12.3.3.3 Follow-up after five months

The team contacted the participants five months later and spoke to 90 per cent of the participants and the persons who had contributed to the workshop with written comments or were contacted by telephone on the day of the workshop. They were asked to reflect on the workshop, about any follow-up activities in the field of BES, and about any contacts with other workshop participants. Obviously, it is impossible to establish 'objectively' what the actual output of the workshop was, because of the subtlety of the changes and the complexity of the issue. Also, the workshop was just one in a range of activities addressing the issue of business and biodiversity. However, the short interviews offered valuable feedback on the effect of the workshop.

The responses were analysed by using a 'four quadrants model' as developed within integral theory1 (see Table 12.2). A distinction is made between output at an individual level (i.e. the participant, and his organisation), and output at a collective level. Changes on the interior (new views, perspectives, priorities) were compared with those on the exterior (change in behaviour). As explained in section 12.3.1, these fields are all interconnected and each plays a crucial role in achieving sustainable development.

The most ideal output falls in the Lower Right quadrant: concrete collaborative actions. Any developments in the Lower Left quadrant, i.e. a shared understanding of the issue, and relationships between stakeholders, would be necessary to allow for successful collaborative action. However, new perspectives at the individual level were also appreciated by the research team, such as identification with the system and recognising the role of the individual in the system, i.e. the Upper Left and Upper Right quadrant. The concrete results of the workshop as communicated in the follow-up telephone calls will be presented per quadrant below.

Upper Left: internal change at the individual level - Most of the participants expressed that they had gained new knowledge on the links between BES and business during the workshop. Especially the asset managers mentioned that their understanding of the issue had increased. NGO representatives, the recognised BES experts, obviously, did not gain many new insights. The participants from the NGOs and ESG Agencies mentioned that the most valuable output of the workshop for them was that they had gained more insight into the perspectives of the investment sector. According to them, only on rare occasions does one hear the investor perspective first hand. As regards ESG Agencies, that sell information to investors on a daily basis, it was explained that the customer contacts are always handled by the sales/customer care department rather than by the analysts.

Upper Right: internal steps taken by the participants - Of the five participants representing the asset managers, two had taken concrete internal steps. They were actively looking for ways to incorporate BES considerations into their daily practices, either through pre-screening the investment universe on BES performance, or through specific engagement activities. One participant had designated BES as one of three key ESG issues of attention and had produced internal guidelines on how BES has to be treated by the organisation s investors. The other participant had started using information currently available on BES on a more structural basis, is looking for additional information and intends to commission a specific research assignment to further investigate how BES considerations can be incorporated in the investment processes. The other participants of this stakeholder group would still like to do more regarding this issue, and plan to do so in the near future, but as of yet they do not have any concrete plans. The sector organisation for responsible investment has put BES on the organisation s internal agenda. It is anticipated that this will result in new activities, e.g. addressing the theme during investors' seminars and in the engagement with companies. One of the ESG Agencies representatives indicated to have communicated within the agency that there is a clear interest in the issue of financial institutions, thereby stressing the need to invest in effective and adequate indicators and possibly to invest in the development of new tools addressing the dependency relationship between companies and BES. Initial steps have been taken in this respect. The NGOs communicated that they will continue their attention to the issue, and that they will apply their new insights concerning the investors perspective to further enhancing their communication strategies.

Lower Left: change in the collective understanding ofthe issue - As mentioned above, many participants indicated that their knowledge ofthe financial sector s perspective had increased, and that it was very valuable for them to exchange views with other stakeholders and to engage in discussion. NGOs underlined that their role had become clearer, i.e. further engagement with asset managers and ESG Agencies in order to make the understanding of the BES concept more sophisticated. Other participants confirmed that it was worthwhile to have acquired a common broader perspective of the field. A shared future perspective rooted in identification with the system as well as in ownership of the issue remains a challenge, however. Nonetheless, the workshop had been successful in establishing new, bilateral and international links between different actors, who did not necessarily know each other beforehand. More concretely, during the workshop one of the participating NGOs had shared a presentation on a new tool to analyse a company's BES performance, targeted at the financial sector.2After the workshop several participants expressed interest in this tool, resulting in additional presentations or informative meetings.

Lower Right: collective steps taken by the participants/organisations - Collective actions taken after the workshop have been limited. Two organisations that already had a business relationship before the workshop, i.e. as a buyer and a seller of information, have proceeded with BES information services. Subsequent to the workshop, the asset manager had requested more extensive information on BES performance regarding specific companies with the purpose of including such knowledge in their engagement processes. Three other participating organisations are investigating the possibilities of jointly initiating the development of a 'materiality matrix'.