Sustainable & Responsible Investing News

As climate change, population growth and water pollution increase pressure on freshwater resources, seven global food and beverage companies today announced commitments to work with thousands of growers in their global supply chains to reduce water use and pollution impacts. The seven companies – Diageo, General Mills, Hain Celestial, Hormel Foods, Kellogg, PepsiCo, and WhiteWave […]

  The Green Transition Scoreboard® (GTS) highlights the fact that private investments are necessary to complement government funds for transitioning to low-carbon economies as pledged by 195 countries and their INDCs at COP21 and the UN’s SDGs in 2015. The first Green Transition Scoreboard was released during the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Copenhagen in 2009, […]

In April 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a request for public comment regarding the modernization of certain business and financial disclosure requirements under Regulation S-K as part of its ongoing “Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative.” Under Regulation S-K, reporting companies must disclose non-financial information that is material to investors. The SEC requested comment on several issues […]

What are the driving factors for banks to sign onto a voluntary statement on integrating climate mitigation into their workflow? Is this a competitive strategy or just a survival action? How vital is climate change in changing the banks’ investment decisions? In December, 26 financial institutions from both developing and developed nations signed a statement […]

Less than a week after the UN confirmed the Paris Agreement would come into effect on 04 November this year, a global network of more than 250 institutional investors (representing assets worth over $24 Trn) has published a guide setting out the threats facing the automotive sector and investor expectations for how these companies must […]

ORLANDO, Sep. 28 /CSRwire/ – ACCP and IO Sustainability are launching a landmark initiative to help companies identify how corporate social responsibility (CSR) supports both the financial bottom line and social objectives. The Business ROI of Social Investments: A Pilot Program will engage 15 or more companies to develop tools that enable managers to structure social investments […]

As the comment period closes on the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Technical Assessment Report released by federal and state agencies, major investors are releasing statements in favor of strong fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards. Ken Locklin, director of Impax Asset Management and Stu Dalheim, vice president of Calvert Investments are members of […]

By Garvin Jabusch There’s an argument in the world of impact investing that goes something like, ‘impact happens only through private investments; there is no real impact, apart from shareholder engagement efforts, in public equity investing.’ An associated perception is that investment impact means capitalizing an enterprise beyond what would happen otherwise, meaning private equity […]

by Lara Birkes, HPE’s Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President, Living Progress As world leaders gather in New York City next week for the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, I am reminded what a difference a year makes. Last year, at their 70th session, the UNGA released a bold set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) […]

By Jeff Terry The world is ever changing, and so too is the landscape of corporate social responsibility. The partnership of public, private and governmental entities to focus on a specific issue area is nothing new, but over the past few years the approach partners have taken to face an issue has shifted. Now more […]

S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI), one of the world’s leading index providers, and RobecoSAM, the investment specialist focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing (SI), today announced the results of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) review SOURCE: RobecoSAM DESCRIPTION: September 8, 2016 /3BL Media/ – The three largest additions and deletions (by free-float market capitalization) […]

“Today’s action sends a powerful signal to the markets that the shift to a low-carbon, clean energy economy is now accelerating. The rest of the world’s countries should take notice. “While it’s critical to have the world’s two largest economies moving together, we’re still a far cry from moving in lock step globally. We must find […]

August 26, 2016 Impact Measurement Can Drive Business Value    by Robert Kropp The Global Impact Investing Network surveys impact investors and learns that in addition to environmental and social benefits, measuring their investments can improve financial performance. SocialFunds.com — In a report published in June, the US SIF Foundation acknowledged that while “the work […]

As leaders of the world’s largest economies prepare to attend the upcoming G20 meeting in Hangzhou, China, 130 investors (with over $13 Trillion AUM) from a coalition of six organisations(1) have written to the G20 heads of state urging them to ratify the Paris Climate Agreement this year and call on G20 nations to double […]

Here’s a problem in search of a solution. A recent survey by TIAA Global Asset Management reports growing interest by investors in socially responsible investing. Almost one-third of the investors polled in the survey have made responsible investments. But here’s the twist: only five percent of financial advisors polled said that their clients were investing […]

August 18, 2016 Human Rights Most Important Issue in Corporate Supply Chains    by Robert Kropp Ethical Corporation reports on the results of its survey of corporations and other stakeholders, addressing risk and opportunity in corporate supply chains. SocialFunds.com — In the runup to its supply chain summit, to be held in London in October, […]

August 16, 2016 Financial Stability Board to Review Governance Principles    by Robert Kropp The international body, formed to promote financial stability following the global financial crisis, seeks to determine how its member jurisdictions have implemented the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. SocialFunds.com — When the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) published a concept release […]

August 12, 2016 SEC Urged to Strengthen ESG Reporting Requirements    by Robert Kropp Ceres organizes an investor coalition calling for regulations to strengthen corporate climate reporting, while US SIF and ICCR issue a joint press release urging mandatory sustainability reporting. SocialFunds.com — In April, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a concept release […]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is starting to take sustainability risks—and corporate reporting of those risks—seriously. The concept is straightforward: climate change, water scarcity, human and workers’ rights, and the ongoing global transition to a low carbon economy pose significant risks and opportunities to companies and the investors who own them. Under long-standing SEC […]

A recent Harvard Business Review article coauthored by Doug Conant, Campbell Soup’s former CEO and Stephen MR Covey, discusses the “Connection Between Employee Trust and Financial Performance” and references a model developed by Trust Across America-Trust Around the World, a program whose focus is creating tools to help organizations build trust. The quantitative and holistic […]

More than 70 companies and 20 institutional investors are urging Northeast and Mid-Atlantic governors to strengthen their efforts to reduce carbon emissions from the regions’ electric power sector. The call comes as the governors of nine states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont — meet to decide […]

July 30, 2016 After the Conventions    by Robert Kropp While it seems implausible that investors concerned with environmental and social justice will vote for Donald Trump, some of the positions take by Hillary Clinton during her years of public service merit scrutiny. SocialFunds.com — Amid the bombast and outright demagoguery of last week’s Republican […]

July 29, 2016 Major Pension Funds Still Funding Deforestation    by Robert Kropp Friends of the Earth and As You Sow create a free online database to help educate individual investors about which retirement funds continue to invest in companies engaged in deforestation for palm oil production. SocialFunds.com — Facing increased scrutiny from sustainable investors […]

There’s new evidence that interest in environmental, social, governance/socially responsible investing strategies continues to grow. “The {ESG/SRI] industry began to see more mainstream acceptance,” according to Benefits Pro, evaluating a report by research firm Cerulli Associates, “U.S. Products and Strategies 2016: Identifying Opportunities for Active Management.” The same report notes that the market share for […]

Investing in the future means more than making money for retirement. Among everyone from millennials – who make up 34% of the workforce and recently became the largest age group employed in the US – to baby boomers, there’s a growing trend of “impact investing”. Practitioners of this method seek to generate not just long-term financial returns […]

In response to a formal review of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s corporate disclosure requirements, dozens of institutional investors have submitted letters to the federal agency requesting quick action to require stronger reporting of sustainability risks such as climate change, water scarcity and global deforestation. “Based on our experience with these issues, we believe it […]

By Carol Pierson Holding – CSRHub The fossil fuel divestiture campaign GoFossilFree equates the end of oil, gas and coal to the great moral crusades of our time — Apartheid and tobacco — while hoping to reduce demand for fossil fuel stocks and thereby threaten their stock prices. It’s a tall order. As long as GoFossilFree was focused […]