Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs assigns the responsibility for sustainability issues to the board-level public responsibilities committee. In terms of female representation in leadership positions, the financial institution has a gender-balanced board of directors where six out of 13 members are women and has set a target to reach 40% female representation among vice presidents globally by 2025. The financial institution’s subsidiary, Goldman Sachs Asset Management publishes case studies describing where it has engaged successfully and unsuccessfully with investees on sustainability themes and impact topics.

As a member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance, Goldman Sachs has set a target of net-zero financed emissions by 2050. It discloses the key sectors it has identified as priorities to engage with on climate change while its subsidiary Goldman Sachs Asset Management is a member of Climate Action 100+. Goldman Sachs discloses that it provided USD 93 billion in financing, investments and advisory activity towards climate transition against its target to provide USD 600 billion for it by 2030. The financial institution discloses the financing criteria it uses to ensure the protection of nature and biodiversity and provides evidence that it requires companies in certain sectors to have a strategy addressing their nature- and biodiversity-related impacts.

Goldman Sachs has a grievance mechanism accessible to all workers, external individuals and communities to raise human rights complaints or concerns. Furthermore, it discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by region. Goldman Sachs has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement.

In terms of its approach to senior leadership accountability, Goldman Sachs has an opportunity to link the remuneration of its executive or management teams to sustainability performance criteria. In terms of gender equality, the financial institution also has an opportunity to reach at least 40% female representation in senior leadership positions and disclose the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category. The financial institution could also disclose the actions taken to address any pay gaps. Furthermore, Goldman Sachs has an opportunity to describe its engagement approach on sustainability themes and impact topics with clients and investees, across all its financing activities.

While Goldman Sachs has interim intensity emission reduction targets for some sectors, it has an opportunity to disclose an interim absolute emission reduction target across all its financing activities. It could also disclose alignment with the Paris Agreement as one of its engagement priorities with companies to which it provides financial services. Furthermore, it could align its financing for climate transition with internationally recognised frameworks. No evidence was found regarding the financial institution’s approach to fossil fuels that spans across the fossil fuel value chain and its financing activities, such as the amount or share of finance it directs towards fuels, or its stance on financing companies with new fossil fuel projects. Furthermore, Goldman Sachs could commit to minimising the negative impacts it has on nature and biodiversity across its financing activities.

Goldman Sachs has an opportunity to publish a policy statement committing it to respect human rights laid out in the UN Guiding Principles and the ILO declaration on fundamental rights at work. Furthermore, it has an opportunity to describe a comprehensive process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts across all its activities, especially its financing activities. Additionally, the financial institution could disclose the proportion of its total direct operations workforce for each employee category by age group and gender. To provide transparency on financial inclusivity, Goldman Sachs has an opportunity to disclose the amount of finance directed towards, for example, women-owned businesses, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or low-income developing countries.