Actualités By Brendan Kelly 1018 Views

Montreal wants sustainable finance organization's head office built here

Within the next few days, the Montreal business community is going to submit a bid to try to convince a major new international sustainable finance organization to set up its head office in Montreal

The new organization is the International Sustainability Standards Board and it is meant to set standards for reporting on how companies around the world have performed in terms of material sustainability issues. Material sustainability issues are how the company’s actions affect the environment and society. The organization will set the international norms regarding companies’ environmental impact.

There are other cities interested in attracting the organization’s head office, including Toronto and cities in Europe and Asia. Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante has come out in support, tweeting to say “Nothing is more coherent with our work and the work of our partners than to relaunch Montreal in a green and inclusive way.”

The bid to bring the organization’s head office to Montreal is supported by both the Montreal and Quebec governments.

Stéphane Paquet — the CEO of Montreal International, a group dedicated to attracting foreign investment in Montreal — said the city is ideally suited for this new board. He notes that Montreal is already the third most important city in North America, after New York and Washington, in terms of the number of head offices of international organizations. Montreal is a leader for aviation organizations, but also has a large number of non-governmental organizations in the areas of biodiversity and sustainable development.