Making finance teams sustainability experts: Exploring Holcim’s €850m sustainability-linked bond

Sustainability and finance have traditionally been separated by a chasm. While many corporates woke up relatively early to the idea of CSR – which has since rapidly evolved into ESG and now the pressing need to meet net-zero – the often held view is that it took finance a little longer to respond to the climate crisis.

While edie has reported on the evolution of corporate sustainability for more than three decades, it wasn’t until 2019 when we felt it was comfortable to pronounce that green finance was “going mainstream”.

The introduction of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) created a ripple effect across the finance community, with initiatives like Bankers for Net-Zero and the Net-Zero Asset Alliance now driving climate awareness and action across the sector.

While the global green finance market has grown by more than a hundred-fold over the last decade, it still only accounts for 4% of the global finance market. Yet that has been enough for corporates to reapproach how they engage with their own finance teams and the wider finance community to help drive progress towards net-zero.

“After the release of our new climate strategy in September 2020, we had a strong and credible case to take a step further in our sustainability journey,” Holcim’s chief sustainability officer Magali Anderson told edie.

“Recognising the role of sustainable…