody’s Corporation won best ESG reporting by a large cap at the IR Magazine Awards – US 2022, but the win is only the beginning. The global integrated risk assessment firm beat fellow nominees Fifth Third Bancorp, Mondelēz International, Philip Morris International and Verizon Communications at the gala event on March 31.
Natali Ganfer, senior vice president for sustainability, told IR Magazine on the red carpet that Moody’s Corporation had taken a new approach to ESG reporting and a lot of work had gone into it. Last June, Moody’s launched a new sustainability strategy and framework that was guided by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and based on an independent, non-financial materiality assessment that identified the issues most important to its stakeholders and business success. The firm’s sustainability site received more than 10,000 visits and its reports page received more than 4,500 views since June 2021.
‘We’re super-glad to be recognized for this effort,’ Ganfer said. ‘We are building on that inaugural report and really taking it to the next level with more cohesive and comprehensive disclosures. We’re very excited, it’s going to come out soon and we’re working on it right now.’
Ganfer recommended IR professionals start with a good foundation then build on it. ‘Don’t look for perfection, but rather progress,’ she advised.
‘Tell that story in a compelling way,’ recommends IR executive director Lynn Antipas Tyson
The best investor event award-winning capital markets day held by Ford Motor Company in 2021 showed that a high-quality meeting imparting information valuable to investors doesn’t need to take two days, according to Ford’s IR veteran.
Lynn Antipas Tyson, executive director of IR at Ford and a 26-year IR practitioner, told IR Magazine on the US Awards red carpet that the auto giant’s capital markets day was ‘extremely difficult’ due to a multitude of challenges. There was a Covid-19 lockdown, Ford had not held an analyst meeting in four years, a new CEO had arrived and the industry was undergoing massive disruption.
‘We had to figure out a way to compact all of that in a short timeframe to explain the investment thesis of the company in a compelling way,’ Antipas Tyson said at the gala event in New York on March 31.
Ford’s IR team delivered a highly focused and well-received 90-minute, pre-recorded TV show-like event in its augmented reality studio, followed by a 60-minute live Q&A at the heart of its outreach.
Antipas Tyson said Ford was undergoing a ‘pretty radical restructuring’ with the advent of electric vehicles while demand for internal combustion engine vehicles carried on growing. ‘Continuing to tell that story to capital markets in a compelling way is really the biggest challenge and opportunity we’re going to have,’ she noted.