Business, Environment, Society
Our modern world is a network: Economic values are created through collaborations, social relationships are forged, and ecological embeddedness builds the ground – for companies, private households, government institutions, NGOs - day by day. It is about economic value and real values.
EccoWorks understands itself as a business management consultancy. It supports value- and value-based management through future-oriented strategies, and accompanies their implementation.
Advisory
As an independent company, we draw up analyses and concepts to increase economic, ecologic and social performance. And we accompany their implementation. To this end, we offer our consultancy services in strategy development, external reporting and sustainability ratings.
Consulting
We see ourselves as strategic partners for the analysis and implementation of investment concepts and asset classes in the area of sustainable investments.
Strategy development, portfolio analysis, market positioning and risk management are the cornerstones of our consulting services.
Training
Value oriented company leadership and in particular sustainable investments require appropriate competences and qualifications. We offer a wide range of suitable qualifications.
Publications
Prof. Schäfer's paper "Sustainability as a Driver of Innovation for Banking-Business Options of Social Impact Investing (not only) for German Banks" presents the current approaches of German financial institutions to impact investing. Based on this, he shows the strategic and procedural ways to be able to integrate impact investing as a new business policy component at financial institutions.
Why has conventional capital market theory and the theory of finance ignored systematically ethics in the last decades? Are ethics and finance really counterparts? These and many other questions are tackled in the latest book of Prof. Dr. Henry Schäfer. It delivers an overarching discussion and analysis of the building blocks of modern capital market theory and an analysis of its hidden ethical content. It’s main argument is, that the longstanding practise of separation in finance and ethics is latest with the evolution of green and sustainable finance on its way to a new integrated thinking. The clues are the concepts of sustainable development and Corporate Social Responsibility. There is a tendency of mainstream asset allocation to integrate sustainability but severe challenges are still existing and should motivate practitioners and scientists proceed in ethics and finance.
Exemplary Projects
German SRI Sentiment Index.
German SRI Sentiment Index. Since 2010 eccoworks appraises the perceptions of instituional investors in Germany with respect to sustinable investments. The resulting SRI sentiment index ist unique not only for Germany but worldwide. The index is calculated in spring and presented in Frankfurt on the annual sustainability conference of Union Investment, the mutual fund group of the German cooperative banks which is the sponsor of the SRI index.
Green and Sustainable Finance Cluster Germany
In November 2017 the Green Finance Cluster Frankfurt (GFCF) was found. It was initiated by the Ministry of Economic Affaires of the State of Hessia on the basis of a feasibility study of EccoWorks. In Spring 2018 it merged with the Deutsche Börse’s Accelerating Sustainable Finance Initiative.Under the label „Green and Sustainable Finance Cluster Germany“ (briefly GSFCG) the activities of both initiatives are jointly continuing. Prof. Schäfer is member of the Standing Commmittee right from the cluster's start.
The aim of the cluster briefly explained: Transparency is key to fostering an understanding of green and sustainable finance – both among financial sector players and the broader public. The Cluster aims at identifying climate-related risks and opportunities as well as mapping current sustainable finance activities in German financial markets.
How to measure the green house gas impact of a bank loan? New innovative software tool now available!
The High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance wants it, the Action Plan on Sustainable Finance of the EC demands it and for many heavy-weight international organisations like UNEP and OECD it is a ‚sine qua non‘: the financial industry, and particularly banks should make transparent the greenhouse gas impact of their customers‘ loans and assets! So vehemently such demands are, the necessary data collection and calculations are challenging and seem to many practitioners nearly impossible.
Today EccoWorks together with its partner MACS, an innovative Fintech, offers a capable and cost-effective solution: its software package eSave is able to calculate the greehnhouse gas impact of a single loan, a loan portfolio and even of invested assets. Moreover several extensions of the basic software deliver individual scorings about the environmental, social and climate impact of a financial service provider and allow the integration into risk models.
Interested? An on-site presentation of the software‘s performance is readily available. Please use our contact form of our website for your further questions and to fix a date.
References
Partners
Memberships
