How Green Bonds frame a sustainable future

Green Bonds Series (Part 1)

It is easy to shrug off green and social investments as greenwashing and a marketing tool, but might there be true substance behind all this?

Even though becoming green or social isn’t necessarily innovative anymore these days, doing so in an efficient and transparent way is. Companies should sooner than later come to grips with the fact that there is a big shift in emphasis occurring in the debt market. Banks and investors already know and promote this shift, and they are compelled to adapt to it.

You might ask yourself what this shift entails? In the future financials won’t be the only criteria banks and investors will be looking at, but the environmental and social effects of projects will determine cost and solvency of debt. But what are some of the largest players such as the US government, Apple and Danone doing to stay abreast of the market? It certainly requires a strong plan, better yet, standardized, and clear guidelines to help with investing without remorse.

In this first out of three articles, we approach guidelines outlined by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA).