ASFI's Leadership Working Group is returning for 2024, bringing finance leaders together to share and learn best practice strategies to transform sustainability leadership and work through common barriers to increasing sustainability adoption and outcomes.
ASFI's Leadership Working Group
Leadership was a key theme in the Australian Sustainable Finance Roadmap, emerging early in the process as a critical enabler for the transformation required for a more sustainable, resilient and inclusive financial system, and as one of four key themes of the Roadmap recommendations.
Leadership itself is also undergoing a transformation as the challenges facing leaders become increasingly complex, require the involvement of many more stakeholders, involve the integration of incomplete or large volumes of information and rely on cross functional collaboration and innovative approaches to manage. The sustainability challenges facing the finance sector exemplify these new, complex challenges that require distributed and adaptive leadership to manage and solve. Action at multiple levels is required to build the momentum and ongoing action required for system-wide change. This approach to leadership is reflected in ASFI’s values, strategy and way that we work with others, and will be integral to how we develop and implement our Leadership work.
The establishment of an ASFI members-only working group on ‘Transforming Sustainability Leadership’ will provide ASFI members the opportunity to share lessons and best practice, and work through common challenges that financial institutions are facing to increase sustainability adoption and outcomes. By using a facilitated peer-learning approach, the group will identify common key challenges and share experiences of how they have been overcome, including critical steps for progress and key lessons. Issues covered could include topics like how to embed sustainability KPIs into remuneration frameworks, how to effectively communicate sustainability, or how to build capability in systems thinking to support organisations deal with the complexity of sustainability issues.
Key Details for 2024 Program
Applications close: 29 March 2024
Format: This program will be in person only, and based in Sydney. If there are sufficient applications from Melbourne we may also run a parallel program there. Please indicate in your EoI where you are able to attend.
Time commitment: Program participants will meet for a morning four times across 12 months, with the first meeting likely to be late May. There may be limited engagements between meetings also.
Cost: There is no charge to members to participate in this program.
Participants: Up to 16 participants from 8 different organisations will be chosen. Each application must include one senior manager or executive and one junior staff member to participate in the program together. The senior manager or executive must have sustainability/ESG/First Nations finance and investment/sustainable finance/responsible investment/sustainability reporting as part of their role. This twinning arrangement is designed to provide a mentoring or reverse mentoring opportunity on sustainability issues, to support sustainability teams to build a ‘coalition of champions’ within the organisation but outside of the sustainability team, and to ensure there is capacity to progress some work in between sessions.
Selection: Due to demand for this program, not all applicants will be accepted. Participants will be chosen based on relevant factors such as alignment with the program objectives and diversity.
Applications to join the 2024 cohort of the Working Group have now closed.
