Senior Manager, Sustainability Strategy and Disclosure

at  BMO Financial Group

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Develop sustainability strategies and strategic objectives. Responsible for interpreting external sustainability frameworks (e.g. Principles for Responsible Banking, Net Zero Banking Alliance, others), monitoring trends, developing implementation strategies and programs. Works across the enterprise to influence and communicate sustainability initiatives, and drive buy-in and awareness to achieve objectives.
• Develop and maintain relationships with internal stakeholders across lines of business and Corporate Areas to enhance internal awareness of the value of sustainability. This includes providing specialized advice and support to projects and initiatives to ensure that sustainability requirements are built into business processes.
• Lead processes related to sustainability and climate disclosure, including:
• Sustainability materiality assessment process, including the development and implementation of an approach to assess “double materiality”;
• Report planning and voluntary framework alignment;
• Advising and supporting stakeholders on development of balanced, credible and streamlined disclosures that meet external expectations;
• Collection and quality control of quantitative and qualitative sustainability and climate-related data for BMO’s sustainability reporting suite;
• Drafting report content;
• Managing multiple rounds of stakeholder reviews and approval;
• Maintaining strong disclosure procedures and controls to satisfy regulatory reporting requirements, audit and third-party assurance processes;
• Implementation, maintenance and continuous optimization of sustainability reporting software;
• Selection and management of third-party support resources including consultants, report writers, designers and translators.
• Management of third-party assurance processes including metric selection, participating in assurance walkthroughs, reviewing observations/findings and addressing findings with impact areas through change management;
• Ongoing strategic evolution of sustainability and climate reports over the short-, medium- and long-term.
• Responsible for managing risk and controls of the Public Accountability Statement through the publication of BMO’s ESG Report and PAS, ensuring all regulatory requirements are met.
• Leads planning and coordination of stakeholder engagement to develop responses to sustainability surveys from raters/rankings (e.g. S&P Corporate Sustainability Assessment, CDP, Sustainalytics, Corporate Knights and others), RFPs and other ad-hoc requests.
• Monitor sustainability and climate trends and reporting frameworks and standards (e.g. Global Reporting Initiative, SASB, TCFD, OSFI, ISSB/CSSB, CSRD and related regulatory disclosure requirements), evaluate changes/impacts and identify areas of opportunity for BMO’s reporting.
• Conduct benchmarking and best practice research on sustainability and climate reporting, raters and rankings methodologies and advise on continuous improvement opportunities.
• Develop and/or advise on the development of, public facing statements and policies on sustainability matters.
• Coordinate design, translation and website posting of public facing materials.
• Maintain and update website content, as needed.
• Oversee administration and governance of internal management committees and forums.
• Prepare presentations and messaging for senior management and executives on related topics, as needed.
• Monitor sustainability and climate-related developments internally and externally and develop quarterly dashboard and newsletter for internal distribution.
• Manage external / internal stakeholder concerns and requests (e.g. Sustainability mailbox, ad hoc queries) with respect to BMO’s Sustainability activities and position.
• Actively participate in and represent BMO in international industry associations (e.g. UNEP FI working groups, Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, others) and identify opportunities to apply emerging good practice.
• Assistance in researching, developing and executing other sustainability related programs as may be needed.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:

• Degree in a related field such as sustainability, business, finance, engineering, accounting. Masters-level preferred.
• 7+ years’ experience in a sustainability-related or strategy; within a financial institution or management consulting company an asset.
• Strong working knowledge of sustainability raters and rankings assessment frameworks
• In-depth understanding of sustainability reporting standards, frameworks and regulations
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and presentation skills
• Strong relationship management skills and well-developed negotiation skills
• Strong critical thinking, problem solving skills and ability to navigate ambiguous situations.
• Self-starter and motivated
• Ability to work independently with little oversight
• Strong project management skills and ability to handle multiple tasks, change priorities and operate effectively in a fast paced environment
• Results oriented and goal driven
• Detail oriented
• Politically astute, diplomatic and able to navigate complex corporate and external environment with numerous stakeholders on highly sensitive and controversial topics
• Strong change management skills

Please refer the Job description for details