LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE GROUP PLC GROUP SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2022
Enabling sustainable growth
Our sustainability | Stakeholder | Operating | Sustainability | Data and additional | |
priorities | engagement | responsibly | governance | disclosures |
Contents
ACCELERATING THE JUST TRANSITION TO NET ZERO See page 10
ENABLING THE GROWTH OF THE GREEN ECONOMY See page 18
Our sustainability priorities | 10 |
Accelerating the just transition to net zero | 10 |
Transition capital | 11 |
Data and disclosure | 12 |
Reducing our impact | 14 |
TCFD compliance statement | 17 |
Enabling the growth of the green economy | 18 |
Green finance | 19 |
Research and data | 20 |
Engagement | 21 |
Creating inclusive economic opportunity | 22 |
Inclusive culture | 23 |
Inclusive markets | 27 |
Economic empowerment | 28 |
Stakeholder engagement | 30 |
Operating responsibly | 32 |
Sustainability governance | 36 |
Additional disclosures | 38 |
Social data | 39 |
Environmental data | 41 |
CREATING INCLUSIVE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY See page 22
Further information on London Stock Exchange Group can be found at: www.lseg.com
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Introduction
About the photography in this report
In March 2022, employees and contractors across the globe helped to bring LSEG's sustainability strategy to life through our Picture our Priorities photography competition.
The photographs reflect the three pillars of our sustainability strategy:
- Accelerating the just transition to net zero
- Enabling the growth of the green economy
- Creating inclusive economic opportunity
Many of the images used in this report are photographs submitted as part of that competition.
WHO WE ARE
LSEG is a leading global financial markets infrastructure and data provider. We play a vital social and economic role in the world's financial system. With our trusted expertise and global scale, we enable the sustainable growth and stability of our customers and their communities.
LSEG is headquartered in the United Kingdom, with significant operations in
65 countries across EMEA, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific. We employ 24,000+ people globally.
OUR PURPOSE
Driving financial stability, empowering economies and enabling customers to create sustainable growth.
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Message from our CEO
Positioned at the centre of global financial markets, LSEG is uniquely placed to be a strategic enabler of sustainable growth.
David Schwimmer
Chief Executive Officer
At LSEG, we speak often about our purpose as an organisation
- driving financial stability, empowering economies and enabling our customers to create sustainable growth. We are committed to making a positive impact on those we serve, the economies that rely on us and the communities in which we live and work.
In the coming decades, world economies must transform to ensure that economic progress is effectively balanced with environmental protection and social inclusion. Positioned at the centre of global financial markets, LSEG is uniquely placed to be
a strategic enabler of sustainable growth. In 2022, we took significant steps to further embed sustainability into our business and drive progress on critical social and environmental issues.
Transparency is vital to an effective climate transition.
2022 was an important year for advancing climate disclosure standards, and I was honoured to serve on the UK Transition Plan Taskforce. Convened by HM Treasury, this taskforce is charged with creating the gold standard climate transition plans that will become mandatory for UK companies. I was also delighted to continue our work with GFANZ, leading its work on real economy transition pathways alongside AXA and Allianz. Our efforts resulted in clear, action-oriented guidance to help companies of all sizes, industries and geographies produce credible and comprehensive transition plans.
LSEG is also committed to using our position at the heart of financial markets to contribute to development of effective policy frameworks. This year, we set out our policy recommendations calling for advances in corporate sustainability disclosure - across both public and
private companies.
LSEG is hard at work to uphold our own high standards. In March, we published our first Climate Transition Plan, which received strong shareholder support at our Annual General Meeting. The plan sets out how we will achieve our target of halving our carbon emissions by 2030 - you can see our progress against this plan in our follow-up Climate Report which can be found here.
As the global economy decarbonises, there is a clear role for carbon markets, and LSEG is proud to play its part. In 2022, the London Stock Exchange launched its voluntary carbon market designation. This designation will enable companies and investors to augment credible net zero transition strategies by financing carbon mitigation projects to offset unavoidable carbon emissions during the path to net zero.
Alongside transition, we must effectively allocate capital to the green economy. LSEG continued to play a key role in growing this part of the market through our Green Revenues data model. By the close of the year, £12 billion had been raised on our Sustainable Bond Market, and 108 companies and funds received the Green Economy Mark.
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Message from our CEO continued
While LSEG has played a major role in advancing sustainable objectives through external initiatives and taskforces, we have also achieved important social inclusion milestones within our business and in our communities around the world.
At LSEG we have doubled down on our efforts to build an inclusive culture. We have made great progress - by the end of the year we achieved our goal to have 40% of senior leadership roles filled by women. However, we still have more to do. In the year ahead, we will continue to sustain our efforts to achieve our goals for the executive pipeline and underrepresented ethnic groups.
Finally, I am proud to see the evolution of the LSEG Foundation which is making a difference
to people's lives through its economic empowerment work and partnerships. In 2022,
The LSEG Foundation developed four strategic, multi-year charity partnerships with Room to Read, Girls Who Code, Skills Builder and Women's World Banking. We have real confidence in these organisations' ability to empower and elevate individuals around the world and look forward to supporting them in the years
to come. The Foundation also supports scores of local charities in our communities and made significant contributions in response to the invasion of Ukraine, the economic crisis
in Sri Lanka and the major floods in Pakistan.
2022 was a strong year for LSEG's sustainability goals. As we look to 2023, there is more to be done to secure a sustainable future, and LSEG is committed to playing a key role every step of the way.
We look forward to sharing our progress in the future.
David Schwimmer
Chief Executive Officer
LSEG and Microsoft
At the end of 2022, LSEG and Microsoft announced a ten-year strategic partnership on next generation data and analytics and cloud infrastructure solutions. This partnership will enable LSEG's data infrastructure to
be accessible via the Microsoft Cloud, and to jointly develop new products and services. This will build on the integration of LSEG and Refinitiv and will enhance our position as a world-leading financial markets infrastructure and data provider.
The Microsoft Cloud, and its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, significantly advances LSEG's strategy to build its Data
- Analytics business and deliver next-generation services for a range of customers across the financial markets.
Click here for more information
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Our sustainability strategy
Our purpose is driving financial stability, empowering economies and enabling customers to create sustainable growth. We are committed to supporting sustainable economic development, which requires the harmonisation of economic growth with social inclusion and environmental protection.
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
Our sustainability strategy focuses on those issues of greatest relevance to our business and our stakeholders, and where we can have the greatest positive impact. We are working towards three strategic sustainability priorities, while embedding sustainability into our customer propositions, market engagement and our own operations.
Priority 1 | Priority 2 | Priority 3 |
Accelerating the | Enabling the | Creating inclusive |
just transition to | growth of the | economic |
net zero | green economy | opportunity |
Read more on pages 10 and 11 | Read more on pages 18 and 19 | Read more on pages 22 and 23 |
ENABLING ACTIVITY
Supporting customers to create sustainable growth
Market engagement and policy advocacy
Embedding sustainability into our operations
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Our sustainability strategy continued
2022 IN NUMBERS
We achieved a 55% reduction in our absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse
55%gas (GHG) emissions from 2019 baseline
Proportion of electricity from renewable sources, including the use of Energy
100%Attribute Certificates
37% of the emissions from the goods and services we buy are from suppliers who
37%have set their own science-based targets
98.6% shareholder support for LSEG
98Climate Transition .Plan6%at 2022 AGM
Raised on the Green and Sustainable £Bond segments22bnin 0
Companies and funds with the
108Green Economy Mark
Companies researched to assess
16,000green revenues
In 2022, over 77 bonds were admitted to
77the Sustainable Bond Market (SBM)
bonds
40%Proportion of women in leadership roles
Proportion of leadership from
15%underrepresented ethnic groups
24,872Volunteer hours
£Grants to4mcharity partners
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Our sustainability strategy continued
OUR THREE STRATEGIC SUSTAINABILITY PRIORITIES
Priority 1
Accelerating the just transition to net zero
Decarbonising the global economy is critical to minimise the worst social and environmental impacts of climate change. This requires a large-scale reallocation of capital globally while ensuring that the costs and benefits of transition are shared fairly between countries. LSEG uses its unique market position, capabilities, products and services to support and accelerate
a just transition.
Our objectives
Transition capital
Enable more companies and issuers to access the capital needed to finance the transition to a low-carbon economy and enable investors to build transition- aligned portfolios.
Data and disclosure
Improve transparency and understanding of environmental, social and financial risks associated with the transition by promoting clear, comparable and comprehensive data, analytical tools and research to inform investment decision-making, deeper engagement between companies and investors, and market-wide collaboration.
Reducing our impact
Fulfil our commitment to the UN Race to Zero to reduce LSEG's carbon emissions by 50% by 2030, with a long-term ambition to reach net zero by 2040.
Priority 2
Enabling the growth of the green economy
Sustainable economic growth requires more economic activity to be focused on creating, scaling and delivering solutions to the world's environmental and social challenges.
At the centre of capital markets, LSEG has a pivotal role in helping capital to flow towards sustainable economic activity.
Our objectives
Green finance
Provide the market infrastructure needed to enable more capital to flow towards sustainable economic activity.
Research and data
Leverage our research and data capabilities to support the growth of the green economy.
Engagement
Support market collaboration, innovation and public policy to scale green economic growth globally.
Priority 3
Creating inclusive economic opportunity
An inclusive economy enables people to participate in, and benefit from, economic activity, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religion, social background, disability,
or any other characteristic. We empower economies, communities, and individuals by championing inclusion and creating access to education, employment and enterprise.
Our objectives
Inclusive culture
Embed an inclusive culture at LSEG that values diverse perspectives and embraces diversity of every kind.
Inclusive markets
Use our central position within global capital markets to promote inclusion within companies, industry and society more widely through market collaboration, research and greater disclosure.
Economic empowerment Support economic empowerment by enabling access to education, employment and enterprise opportunities.
Read more on pages 10 and 11 | Read more on pages 18 and 19 | Read more on pages 22 and 23 |
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UN Sustainable
Development Goals
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set a global framework for countries, businesses and other stakeholders to address society's most important challenges, working together in accordance with their different roles. The SDGs informed our strategy development, and we broadly mapped how we make
a direct or indirect contribution to achieving them. The actions we take under our sustainability strategy directly contribute most to seven of the SDGs.
UN SDG | Our sustainability approach |
SDG 4 | - Strategic priority: Creating |
Quality Education | inclusive economic opportunity. |
Ensure inclusive and | - Objective: Economic |
equitable quality education | |
empowerment (particularly | |
and promote lifelong | |
via the LSEG Foundation). | |
learning opportunities | |
for all. | |
SDG 5 | - Strategic priority: Creating |
Gender Equality | inclusive economic opportunity. |
Achieve gender | - Objectives: Inclusive culture; |
equality and empower | |
Inclusive markets; and | |
all women and girls. | |
Economic empowerment. | |
SDG 8 | - Strategic priorities: Transition to |
Decent Work & | net zero; Enabling the growth of |
Economic Growth | the green economy; Creating |
Promote sustained, | inclusive economic opportunity. |
inclusive and sustainable | - Multiple objectives within our |
economic growth, full and | |
sustainability strategy link to this | |
productive employment | |
SDG as well as our work on | |
and decent work for all. | |
protecting human labour rights. | |
SDG 10 | - Strategic priority: Creating |
Reduced Inequalities | inclusive economic opportunity. |
Reduce inequality within | - Objectives: Inclusive |
and among countries. | |
culture; Inclusive markets; and | |
Economic empowerment. | |
SDG 13 | - Strategic priority: Transition |
Climate Action | to net zero. |
Take urgent action to | - Objectives: Transition |
combat climate change | |
capital; Data and disclosure; | |
and its impacts. | |
Reducing our impact. | |
SDG 16 | - We contribute to this SDG |
Peace, Justice and | by ensuring we operate as |
Strong Institutions | a responsible business, for |
Promote peaceful | example, our policies on bribery |
and inclusive societies, | and corruption, human rights, |
providing access to justice | modern slavery, financial crime, |
for all and building | code of conduct and supplier |
effective, accountable | code of conduct. |
and inclusive institutions | |
at all levels. | |
SDG 17 | - We contribute to this |
Partnerships for the goals | SDG through our extensive |
Strengthen the means | sustainability-related |
of implementation | engagement with companies, |
and revitalise the | policy-makers, market |
global partnership for | participants, and |
sustainable development. | wider stakeholders. |
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Materiality assessment
We carried out a comprehensive materiality assessment in 2021 to ensure that our sustainability approach encompasses the topics that are most important to our business and its long-term performance.
The exercise, undertaken by an independent party, included a broad review of relevant regulations, disclosure frameworks and other information. It also involved interviews
to gather perspectives from stakeholders such as employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, policy-influencers and media. The relative prioritisation of topics was evaluated, accounting for internal and external stakeholder perceptions.
Material sustainability topics can present risks, costs, or revenue opportunities, and therefore affect our long-term shareholder value creation. The resulting topics are listed here, in order of relative importance.
Material sustainability topics
- Sustainable finance
- Climate risk management
- Talent attraction and retention
- Information security and data privacy
- Diversity and inclusion
- Corporate governance
- Environmental management and GHG emissions (operational)
- Human rights
- Workplace health, safety and wellbeing
- Business ethics
- Community engagement
The relevance of the most material sustainability issues is expanded below:
Topic | Relevance to LSEG |
Sustainable finance | This helps us serve our customers |
LSEG's role in driving | and creates revenue opportunities |
a sustainable economy through | for LSEG. In this report we |
the development of products and | summarise a range of our |
solutions that can accelerate the | sustainable finance products |
transition to a low-carbon and | and services. |
sustainable economy. |
Climate risk management LSEG's preparedness for the impacts of climate change on the business - response to climate change risks and opportunities, understanding and preparedness for impacts (financial and economic loss, physical pressures on assets and supply chains) and response to legislation.
This topic is relevant to LSEG as it relates to the management of operational and transitional climate risks which can have a material impact on our customers and our business.
Talent attraction and retention | Effective management of this |
LSEG's approach to recruitment | topic affects our ability to run |
and retention, including learning | a successful business; failure to |
and development opportunities and | address it adequately creates |
activities that support employee | business continuity risks. |
satisfaction and fosters a positive | |
workplace culture. |
Information security and data privacy
LSEG's handling of customer and commercial data in a secure and safe way, including managing LSEG's exposure to evolving privacy regulations as well as vulnerability to data breaches and processes in place to protect data.
Related to corporate governance, a failure to protect data and provide information security creates risk for us, such as exposure to financial crime, and costs for our customers.
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London Stock Exchange Group plc published this content on 21 March 2024 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 21 March 2024 12:49:24 UTC.