After a great deal of preparation for their presentation on taking an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) approach to investing, Eli, Sydney, and Gil join their utility's weekly virtual leadership meeting. On the call are the utility's general manger (GM), chief financial officer (CFO), and chief engineer.

GM: (realizing Eli, Sydney, and Gil have joined) Great—you joined without a hitch. And thanks for using your cameras; I always think that makes for better meeting communication.

Eli: Thanks for having us. We're excited to share what we have been learning about the ESG investment framework.

GM: (speaking to the CFO and chief engineer) This is the topic I mentioned to you—ESG. These three have been exploring it and I think it's important that we understand what it means for our future. (Speaking to Eli) Okay—how do you want to start, Eli?

Eli: We hope there's a lot of discussion about this. ESG investing is a newer framework for measuring investment risk. Because we issue bonds and use other types of financing for our capital program, the three of us think this is important for our utility's future.

CFO: (cutting Eli short and pushing into the conversation) That's right Eli, it is important. The E stands for Environment, the S for Social, and the G for Governance. All the bond rating agencies are establishing standardized scoring for those three elements. The scoring will create transparency for investors; if we do well, our credit score improves.

Sydney: (observing that Eli feels a bit deflated) That's true! What's also true is that investors want to know this information. This really is an investor‐driven change.

CFO: Sydney is also right. Credit ratings used to be all about financial health and revenue sufficiency. But with ESG, well, it's broader. Our credit rating will now be influenced by our financial health (adding emphasis) and how we embrace E, S, and G.

Eli: (regaining some traction) It is also important to remember that the standardized scoring provides investors with a view into our ESG risk, and how we manage those risks.

Chief engineer: (with urgency) But we're great at planning for risk. We have watershed protection plans, asset management plans, drought response plans, emergency preparedness plans, integrated resource plans . . . we have plans for virtually everything.

Sydney: (calmly) Those are critical and, on their own, not enough. Because we work with the environment (pausing to reinforce the connection)—the E—we already protect water sources and water service. But we don't always link this work to how it supports our community—in other words, (pausing) the S—society.

GM: So let's talk a bit about G and how governance is part of this puzzle.

Gil: I think of governance as the glue that holds the puzzle together. Our leaders and board set policies on how we provide water to our community. As the policy setters, they also need to ensure that the policies are consistently followed. Under an ESG model, the (making air quotes) “puzzle's” framework adjusts and puts a spotlight on consistency in these areas.

GM: Tell me a bit more about that.

Gil: Well, we are still learning, but scoring standards are likely to look at how we mitigate risks to our environmental needs and how we also ensure equity and fairness when providing water service to our community. Our governance needs to do all of that—set the policies and follow through on them.

CFO: And don't forget our policies around full cost pricing and regular rate adjustments.

Sydney: Those policies matter, too. Especially because rates are approved by our board. While the rating agencies will still care about revenue sufficiency, they will likely also care about our overall financial health and our mitigation strategies to make sure water service remains affordable.

GM: (bringing the discussion to a close) I want to thank the three of you for bringing this forward to us. I have two requests. First, I am going to add you three to the agenda for our next board meeting so that we can have a similar discussion with our board. And second, timing is everything. Just the other day I saw that AWWA's Transformative Issues Symposium will be a three‐part webinar series in August and will focus on equity and access within the framework of ESG. Eli, would you make sure that all six of us are registered for that symposium?

Eli: (feeling energized) Absolutely!

Scene 3 fades to black as everyone on the virtual meeting signs off.

The End!

在为准备采用环境，社会和治理（ESG）方法进行投资的演讲做了大量准备之后，Eli，Sydney和Gil参加了其公用事业每周的虚拟领导会议。公用事业部门的总经理（GM），首席财务官（CFO）和总工程师将应邀参加会议。

GM ：（意识到Eli，Sydney和Gil已加入）太好了，您加入的过程很顺利。感谢您使用相机；我一直认为这有助于更好地进行会议沟通。

以利：谢谢你有我们。我们很高兴分享我们对ESG投资框架的了解。

GM ：（与CFO和总工程师交谈）这是我向您提到的话题-ESG。这三个人一直在探索它，我认为重要的是我们了解它对我们的未来意味着什么。（对Eli说）好吧，Eli，您想如何开始？

Eli：我们希望对此有很多讨论。ESG投资是一种用于衡量投资风险的较新框架。因为我们发行债券并为我们的资本计划使用其他类型的融资，所以我们三个人认为这对我们公用事业的未来很重要。

首席财务官：（缩短Eli并进行对话）是的，Eli很重要。E代表环境，S代表社会，G代表治理。所有债券评级机构都在为这三个要素建立标准化评分。评分将为投资者创造透明度；如果我们做得好，我们的信用评分就会提高。

悉尼：（观察到Eli感到有些沮丧）是的！真实的是，投资者想知道这些信息。这确实是投资者驱动的变化。

首席财务官：悉尼也是对的。信用评级过去一直都是关于财务状况和收入充裕程度的。但是，有了ESG，它的范围更广了。现在，我们的信用等级将受到财务状况（重点）以及我们如何接受E，S和G的影响。

Eli ：（重新获得牵引力）同样重要的是要记住，标准化评分可以使投资者了解我们的ESG风险以及我们如何管理这些风险。

首席工程师：（紧急）但我们擅长规划风险。我们有分水岭保护计划，资产管理计划，干旱应对计划，应急准备计划，综合资源计划。。。我们为几乎所有事情都制定了计划。

悉尼：（平静地）这些很重要，仅靠这些还不够。因为我们与环境一起工作（暂停以加强连接），所以我们已经保护了水源和水服务。但是，我们并不总是将这项工作与它如何支持我们的社区（换句话说，（暂停）S-社会）联系起来。

GM：所以让我们谈谈G以及治理如何成为这个难题的一部分。

吉尔：我认为治理是将难题融合在一起的粘合剂。我们的领导人和董事会制定了有关如何为社区供水的政策。作为政策制定者，他们还需要确保始终遵循政策。在ESG模型下，（进行空中报价）“拼图”框架进行了调整，并着眼于这些领域的一致性。

GM：告诉我更多有关此的信息。

吉尔：恩，我们仍在学习，但评分标准可能会着眼于我们如何减轻对环境需求的风险，以及在为社区提供水服务时如何确保公平与公正。我们的治理需要做到所有这些-制定政策并贯彻执行。

首席财务官：请不要忘记我们的全额定价和定期费率调整政策。

悉尼：这些政策也很重要。特别是因为费率是由我们的董事会批准的。尽管评级机构仍将关注收入的充裕性，但他们也可能会关注我们的整体财务状况以及我们的缓解策略，以确保水服务价格可承受。

GM ：（结束讨论）我要感谢你们三个人向我们提出的建议。我有两个要求。首先，我将在下一次董事会会议的议程上增加三个，以便我们可以与董事会进行类似的讨论。其次，时间就是一切。就在前几天，我看到AWWA的“变革性问题研讨会”将是一个分为三部分的网络研讨会系列，将于8月份举行，并将重点关注ESG框架内的公平和获取。以利，您能确定我们六个人都已注册参加该专题讨论会吗？

Eli ：（充满活力）绝对！

当虚拟会议上的每个人都签字时，场景3逐渐变黑。

结束！