‘Not enough to just talk the talk on green finance’

Businessman Marc Laine said that the island must demonstrate what it is doing in terms of positive environmental and social action when he addressed a breakfast event organised by the Guernsey branch of the Institute of Directors.

Helping businesses and individuals understand what ‘good’ looked like was key to achieving this objective, he said, and that a recently-launched audit system for organisations could achieve that.

Not-for-profit company ESI Monitor, which Mr Laine founded and has funded thus far, has developed an audit process that rates organisations for their environmental and social commitments.

If that audit is successful, organisations are recognised with a social and or environmental rating award that they can display. The aim is that it can then help individuals, other firms and the wider community make informed decisions when it comes to interactions with businesses – and encourage further improvement in these areas.

‘Let’s be known as green haven, not a tax haven. That’s about creating substance to our green finance aspirations,’ said Mr Laine.

‘We can talk the talk on green finance but some Guardian reporter could poke holes in what we are doing unless the players involved have their own accreditation and have their own credentials.’

Businesses care about these issues and dozens of live accreditations were under way right now, the event at the Old Government House Hotel heard.

‘We have got a great scheme. It stands up to international scrutiny. We can enhance Guernsey’s reputation. We can be a leader in green finance,’ said Mr Laine.

‘We can do our piece for the planet. We can protect our financial services industry. And the way to do that is to get your business accredited.’

He also said: ‘There is a cost to this, but it’s in the matter of hundreds of pounds per business and each quarter we’ll come back to you with that relevant information.

‘I believe that what we’re doing in the social space and what we’re doing in the environmental space are really good bedfellows. If you care about one, you care about the other.

‘But what it isn’t is something you can do in five minutes. What it isn’t is greenwash. This takes work.’

The event also heard from impact investment advisor Justin Sykes, who has been working with Mr Laine in developing ESI Monitor’s framework. The standards in the framework were equivalent if not better than those in use in the UK and tailored to Guernsey, said Mr Sykes.

One area that they both discussed was also around the carbon impact of air travel, with ESIM developing a carbon calculator.

Mr Laine also said that they would be working, hopefully, with Aurigny looking at fuel usage over a full 12 months divided by the number of passengers to work out a carbon offset.

‘I don’t know if it will be £6 to offset a flight to London or £16. But we’ll see. We’ll publish where our data comes from and we will have something accurate,’ he said.