New international voluntary quality standard launched

International Voluntary Quality Standard launched for Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility Research

Leading corporate sustainability research organisations from across Europe have
launched and been certified against a new international Voluntary Quality Standard
(VQS) for Corporate Sustainability and Responsible Investment research.

Launched by the Association of Independent Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility
Research (AI CSRR), VQS has been developed to drive high quality research
and analysis for organisations in the field.

The Standard is a direct response to growing investor and company demand for research
groups to incorporate the key principles of integrity, transparency and accountability
into their research on the environmental, social, governance (ESG) and ethical performance
of companies. It is designed to enhance quality within the research process of each
provider without redetermining and dictating the precise research output.

So far, leading corporate sustainability and responsible investment researchgroups
in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK have met the requirements
of the Standard, with more to follow. These groups include Ecodes, EIRIS, EthiFinance,
GES, imug, Oekom, and Vigeo. All those receiving the Certificate confirming their
adherence to the Standard have had their audits certified by an independent Certification
Council.

Commenting on the initiative, a few of the adherents.

Helene Regnell, Vice President, Sales & Marketing of Swedish GES Investment Services (Stockholm) “In our day to day work we are often too busy to take a step back and have a look at policies, procedures, quality routines etc. The VQS certification process has had a positive impact not only on the quality of services but also on the awareness of our team. They now know that focus on quality is not just something we talk about, but we actually put action behind the words.”

Victor Viñuales, Executive Director of Spanish ECODES (Zaragoza)“The implementation of the quality standard has already begun to pay immediate and impressive dividends in the form of a substantial change in our internal organisational culture as well as our relationships with key external stakeholders. While our organisation has always prided ourselves on the quality of our research output as well as on our transparency and independence, implementation of the quality standard has forced us to complete the task of fully systematising and documenting our internal research, quality control and information systems, thereby allowing us to measure and improve our performance. Furthermore, the transparency and communication mechanisms built into the standard have made us more responsive to the needs of our external stakeholders”.

The launch of the new VQS follows a European Commission funded development process
which included consultation with key stakeholders including investors, civil society,
and responsible investment sector experts, led by AI CSRR.
AI CSRR welcomes applications from other research groups who wish to achieve certification.

www.csrr-qs.org