Borsa Istanbul starts calculating BIST Sustainability Index

4 November 2014

Istanbul - The launch of the Index comes after many months of preparation including a joint workshop held with the SSE in January 2014. Borsa Istanbul is one of the five founding Partner Exchanges of the SSE initiative. The CEO of Borsa Istanbul recently spoke about the new Sustainability Index at the SSE 2014 Global Dialogue, held in Geneva 14 October.   The companies that will be included in BIST Sustainability Index will be those meeting the minimum criteria, determined by Borsa Istanbul in cooperation with Ethical Investment Research Services Limited (EIRIS).     With the Index, companies are offered a performance evaluation instrument for improvement and determining new targets, as well as strengthening their corporate transparency, accountability and risk management skills regarding sustainability issues. By promoting companies that adopt sustainability and corporate governance principles, the Index will also allow investors to prefer such companies. Another purpose of the Index is to improve the understanding, knowledge accumulation and practices regarding environmental, social and governance issues among Turkish companies, particularly those traded on Borsa Istanbul.

About the SSE

​The SSE initiative is a UN Partnership Programme organised by UNCTAD, the UN Global Compact, UNEP FI and the PRI. The SSE’s mission is to provide a global platform for exploring how exchanges, in collaboration with investors, companies (issuers), regulators, policymakers and relevant international organizations, can enhance performance on ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) issues and encourage sustainable investment, including the financing of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The SSE seeks to achieve this mission through an integrated programme of conducting evidence-based policy analysis, facilitating a network and forum for multi-stakeholder consensus-building, and providing technical assistance and advisory services.