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"UNEP: Statement by Financial Institutions on the Environment and Sustainable Development, 1992 (revised 1997)" [2005] ELECD 301; in Tully, Stephen (ed), "International Documents on Corporate Responsibility" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)

Book Title: International Documents on Corporate Responsibility

Editor(s): Tully, Stephen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843768197

Section: Chapter 78

Section Title: UNEP: Statement by Financial Institutions on the Environment and Sustainable Development, 1992 (revised 1997)

Number of pages: 2

Extract:

78. UNEP: Statement by Financial Institutions
on the Environment and Sustainable
Development, 1992 (revised 1997)

Commentary: UNEP has collaborated closely with industry to develop environ-
mental management strategies since its inception at the 1972 Stockholm Conference
on the Human Environment. This Bank Statement was launched in New York during
1992 in the run-up to UNCED and by 2002 had been endorsed by 197 banks from
more than 50 States. Participants commit themselves to integrating sustainable devel-
opment into all operational and service aspects, supporting a precautionary approach
to environmental management, recognising that environmental risks identification and
quantification should be part of risk management and pursuing best environmental
practice. The Financial Institutions Initiative (http://unepfi.net) conducts roundtable
sessions, holds annual general meetings and produces fact sheets, discussion papers,
surveys, reports and newsletters: see, for example, UNEP Finance Initiative (2004),
`The Materiality of Social, Environmental and Corporate Governance Issues to Equity
Pricing', Geneva. See further, UNEP (1995), `Report of UNEP Advisory Group
Meeting on Commercial Banks and the Environment', Geneva; UNEP (1998),
`Voluntary Industry Codes of Conduct for the Environment', Technical Report No 40,
Paris. See also the Equator Principles developed in 2003 by financial institutions under
the auspices of the International Finance Corporation (http://equatorprinciples.ifc.
org/ifcext/equatorprinciples.nsf).




1. Commitment to sustainable development
1.1 We regard sustainable development as a fundamental aspect of sound business
management.
1.2 We believe that sustainable development can best be achieved by allowing markets to
work within an appropriate framework ...