NAIROBI/GENEVA, 7 September 1999 -- The challenges facing financial institutions and their customers in the increasingly global and environmentally concerned marketplace of the 21st century will be the subject of an international roundtable meeting being held 9-10 September on the campus of Northwestern University just outside Chicago.

The meeting is the fifth in a series of Roundtables on Finance and the Environment organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Financial Institutions Initiative on the Environment. It is the second roundtable to be held in the United States -- a May 1997 session was hosted by Columbia University in New York City.

"Whilst corporate America has come to recognize the potential value of 'beyond compliance' environmental initiatives to their competitive opportunities, these linkages are not well understood by the majority of investment professionals and, therefore, not reflected in the stock selection process. The UNEP Initiative is playing an important role in helping investment professionals uncover and measure the financial value of strong corporate environmental performance", says Linda Descano, Director of Social Awareness Investment for Salomon Smith Barney Asset Management.

In remarks prepared for the opening session of the Roundtable, Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel, Director of UNEP's Technology, Industry and Economics Division, on behalf of Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director, says: "The financial world has an increasingly important role in creating key market conditions to encourage sustainable development. In all aspects of the current debate -- whether asset management, educating future professionals, reporting and accounting, or climate change -- there are fundamental opportunities and constraints in the financial community which we need to clarify and address at this conference."

In addition to the investment firm of Salomon Smith Barney, speakers this year will include representatives from some of the world's leading financial institutions, such as the commercial banks BankAmerica and the Royal Bank of Canada, and several Europe-based banks -- Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings and UBS AG (Union Bank of Switzerland). They will be joined by senior officials from the World Bank, UNEP and Dow Jones, as well as participants from government, the private sector, academia and the non-governmental community.

"It is difficult to imagine a more timely event. We are witnessing the convergence of the environment and finance. This conference will explore new trends and innovations in this area", says keynote speaker Dr. Richard Sandor, Chairman and CEO of Environmental Financial Products and Senior Advisor to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"The concept of corporate sustainability meshes well with this convergence of the environment and finance", says another keynote speaker, David E, Moran, President of Dow Jones Indexes. "Sustainability-driven companies aim to increase shareholder value over the long term by integrating economic, environmental and social growth opportunities into their business strategies. Sustainability companies pursue their opportunities in a proactive, cost-effective and responsible manner today, so that they will outpace their competitors and be tomorrow's winners."

Hosted by Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management, the Roundtable will also explore how the financial sector -- whether commercial or investment banks, the personal sector or multilateral agencies -- can better integrate environmental and sustainability considerations into their operational, credit and investment practices.

In addition, a series of panel sessions will be discussing such topics as global trends in project finance, educating the next generation of financial professionals, environmental reporting and accounting, key climate change issues for the financial sector, long-term asset management, and credit risk assessment of environmental risks.

"There is increasing investor interest in companies committed to the corporate sustainability principles -- i.e., innovative technology, corporate governance, shareholder relations, industrial leadership and social well-being -- because these companies have superior performances and favourable risk/return profiles. We now have the quantitative tools for investors and companies to integrate sustainability principles in both corporate and investment strategies to their mutual benefit", according to another scheduled presenter, Dr. Alois Flatz, Head of Sustainability Research, SAM Sustainability Group.

Since its launch in 1992, a core part of the UNEP Initiative has been the endorsement by financial institutions of the UNEP Statement of Financial Institutions on the Environment and Sustainable Development, which commits signatories to incorporating environmentally sound practices into their operations. As of 1 July 1999, 159 banks from 43 countries have signed the Statement, joined by a similar commitment from 84 insurance firms.

For further information, please contact: Mike Kelly, Coordinator of the UNEP Financial Institutions Initiative, or Ken Maguire, UNEP Economics and Trade Unit, c/o of the James L. Allen Center at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, Tel: 1-847-864-9270; or Jim Sniffen, UNEP Information Officer, New York, tel:: 1-212-963-8094, fax: 1-212-963-7341, e-mail: uneprona@un.org.

After 13 September, Mr. Kelly can be reached in Geneva, tel: (41-22) 917-8178, fax: (41--22) 796-9240, e-mail: eteu@unep.ch

Further information can also be obtained on the Initiative's website at http://www.unep.ch/eteu/envr-fin.htm