ESG Accord has launched an academy to help advisers get to grips with the Financial Conduct Authority’s Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR).
The first course, launched earlier this month, is a one-hour introduction to greenwashing.
Greenwashing is the “deliberate act of misleading customers by selective use of information, exaggeration or omission”.
Since 31 May 2024, all FCA-authorised firms have been required to meet the FCA’s anti-greenwashing rule.
The module aims to help “build confidence and competence” for everyone responsible for undertaking anti-greenwashing checks.
Founder Lee Coates told Money Marketing: “The focus last year was on delivering the Accord Initiative. Then we thought, we need to build on that.”
The Accord Initiative is a suite of compliance, education, CPD and regulatory analysis services, all delivered to advisers via a free-to-access website.
The academy will be free to all members of the Initiative.
ESG Accord is now in the process of writing the full course.
This will be made up of 10 half-hour modules looking at how SDR relates to the Consumer Duty, the wider regulatory environment and the economics of ESG.
It will include a five-minute video at the beginning of each module, followed by “homework”, which will include practising ESG-related conversations on colleagues or friends.
The engine behind the academy is Moodle, which is an online platform for education.
The full course will deliver five hours of CPD, accredited by LIBF.
ESG Accord said it plans to roll out a separate course later in the year, examining the role of a DFM from an SDR perspective.
You know my views on this nonsense. Viva Milton Friedman!