Societe Generale

The financial institution demonstrates leading practices in various aspects, particularly in governance, gender equality and women empowerment and stewardship. On governance, it assigns decision-making and oversight responsibility for its sustainability strategy to the highest governance body, linking performance criteria for senior executive remuneration to specific sustainability targets. It also assigns implementation responsibility for its sustainability strategy to various functions, teams, or committees. It is also noteworthy that the financial institution maintains a gender balance of 40-60% at the senior executive level.

Stewardship-wise, it has a stewardship policy that supports environmental transitions and social best practices in line with its sustainability strategy. It also transparently identifies the key sectors, clients and investees to engage with on climate issues and nature-related impacts. Notably, it is particularly involved in nature-related stewardship activities – it engages with clients and investees to influence and support them to set strategies for nature-protection and restoration, as well as engages in partnerships to influence and support sectors, clients and investees to act on their nature-related impacts. Societe General also transparently identifies the nature-related impacts associated with its provision of products, services and capital.

Aside from the aforementioned, Societe General has publicly available policy statements committing it to respect human rights and the ILO core labour rights. It specifies that it does not make political contributions and has a process for identifying the social risks associated with its provision of products, services and capital in relation to the net zero transition. Finally, Societe General transparently discloses some environmental and operational data as well. The data disclosed includes its annual Scope 1-2 emissions and taxes paid at country level.

Areas where Societe General has scope for improvement include its disclosures relating to impact materiality strategy, targets and plans, financing activities such as fossil fuel financing, financing towards nature-positive solutions, underrepresented sectors and groups and low and lower-middle income countries, organizational carbon footprint and ILO fundamental rights at work.

While Societe Generale identifies material sustainability impacts across its value chain, it could further detail its process and how objective criteria and/or supportable evidence were considered for the identification and priortization of impacts. It could also consider disclosing that it conducts third-party assurance or verification of its target reporting. On fossil fuels, the financial institution has an opportunity to extend its time-bound strategy to to phase out the provision of products, services and capital to existing fossil fuel projects and clients and investees across the fossil fuel value chain, which lack a well-defined strategy aligned with a 1.5°C trajectory, to cover all fossil fuels. Although it invests in nature-based solutions as part of its EUR 1 billion transition investment fund, it has an opportunity to specifically disclose the aggregate amount and/or share (in monetary terms) of its provision of products, services and capital devoted to specified nature-positive solution. It is recommended that the institution disclose the breakdown of clients or beneficiaries by income group and clarify processes to prevent divestment from low-income and lower-middle-income countries due to its sustainability strategies and targets.

In relation to the ILO fundamental rights at work, Societe Generale has set expectation for its suppliers to respect specific workers’ rights, however, it could consider referencing all the ILO fundamental rights at work. It is also recommended that the Societe Generale discloses that its risk assessment process includes risks associated with the ILO fundamental rights at work for those impacted by its provision of products, services and capital and its process for mitigating such risks when identified. It could also provide an example of the specific conclusions reached and actions taken or to be taken on at least one of its salient human rights issues of it’s the products, services and capital it offers as a result of assessment processes in at least one of its activities in the last three years.

This scorecard refers to information in English which was publicly available by July 15 2024. AuM and Total assets are stated in USD for comparability and have been calculated based on reported local currency values multiplied by applicable IMF currency converter values.