MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative
Sustainability
Science-based analysis for corporate climate action
By
Number of HSBC bankers + credit-risk managers who have experienced En-ROADS.
Interactive learning using a climate policy simulator has helped to strengthen corporate climate action at one of the world’s largest banking and financial institutions, HSBC Bank.
While corporations increasingly recognize that reducing climate change-related risk is vital, there is still confusion on how to best to support the goals of the Paris agreement.
Many have set ambitious climate targets, but have also relied on vague climate policies, unproven carbon offsets, and exaggerated environmental accomplishments. Without a solid understanding of the highly dynamic climate-energy system, it is difficult for businesses to evaluate the effectiveness of different climate policies.
In their paper, Science-based analysis for climate action: how HSBC Bank uses the En-ROADS climate policy simulation, the authors found that widespread employee participation in interactive simulations using the En-ROADS climate policy simulator assisted HSBC in taking more effective climate action by:
- Build a better understanding of the climate-energy system as it relates to their own corporate sustainability strategy
- Stimulate dialogue around the economic impacts of climate change and the social co-benefits of climate action
- Evaluate how different policy pathways yielding the same end-of-century temperature might have vastly different financial risks
- Collaborate on climate change mitigation efforts across their industry
Post-workshop evaluations showed that participants felt more confident in their ability to “speak climate,” that they better understood HSBC’s sustainability commitments, and that they were more energized and inspired to take climate action.
“The versatility and interactivity of En-ROADS enables us at HSBC to focus our sustainability strategy on activities with higher impact and relevance, while also helping us to communicate and implement that strategy throughout the company.”
After top decision makers within HSBC experienced an expert-led En-ROADS climate policy simulation, internal capability was built to lead subsequent peer-to-peer workshops. Approximately 300 employees experienced En-ROADS through these initial offerings, and the simulation was then built into a required global transition risk training that had reached 2300 others as of late 2021. HSBC continues to embed the En-ROADS simulation in new global climate change and climate risk employee curriculum, and has also conducted workshops for their industry partners and at public events. As of February 2022, 3000+ HSBC bankers and credit-risk managers, in total, had experienced En-ROADS
The company’s implementation strategy was pivotal to their success. They reached out to senior leadership early and gained their endorsement. They identified the appropriate human resources and balanced capability with time commitment in developing expert facilitators. Leveraging existing training programs was also key to expanding reach.
Explore our En-ROADS Solutions Simulator, co-developed with Climate Interactive, here
Andrew Greenspan
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TitleVP of Corporate Sustainability, HSBC Bank U.S.A.
Florian Kapmeier
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TitleProfessor for Strategy and International Project Management at ESB Business School
Andrew Jones
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Titleo-Founder, Co-Director, Climate Interactive
John Sterman
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RoleCo-faculty Director, Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management,
