Empower Co. helps companies assess and better integrate their gender impacts.

Climate change and gender equity are both high-priority areas of sustainable investment for companies and investors, according to the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing’s latest report — but few understand how closely interrelated the two issues are.

To reach the scale required for fast climate results, we can’t exclude the knowledge, skills, and networks of women by neglecting their contributions to tackling climate change, nor can we ignore the threats climate change poses to global gains in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.

By addressing gender and climate jointly, we can amplify the positive impacts of both.

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Framing a Company's Gender Footprint

By evaluating how their investments in climate-related issues might disproportionately affect women, companies have the potential to significantly scale their impact. Empower Co. offers consulting services to help companies better understand their Scopes 2 and 3 gender impacts, to develop more effective CSR strategies.

Morgan Stanley’s framework offers a way to evaluate a company’s gender footprint, analogous to a carbon model. Scope 1 gender issues inside the company are relatively easy to track, but Scopes 2 and 3 have the potential to impact many more women globally.

  • Gender issues often disclosed and/or required by regulation: Women represented on boards, policies on parental leave and flexible working, disclosure on gender pay gap.

  • Gender issues established from company disclosure or specialist providers: Women-owned businesses in supply chain, forced or child labor in supply chain, gender-based controversies.

  • Not typically considered, but impacts a much larger number of women globally: Impact on water security or sanitation, loss of farming land, carbon emissions.