Sonia Consiglio Favaretto has spent more than a decade working to enable sustainable and transparent capital markets in Brazil. In her role at BM&FBOVESPA S.A. – one of the largest stock exchanges in the world in terms of market share - Sonia has led on full integration of the SDGs into the BM&FBOVESPA’s Socio-Environmental Investment Exchange (BVSA) products and services. The impact of this work can be seen in the number of listings available for investment that will report on the SDGs. This initiative has led to UN recognition of the BVSA as a pioneering global model for its replication of the principles of a stock exchange, with the creation of a social capital market that links socio-environmental projects, listed on the virtual platform, to social investors.
Sonia’s early work on driving action around the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development led to BM&FBOVESPA becoming the first stock exchange in the world to become signatory, on April 08, 2004, to the UN Global Compact, also the becoming a founding member of the Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative. Since this point, Sonia has worked tirelessly to align the Exchange with defined global goals on sustainable development, beginning with the MDGs and and continuing with the SDGs. The goals have enabled Sonia to develop a set of selection criteria, which requires that a social organization registering at BVSA it must designate the SDGs it impacts and demonstrate this impact through reporting metrics.
Working with the Exchange’s technical partner, BrazilFoundation, Sonia has proposed that BVSA works towards the SDGs through three additional stages: when the selection process for Social Organizations is finalised; during the execution of the project, in the monitoring, measurement and narrative of how Social Organizations are reaching the SDGs; and at project conclusion, with an in-depth impact report.
Sonia is also inserting the SDGs onto BM&FBOVESPA’s 2016 Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE), through the Index questionnaire which asks that companies requesting to join the index must describe to what degree they have considered SDGs in their sustainability practices and strategies, and by citing the SDGs in protocols or references. Sonia believes that this approach will mean the SDGs will become a point of reference for the company’s planning and management.
As Chair of the Board of ISE, which is made up of more than ten market institutions, Sonia has led discussions to include SDGs and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in ISE. The ISE 2016 questionnaire will be launched in June 2016, culminating in the launch of a new ISE portfolio which will be effective until 2017. At that time, the Exchange will have a clear picture of how the leading Brazilian companies are working with the SDGs, which can be shared with the market.
Sonia Consiglio Favaretto’s approached is shaped by her background in journalism, from which she developed a talent for persuasive communication – something which helps her demonstrate what sustainable action is and how it can benefit businesses. In her role at the Exchange, Sonia has the rare opportunity of dealing with two fundamental and complementary agendas for the construction of Agenda 2030: that of sustainability and that of social investment.
