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How Japanese Companies Can Respond to Anti-ESG Pressures

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Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is not dead – despite all of the noise in the press. ESG and Sustainability—in various forms—have survived, reinforcing its longevity but with more clarity, standardization, transparency, and accountability. MoFo and InfluenceMap will present a webinar focused on “How Japanese Companies Can Respond to Anti-ESG Pressures.”

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is not dead – despite all of the noise in the press. ESG and Sustainability—in various forms—have survived, reinforcing its longevity but with more clarity, standardization, transparency, and accountability. <a href="/capabilities/esg-sustainability" target="_self">MoFo</a> and <a href="https://www.influencemap.org/index.html" target="_blank">InfluenceMap</a> will present a webinar focused on “How Japanese Companies Can Respond to Anti-ESG Pressures.”Our panel of distinguished speakers will discuss the following topics and provide insights on how Japanese companies can comply with the new regulatory regime and ensure that they continue to operationalize risks and take advantage of ESG-related opportunities.Discussion Topics<ul><li>The origin of ESG and relevant terminology</li><li>Understanding the U.S. political backlash and anti-ESG movement</li><li>How to comply with the evolving ESG regulatory landscape</li><li>Status of the Japanese sustainability disclosure standards</li><li>Navigating evolving ESG-related risks while maximizing opportunities and impact</li></ul>Speakers<ul><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-tanner-b2874ab3/?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank">Dylan Tanner</a> – Executive Director and Co-Founder, InfluenceMap</li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-nagashima/" target="_blank">Monica Nagashima</a> – Japan Country Manager, InfluenceMap</li><li>Susan H. Mac Cormac – Co-Chair, ESG + Sustainability and Social Enterprise + Impact Investing Groups, Morrison Foerster</li><li>Takahiro Nonaka – Partner, ESG + Sustainability, Morrison Foerster</li></ul>About InfluenceMap<a href="https://www.influencemap.org/index.html" target="_blank">InfluenceMap</a> is a leading global think tank working with investors, corporations, policy makers, the media, and campaigners with data-driven analysis on the climate crisis. Their two work streams, LobbyMap and FinanceMap, are world-renowned platforms that respectively hold the corporate and finance sectors accountable for climate performance. InfluenceMap is philanthropically funded and based in London, with offices in New York, Tokyo, and Seoul.<hr>

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Susan (“Suz”) co-chairs the ESG + Sustainability and Social Enterprise + Impact Investing practices. Her practice focuses on late-stage financings, secondaries, and other corporate transactions for investors, such as SoftBank and Temasek, and on investments for some of the top investors dedicated to impact, from “impact first” foundations to family offices to private equity funds. She co-led the drafting group for the first of the new corporate forms (the Social Purpose Corporation in California), has created hybrid/tandem corporate structures and crafted debt and equity instruments that blend impact with traditional financial terms, and has used corporate law to develop creative capital market solutions to pressing environmental problems. She also advises the boards of public and private companies on corporate governance and fiduciary duties as applied to sustainability and climate change.She was named a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) in 2012 and 2016 by Daily Journal and the Most Innovative Lawyer in North America in 2015 by the Financial Times.Leading Business AdvisorA powerhouse negotiator, clients note that “you cannot get a better corporate counsel” and that Suz “understands the big picture, could not be more responsive, and understands the business” (The Legal 500 US). She has extensive experience providing corporate and finance advice to companies and investors in connection with growth equity financings and secondaries, with particular experience in late-stage investments that have come to rival traditional strategic acquisitions in size and significance. Her experience includes leading some of the highest-profile late-stage investments over the past few years, including notable transactions for SoftBank Group (in the two largest private tender offers in history) in its $7.7 billion investment in Uber, $4.4 billion investment in WeWork, further $10 billion investment in WeWork, $1 billion investment in SoFi, and $250 million investment in Kabbage. She has also advised Temasek on its $800 million investment in Verily Life Sciences, Intel on its equity investment in Cloudera, and each of Fortress, TPG Rise, Vision Ridge Partners, Generation Investment Management, and Pontifax AgTech in numerous mid- to late-stage investments in clean technology, sustainability, education, food, and agriculture technology.Social Enterprise and Impact InvestingSuz is the go-to legal resource for social enterprises (for-profit and non-profit companies focused on social or environmental purpose), impact investors (investors interested in social or environmental returns), and mainstream companies developing environmental, social, and corporate governance policies. With deep expertise in the impact investing model, institutional investors exploring the space turn to her for creative solutions and her ability to structure both investments and companies to emphasize impact and returns.She represents a wide range of investors who are focused on impact, from foundations like the Gates Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and The Rockefeller Foundation, to family offices like Armonia, Cornerstone Capital, Emerson Collective, New Island Capital, and Omidyar Network, to private equity funds like Goldman Sachs, TPG Rise, Vision Ridge Partners, and Generation Investment Management, in their equity investments in companies and projects that are focused on generating impact and returns for investors. She has deep experience and expertise ensuring energy, sustainability, and other investments have positive impact through the use of new corporate forms, hybrid or “tandem” structures with non-profits and for-profits, and alternative debt and equity instruments.Notable work in this space includes the establishment of a tandem structure, The Carbon Endowment, to retire coal assets at scale while securing a revenue stream for community reinvestment and job training in coal communities. Suz also advised on the structuring of Common Sense Growth as an extension of the non-profit Common Sense Media (to invest in companies that address issues related to children, education, and technology), the establishment of a fund for TPG Rise to provide debt financing to Echoing Green fellows, the spin-out of PRX from Public Radio International (to generate new revenue flows up to the non-profit), the establishment of a for-profit joint venture with non-profit Medicines360 (to allow the non-profit to distribute its healthcare products to women in the developing world), and the structuring of a for-profit evergreen fund that allows The Nature Conservancy to aggregate return-seeking and donor capital in order to invest in preserving our natural resources. She has also advised numerous clients on converting to a public benefit corporation or social purpose corporation model (which requires balancing traditional fiduciary duties against a social or environmental purpose), including This American Life, Revolution Foods, Rise Labs, and Beneficial State Bancorp.Suz also regularly advises boards of directors of private and public companies, special committees, and CEOs on corporate governance, particularly the intersection of fiduciary duties with sustainability, and focuses on environmental, social, and governance issues.Unmatched Cleantech and Renewable Energy ExperienceIn addition to founding and chairing the firm’s Social Enterprise and Impact Investing Group, Suz serves as Chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Energy Group and has extensive experience representing start-up to late stage private companies in the clean technology or sustainability space. She provides corporate and finance advice in connection with equity and debt financings, mergers, acquisitions, asset purchases and sales, reorganizations, and joint ventures. She has experience working with renewable energy start-up companies and renewable energy developers in the solar, wind, and biofuels industries. Suz has assisted renewable energy start up companies with raising venture capital and has advised renewable energy developers on project acquisitions.Suz’s representative renewable energy, cleantech, sustainable, and social enterprise clients include Anaergia, Change.org, EDF Renewables, E.ON, Etsy, First Look, OneSun, Planet Labs, Rising Sun Energy, RSF Social Finance, SustainBio, Trelys, Inc., Wikipedia, and Xpansiv.Board Activity and Thought LeadershipMs. Mac Cormac was a founding board member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), is a member of the board of directors of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), the Ceres President’s Council, and the Earth Genome Project, and is an advising board member of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy’s Strategic Investor Initiative.She has joined the faculty (teaching on the intersection of sustainability and fiduciary duties) at both the Stanford Director’s College and the Northwestern Corporate Counsel Institute and is an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, teaching a course on Social Enterprise.

Susan Mac Cormac

Partner

Takahiro Nonaka is a partner of Morrison Foerster Law Offices. He focuses his practice on government and internal investigations, including anti-corruption, antitrust, employee misconduct, and data privacy issues. He also works on both cross-border dispute resolution and domestic general commercial litigation.He has represented multinational companies in their negotiations with government officials, mass media, and other associated investigative agencies. His work also includes conducting internal investigations and training, researching relevant regulations and guidelines, and drafting internal codes and policies.He has worked with many multinational companies on U.S. antitrust law and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) matters, data privacy issues in the EU and other jurisdictions, and cross-border disputes, particularly related to tort claims and product liability in Japan and the United States, collaborating with counsel in each jurisdiction. His practice also focuses on domestic general commercial litigation, including system development contracts, real estate lease agreements, and various types of labor disputes. In addition, he regularly advises clients on employment, trade and export control compliance issues, and business criminal defense matters.Taka began his career as a judge, serving in district courts in Japan for almost 10 years. He was seconded to a multinational auto company, where he handled labor matters and trained factory workers. He also held a two-year diplomatic secondment role at the Japan Embassy in Washington, D.C., where he served as an advisor on issues relating to export controls, competition laws, and FCPA enforcement affecting Japanese companies.Taka was recommended by Who’s Who Legal Japan for Business Crime Defense & Investigations, by Best Lawyers in Japan for Privacy and Data Security Law since 2021, and by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific for Japan: Antitrust and Competition in 2023.He has often been invited to speak at seminars held by outside organizations and internally with MoFo partners from other offices. Recently, he participated in a presentation on topics relating to anti-corruption and overseas bribery at a seminar sponsored by the Global Compact Network Japan Anti-Corruption Subcommittee in November 2022. He also provided presentations on information security issues at the Association of Niigata Information Security and at an Asian Investigation Seminar held with KL Discovery.Taka has been an adjunct professor of International Dispute Resolution at the Graduate School of Law at the Hitotsubashi University since September 2018. He is a bengoshi registered with the Dai-Ni Tokyo Bar Association. He is a native speaker of Japanese and is fluent in English.

Takahiro Nonaka

ESG + Sustainability

Social Enterprise + Impact Investing

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How Japanese Companies Can Respond to Anti-ESG Pressures

27 Mar 2024 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM JST