SocialFunds

By Robert Kropp. A coalition of investors organized by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility writes to 32 energy companies, requesting that they support new regulations on methane emissions.

By Robert Kropp. In a three-part series and subsequent conference call, Sonia Kowal of Zevin Asset Management outlines for foundations and other investors the importance of aligning their strategies with their social missions.

By Robert Kropp. Hundreds of signatories call on the President to end the policy of leasing federal lands for fossil fuel exploration and extraction.

By Robert Kropp. Modeled on the MacBride Principles of Northern Ireland, the eight Holy Land Principles call on US companies doing business in Israel and Palestine to practice fair employment.

By Robert Kropp. Fifty prominent members of the Chamber of Commerce receive letters from investors, requesting that they address contradictions between their public positions on climate change and their funding of the Chamber’s opposition to the Clean Power Plan.

By Robert Kropp. The Foundation launches its Climate Solutions initiative with $50 million in grants, to help ensure that the US meets its responsibilities in addressing the crisis of climate change.

By Robert Kropp. Two months after Pope Francis delivers his encyclical on climate change, Islamic Relief hosts a climate change symposium and publishes the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change.

By Robert Kropp. As water scarcity becomes a major issue for sustainable development, a coalition of investors organized by Ceres calls for better water management and disclosure by 15 major food and beverage corporations.

By Robert Kropp. President Obama’s legacy on climate will be compromised by Shell drilling for oil in the Arctic, and the Grand Canyon is under siege from uranium mining and tourism development.

By Robert Kropp. The proposed standards, part of the Obama administration’s Climate Action Plan, will reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas industry by as much as 45% by 2025.

By Robert Kropp. The Global Impact Investing Network and Open Capital Advisors publish a country by country analysis of impact investing activity in the region.

By Robert Kropp. The Economist Intelligence Unit warns that $4.2 trillion in assets could be at risk, with losses exponentially greater for every increase in global temperature.

By Robert Kropp. The Plan, which will reduce carbon emissions from the power sector by 32% below 2005 levels in 2030, is praised by Mindy Lubber of Ceres as a blueprint for the low carbon transition.

By Robert Kropp. The EIRIS Foundation releases an online database of companies in Crimea and Palestine, providing for investors and other stakeholders objective and independent research about corporate activity in occupied territories.

By Robert Kropp. Baruch College’s Weissman Center for International Business analyzes corporate social responsibility reporting from the largest US and international companies, and publishes an online ranking that allows investors and other stakeholders to review the quality of CSR reports.

By Robert Kropp. Five years after passage of Dodd-Frank, a report by Oxfam America finds that payments by the US industry to developing nations lack the transparency to ensure that governments are using them for the benefit of citizens.

By Robert Kropp. The fourth edition of Bonds and Climate Change, published by the Climate Bonds Initiative, reports that 70% of climate-aligned bonds are invested in low-carbon transport, while another 20% focus on clean energy.

By Robert Kropp. The Benchmark publishes two documents about which it seeks input: a framework for multi-stakeholder consultations, and a draft list of key performance indicators.

By Robert Kropp. Four hundred corporate members of the Consumer Goods Forum commit to a sustainability program that includes halving food waste within their operations by 2025.

By Robert Kropp. The Obama Administration proposes to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas industry by at least 45% by 2025, and investors coordinated by Ceres and Trillium Asset Management issue a statement expressing their support.

By Robert Kropp. Sustainable investment firms representing more than $40 billion in assets under management write to three corporations doing business in Burma, urging them to comply with the Burma Responsible Investment Reporting Requirements.

By Robert Kropp. The Chemical Footprint Project, backed by investors and corporations representing more than $1 trillion in investing and purchasing power, is the first tool for benchmarking corporate chemical use and management.

By Robert Kropp. Sustainable investors and climate deniers alike weigh in with responses and reactions to Pope Francis’s landmark encyclical on climate change. Second in a two-part series.

By Robert Kropp. The Pope makes explicit the connection between climate action, poverty, and morality, and calls for a radical shift away from current failures and toward an ecological conversion instead. First in a two-part series.

By Robert Kropp. The Heartland Institute hosts its annual conference on climate change, at which such scientific luminaries as climate denying Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma are honored.

By Robert Kropp. The investment bank intends to fund a number of wind energy projects in the US.

By Robert Kropp. Pressure from members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility helps further corporate responsibility in the remediation of human rights violations.

By Robert Kropp. Sustainable shareowners submitted four resolutions addressing environmental, social, and corporate governance issues at this week’s annual general meeting, as pressure grows for the company to improve its sustainability performance.

By Robert Kropp. The fixed income investment adviser offers opportunities for sustainable investors to meet their community investment mission.

By Robert Kropp. With economies improving and ample natural resources, the region is at heightened risk for human trafficking violations.

By Robert Kropp. The Responsible Sourcing Network analyzes the quality of more that 1,000 conflict minerals disclosures by large cap corporations, and find that many fulfilled only minimal requirements.

By Robert Kropp. A process for shareowners to declare their intention to vote in favor of emissions reduction resolutions at the annual meetings of the oil and gas giants does not appear to have led to substantial votes in favor, but signal that investors who choose engagement as a strategy will remain aggressive.

By Robert Kropp. Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz and Senator Elizabeth Warren speak at the Roosevelt Institute about the pressing need to rewrite the rules governing the economy in order to lessen inequality. Second of a two-part series.

By Robert Kropp. It would be easier, politically, to push for one or two policies on which we have consensus, but that approach would be insufficient to match the severity of the problems posed by rising inequality, his new report states. First of a two-part series.

By Robert Kropp. Speaking to the generation that will have to reverse the course of multiple crises, the founder of the Capital Institute envisions a holistic organization of social systems to replace the current reductionist and competitive approach. Third of a three-part series.

By Robert Kropp. John Fullerton, the founder of the Capital Institute, writes that the transition of an antisocial global financial system to one aligned with our understanding that living systems are both sustainable and regenerative is underway. But is the evolution decisive enough to solve the crises of our age? Second of a three-part series.

May 01, 2015 Carbon Tracker Offers Roadmap for Energy Transition    by Robert Kropp Asserting that many executives in the oil and gas industry assume a business as usual approach in their planning, the NGO warns that unconventional exploration and price volatility will have negative impacts for investors. SocialFunds.com — In advance of November’s SRI […]

April 28, 2015 Two Years after Rana Plaza Tragedy, Investors Still Seek Corporate Assurances    by Robert Kropp A coalition of institutional investors asserts that the systemic changes needed to safeguard garment workers in Bangladesh remain insufficiently financed, even by signatories to the Fire and Safety Accord. SocialFunds.com — On April 24, 2013, a building […]

April 21, 2015 Forest Conservation Strategy Wins Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge    by Robert Kropp Four students from the Haas School of Business are awarded the $10 thousand grand prize for developing an institutional investment vehicle that will help alleviate drought and reduce forest fire risk. SocialFunds.com — Blue Forest Conservation Notes, a prospectus […]

April 20, 2015 $120 Million Green Bond from Nordic Investment Bank    by Robert Kropp The fixed income issuance, driven by investors incorporating environmental, social, and corporate governance factors, will finance loans to environmental projects in Scandinavia. SocialFunds.com — At the United Nations headquarters in January of last year, Ceres unveiled the Green Bond Principles, […]

April 18, 2015 Investors Call on SEC to Require Effective Climate Risk Disclosure    by Robert Kropp In a letter to SEC Chair Mary Jo White, a coalition of investors organized by Ceres offers specific criticisms of disclosures by major oil and gas companies, and argues that climate risk is changing the economics of the […]

April 17, 2015 Harvard Students Mount Blockade in Campaign for Divestment    by Robert Kropp The Divest Harvard demonstrators block access to administrative offices during Harvard Heat Week as analyses of the university’s investments find significant levels of greenhouse gas emissions. SocialFunds.com — In 2014, after a year-long period in which student activists called on […]

By Robert Kropp. The amendment to the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition’s Code of Conduct follows engagement on the issue of payments to labor brokers by members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.

April 03, 2015 Market for Conservation Investments Expected to Grow Dramatically    by Robert Kropp A first ever report on the practice of conservation investing, co-authored by The Nature Conservancy, anticipates that private investment will triple by 2018, from $2 billion to nearly $6 billion. SocialFunds.com — The concept of conservation investing is of fairly […]

March 30, 2015 No Financial Sacrifice in Sustainable Investing    by Robert Kropp The Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing analyzes thousands of sustainable mutual funds and separately managed accounts, and finds that most meet or exceed the performance of traditional investments. SocialFunds.com — According to a recent survey by the Morgan Stanley Institute for […]

March 27, 2015 US Coal Crash Structural, not Cyclical, Report States    by Robert Kropp The Carbon Tracker Initiative’s latest report reveals that bankruptcies are rampant in the US coal industry as cheap natural gas and a strengthening renewable market indicate that the decline of coal will be permanent. SocialFunds.com — The “war on coal” […]

March 26, 2015 Corporate Sustainability Measures Fail to Address Impacts    by Robert Kropp The 2015 State of Green Business report, published by GreenBiz with environmental data supplied by Trucost, confirms that corporate sustainability efforts and disclosures are insufficient. SocialFunds.com — The recently published 2015 State of Green Business report, authored by the staff of […]

March 23, 2015 Community Capital Management Outlines Plans for $100 Million in Rural Development Bonds    by Robert Kropp The Florida based fixed income investment adviser published a report in which it reveals that it plans to invest $100 million in bonds financing rural community development. SocialFunds.com — As the 2014 Trends Report of US […]

March 21, 2015 Record Breaking Number of Shareowner Resolutions in 2015    by Robert Kropp The eleventh edition of As You Sow’s Proxy Preview identifies 433 shareowner resolutions filed this year, with corporate political activity and the environment accounting for slightly more than half of them. SocialFunds.com — It’s not just sustainable investors who should […]