Dundas Global Investors (Dundas) were seeking to move towards net zero for their business operations and portfolios by 2050. They approached the University of Edinburgh Business School (UEBS) for help in understanding what this transition might mean for the organisation and its work.

The opportunity

Dundas wanted to explore the climate- and sustainability-related risks and opportunities for their business. They had in mind an all-staff programme, designed to increase awareness and generate deeper understanding of climate-related risks and opportunities, and to explore the options for an organisational sustainability strategy.

The UEBS Executive Education Team initially engaged with Dundas at the end of summer 2023. A suite of informative discussion-based sessions was proposed to run between January 2024 and March 2024. The purpose of these sessions was to enable colleagues to have informed conversations on issues related to sustainability, organisational purpose and stewardship.

The key aims for the sessions included:

  • Building a shared organisational understanding of sustainability, climate change, and net zero, including key facts and figures and their implications on people, communities, and businesses.
  • Equipping the Dundas team to navigate the opportunities and risks of climate change, including regulations and targets.
  • Identifying the teams’ sustainability-related roles and responsibilities, both at an individual and group level.
  • Understanding Dundas’ relationship with Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.
  • Building and embedding momentum within the firm for meaningful transition.

Our approach

Given this background and context, we embarked on a three-part ‘Climate Conversations’ programme, with half-day sessions that considered questions such as:

  • What does 'sustainability' mean, why is it important, and whose job is it?
  • What is biodiversity, and how does it impact business activities?
  • Why is 1.5°C important? What is the connection between your job and emissions?
  • What are the options, opportunities, risks, and practicalities of scope 3 accounting?
  • How do China and India influence the global sustainability story?
  • What existing paths are there globally for achieving net zero?
  • What is the role of investment in reaching net zero?

The sessions were built around UEBS faculty presentations, facilitated discussions, and breakout group exercises and debates, designed to identify a meaningful, common sustainability development path.

Programme outcomes

Participants:

  • left the programme with a shared foundation of knowledge on key facts and concepts related to climate change and biodiversity loss
  • were better equipped to identify and apply appropriate climate and sustainability knowledge to the financial services sector
  • better understood the context in which to set internal sustainability objectives
  • were better placed to critically assess the effectiveness of sustainability measures, and their possible impacts on stakeholder relationships and investments
  • better understood the impacts of climate, biodiversity, and other sustainability indicators on their business
  • gained increased clarity on the implications of scope 3 emissions accounting
  • highlighted global supply chain influences in the net zero transition, especially the role of China and India
  • built team-wide confidence to have professional conversations about climate and sustainability.
After setting our intention to commit to Net Zero for the portfolios we manage and our business operations by 2050, it became clear that everyone across our firm had different knowledge levels on what this meant. We decided to partner with UEBS to design the ‘Climate conversations’ series with the hope of gaining valuable insights into the many different areas of climate change and sustainability.
We appreciated the flexibility to amend and fine-tune the content of the sessions as we moved through them, as well their interactive nature.
Looking forward, we will be using the knowledge we have gained in shaping our climate / sustainability strategies and we are already seeing colleagues talking with more confidence on these subjects both internally and externally with clients.
Many thanks to the team for creating the series of ‘Climate conversations’ for us
Dundas Global Investors
The finance sector plays a vital role in the development of a more sustainable economic system. Dundas Global Investors are at the forefront of thinking in this area, and we were delighted to have the chance to work with them
Dr Bernice Maxton-Lee, Programme Director, UEBS