The BSI has released guidance designed to ‘demystify’ sustainability principles for financial sector organisations.

The Sustainable Finance Standard (BS ISO 32210:2022) offers guidance for finance organisations, including direct lenders and investors, asset managers and service providers, to drive sustainable outcomes and integrate key principles of sustainability into their operations, activities, products and services.

Speaking ahead of an event at Bloomberg in London, Nigel Topping, the former UN High-Level Climate Action Champion, said: ‘The new narrative of change has to be collaboration and not competition. Ensuring all in the financial sector are talking the same language and tackling the heart of the issue is essential.’

The globally applicable standard has been published by BSI to address the lack of clarity surrounding the global sustainable finance sector. With numerous frameworks and regulations in different jurisdictions, these principles are designed to address this fragmentation and facilitate greater collaboration in the sector by offering a path through the confusion.

The standard aims to help avoid greenwashing by setting a credible, coherent path to becoming more sustainable. It provides a framework for organisations that wish to be sustainable and better aligned with global initiatives like the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and the Paris Agreement.

Beyond financial institutions and intermediaries, this document can be used by other parties such as providers or recipients of sustainable finance, governmental organisations, public and private sector, business entities, industry associations, financial market regulators, and supervisory and control bodies.

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