Robert G. Eccles: Honoree and Award Winner of the Lifetime Achievement CSR Award 2018

Robert G. Eccles: Honoree and Award Winner of the Lifetime Achievement CSR Award 2018

The MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics selected Robert G. Eccles as the winner of the ‘PROSE Award for Excellence in Business, Finance & Management ‘For Professional and Scholarly Excellence’’, Trust Across America named him ‘Top 100 Thought Leader in Trustworthy Business Behavior’ and Ethisphere Institute profiled him twice as one of the ‘100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics’. At the 8^thInternational Conference on Sustainability and Responsibility, he was now awarded with the ‘Lifetime Achievement CSR Award 2018’.

The focus of his work

Eccles describes himself as ‘dedicated weight lifter’, ‘sustainability advocate’ and ‘capital market activist’ in the social networks on LinkedIn and Twitter. His vision is to enhance corporate reporting as well as integrated reporting and to improve the integration of environmental, social and governance factors(ESG factors) by both, investment decisions of investors and strategic decisions of companies. His research is based on a significant need for integrated reporting and sustainability with a focus on the role of business within society from the perspective of companies and investors. Examining current issues on sustainable development, in order to support and achieve materiality, corporate and investor transparency in the long term,he is recognized as foremost academic expert by Veritas Financial Analytics, LLC.

Eccle’s background and career

Robert Eccles studied Humanities and Science simultaneously with Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before achieving a Master degree in Sociology from Harvard University. At the same university he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology. The former Professor at Harvard Business School is currently working as Visiting Professor of Management Practice at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.

Presiding in a multitude of cases, Eccles is perceived as leading authority showing companies and investors how to develop and implement sustainable strategies. Since 2011 he is the Founding Chairman of SASB – Sustainability Accounting Standards Board – an independent non-profit organisation with its mission to create sustainability accounting standards through information disclosure to investors by broad, balanced stakeholder participation and evidence-based research.In addition, Eccles is Chairman at the advisory service firm KKS Advisors LLC which supports its customers in generating innovative solution approaches to establish more business models and communities with a sustainable core. Furthermore, Eccles is one of the founders of IIRC – International Integrated Reporting Council – and a steering member of this global coalition among the parties involved withregulations, investments and accounting with the aim to implement integrated reporting through sustainable value creation and an encouraging communication about it. Besides, Eccles is Non-Executive Chairman of Arabesque Asset Management. Omar Selim, Arabesque Partners founder and CEO, emphasises that Eccle’s work fits their ‘focus on research and sustainability as key drivers to generate value for […] investors, shareholders and the capital markets more broadly’. From Eccles point of view Arabesque is a driving force for a sustainable society. Time for a change has come, there is a need for capital markets to promote such a sustainable society. Lately, Eccles joined MISUM – Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets – as Board Member of the research center for cross-disciplinesand multi-stakeholders.

Publications

Robert Eccles most recent book written together with Michael P. Krzus and published in 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, carries the title ‘The Integrated Reporting Movement: Meaning, Momentum, Motives, and Materiality’ and includes the suggestion of an annual “Statement of Significant Audiences and Materiality” by the board of directors and the concept of a “Sustainable Value Matrix” tool which enables managers to convert the statement into their decisions. Eccles did extensive research on integrated reporting and wrote the three following books on this subject: One Report: Integrated Reporting for a Sustainable Strategy (co-authors: Michael P. Krzus, Don Tapscott), Building Public Trust: The Future of Corporate Reporting (co-author: Samuel A. DiPiazza, Jr.) and The Value Reporting Revolution: Moving Beyond the Earnings Game (co-authors Robert H. Herz, E. Mary Keegan and David M.H. Phillips).

Personal conviction

Based on the firm belief ‘A sustainable strategy is how a company creates value over the long term’, Eccles advocates for integrated reporting and ESG factors to measure sustainability and to put it in practice, especially regarding companies’ future performance. In addition, he holds the view that not only the social but also the environmental performance is crucial for returns and has to be scrutinized in the long run. In order to meet the SDGs – Sustainable Development Goals – which are adopted by all Member States of the United Nations, it requires more than the involvement of the public sector. Also the private sector has to go through a process of change and to implement sustainable approaches. Otherwise, it will not be possible to achieve the SDGs.

At ‘The 8th International Conference on Sustainability and Responsibility: Responsible Leadership in Times of Transformation’ Robert G. Eccles was announced as honouree of the Lifetime Achievement CSR Award 2018 at Flora Cologne on 14^thof November 2018. Georg Kell, founding director of the UN Global Compact held his laudation. Being pioneer in ESG & Integrated Reporting, Robert G. Eccles was honoured for his effort in leveraging capital markets for sustainable development by integrating ESG factors into resource allocation decisions of companies and investors.

Be part of the conference: international-csr.org

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Robert G. Eccles: Honoree and Award Winner of the Lifetime Achievement CSR Award 2018

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