This page features recent news and activities of Soyka & Company and its President, Peter Soyka. Please check this page from time to time for updates.
In August 2009, Peter Soyka and collaborator Mark Bateman of IW Financial, Inc. published a groundbreaking study of corporate environmental disclosure, policy, and management practices. This study, entitled “The Road Not Yet Taken: The State of U.S. Corporate Environmental Policy and Management,” documents a new analysis performed by Mr. Soyka of the information disclosed by the Russell 1000 (the 1,000 U.S. companies having the largest capitalization, or market value) regarding corporate environmental policies, goals, management systems, programs, performance, and public reporting. The study represents the largest and most complete publicly available analysis of its type performed to date. The work was performed on behalf of the Sustainable Enterprise Institute, a recently formed not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable business practices (see www.SustainableEnterpriseInstitute.org for details).
Results indicate that while about 60 percent of Russell 1000 companies have an environmental policy of some form, most of these policies lack rigor and sophistication, as fewer than 28 percent have any of six key policy elements, and fewer than nine percent have any of three or more of these elements. Only about eight percent of these firms vest oversight responsibility for ESG issues and/or for its environmental policy in its Board of Directors, and only 1 in 18 has unambiguously delegated this responsibility to a senior corporate officer (e.g., Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer). In addition, only about 13 percent of Russell 1000 companies have published a corporate environmental, CSR, or sustainability report, and fewer still have reported key management activities such as extent of employee training or significant performance end points like regulatory violations or fines and penalties. And while 27 percent of Russell 1000 firms have disclosed their direct greenhouse gas emissions, only about 16 percent have a corporate climate change policy. The authors conclude that while there may be many firms that have more sophisticated environmental policies and practices than they have disclosed, the absence of adequate and complete disclosure leaves investors and other external stakeholders with a significant information deficit and materially increases investment risk. They advocate more complete, consistent, and regular environmental (or sustainability) disclosure, and for the many firms that have not established complete environmental policies and infrastructure, that they formulate and make public meaningful environmental policies, establish management systems and implementing practices, regularly measure performance, and regularly report progress, accomplishments, and challenges. Only in this way, can firms that espouse environmental leadership demonstrate that they deserve the ongoing support of the investing (and general) public. To download a copy of this study, click here. Click here to view the press release announcing the availability of this study.
On 14 May 2009, Mr. Soyka delivered a presentation describing his pioneering work in quantifying the life cycle environmental aspects of the U.S. mail system. In collaboration with partners SLS Consulting and with guidance from the client at the U.S. Postal Service, Mr. Soyka designed and developed a new life cycle inventory model covering all stages in the mail value chain, from paper making through ultimate disposal of discarded mail in landfills. In his remarks, he described this peer-reviewed work and as well as recent updates and enhancements to the methodology. The presentation was delivered at the Advanced Workshop in Regulation and Competition, 28th Annual Eastern Conference of the Center for Research in Regulated Industries at Rutgers University, in Skytop, PA.
In April, 2009, a team of consultants led by Mr. Soyka completed and delivered a report describing evolving investment practices in Europe that make use of environmental and other sustainability information. This work, commissioned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, provides detailed analysis and critical review of the ways in and extent to which European investors use environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information to inform their investment decisions. With assistance from experts at Greentrack Strategies and IW Financial, and support from International Decision Strategies, Mr. Soyka designed and implemented the research strategy, compiled and organized major research findings and drew out their implications, and served as the primary author of the report. Major findings include the fact that total funds invested using environmental criteria are about 15 times greater in Europe than in the U.S., despite the fact that U.S. capital markets are larger, and that many large, mainstream European financial institutions are actively involved in the ESG investing space, in marked contrast to peer companies in the U.S. Mr. Soyka and co-authors attribute these disparities to a policy “vacuum” in this country relative to Europe, such that explicit public policies “across the pond” have helped to actively move many of the countries in Europe toward broad use of ESG investing. In contrast, nothing of this sort exists in the U.S., though this may change given the results of the recent Presidential election and public sector responses to the severe global economic downturn.
An analysis developed by Peter Soyka and Lawrence Buc of SLS Consulting was recently published as a chapter in the book, Progress in the Competitive Agenda in the Postal and Delivery Sector, edited by Michael Crew and Paul Kleindorfer. The chapter is entitled Bank of America, Mail, and the Environment, and is based upon a cost-benefit analysis developed by Mr. Buc and Mr. Soyka that brought together an analysis of the carbon footprint of a major multinational bank, and a review of greenhouse gas mitigation options with respect to both impact and implementation cost. This work also was profiled in a presentation given at the 16th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics on 28 May 2008. Messrs. Buc and Soyka arrayed the available options for greenhouse gas reductions in order of both the magnitude of reductions and unit cost, forming a cost (supply) curve in the process. They then examined different strategies for reducing the Bank’s carbon footprint. Their analysis showed that it is possible for Bank of America to make substantial greenhouse gas reductions at reasonable cost, but that it is very important to pursue mitigation strategies in a careful way. This is because the analysis also showed that some of the most high-profile strategies, and those that seem to be growing in popularity, are among the least cost-effective. Messrs. Buc and Soyka conclude that Bank of America intends to be a sustainable company, and can accomplish this goal by deploying its capital wisely in addressing its environmental and social challenges.
On 12 February 2009, Peter Soyka gave an invited guest lecture to the Environment Industry Study of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, at Fort NcNair in Washington, DC. His remarks were provided to a class of mid-career military officers representing U.S. armed services branches as well as those of several allied countries, and comprised his second such invited presentation during the past two years. His presentation was entitled, Corporate Environmental Behavior and Financial Performance. The lecture built upon Mr. Soyka’s recent work in defining and describing the connections between corporate environmental management and performance improvements and indicators of corporate financial success such as profitability, returns on assets and invested capital, value of intangible assets, stock price volatility, and stock price performance. Mr. Soyka provided a brief but thorough and thought-provoking overview of this topic, and provided the participants with an analysis of a number of interesting trends and potential indicators of movement toward companies and capital markets that are more environmentally (and financially) sustainable.
In September, 2008, Peter Soyka and co-author Lawrence Buc of SLS Consulting completed and delivered a comprehensive review of information concerning the environmental impacts of mail. The resulting document, entitled, Informing the Dialogue: Facts About Mail and the Environment, takes the form of “questions and answers,” and provides a wealth of pertinent facts and much-needed perspective on what is known (versus what is widely believed) about the environmental footprint of mail. The document provides clear, and in some cases, extensive answers to approximately 35 key questions that routinely face companies and public sector entities involved in the mail value chain in the U.S. In some cases, answers provide new quantitative analysis to determine the likely magnitude of environmental impacts or efficacy of particular strategies for mitigating these effects. The document also provides extensive references. The document is available for download at the website of the Association for Postal Commerce (“Postcom”), at www.postcom.com, where it is prominently featured on the home page of this organization.