Sustainable & Responsible Investing News

July 08, 2016 Banking Lags on Human Rights    by Robert Kropp A report by the NGO BankTrack reveals that most major global banks are failing to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in their financing. SocialFunds.com — A recent report published by a group of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) revealed that […]

July 07, 2016 Are Big Banks Ignoring Paris Climate Agreement?    by Robert Kropp The seventh edition of the Fossil Fuel Finance Report Card reveals that while some progress has been made in exiting the financing of coal mining, global financial institutions are lagging badly in other extreme fossil fuels and human rights. SocialFunds.com — […]

Green bonds—financial instruments with a socially responsible investment aspect baked into their DNA—are red-hot. So far this year, global green bond issuance totals $28.7 seven billion, up 78% from the $12.1 billion issued last year in the same time period, reports Business Insider. Along with this explosive growth in sustainable finance dollars comes a shift […]

An explosive growth in socially responsible investment is driving requests from investors, financial advisors, and asset managers for more and better environmental, social and governance data for use in their investment decision-making. ESG data in the asset management industry has grown by 45% over the last four years, affecting $59 trillion of assets under management. […]

June 24, 2016 $5 Trillion Investor Coalition Supports Human Rights Benchmark    by Robert Kropp The coalition, coordinated by Boston Common Asset Management, hopes that the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark will help improve corporate human rights disclosures and aid investors in their engagement with companies. SocialFunds.com — In March, a consortium led by Aviva Investors, […]

CEOs need to ramp up communications about environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues even when Wall Street is more concerned with short-term financial performance like earnings per share (EPS), according to a new report from the Conference Board. While acknowledging that reporting about sustainability is at an all-time high, the failure of the investment community to engage can […]

June 21, 2016 Pepsi Challenged on Palm Oil Worker Exploitation    by Robert Kropp A report from three NGOs reveals that violations of workers’ rights on the palm oil plantations of PepsiCo’s joint venture partner in Indonesia includes child labor. SocialFunds.com — Most sustainable investors are well aware of the severe environmental impacts of deforestation […]

  Financial advisors who provide options for socially responsible investing are increasingly the choice of clients, according to a survey by TIAA Global Asset Management. The poll of 1,100 US investors found that 74 percent would prefer to work with a financial advisor who can provide both good returns and social impact. Yet there’s a […]

Animal welfare is an increasingly important CSR issue and it’s just moved even more to the center of the corporate conversation on the topic. 18 institutional investors, who represent £1.5 trillion in assets under management, have become the founding signatories to the first investor statement on farm animal welfare. The signatories of the Business Benchmark […]

  When former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced in March that he would not be running for U.S. president, at least one person may have been quietly cheering: Bank of England governor Mark Carney. In his role as chair of the Financial Stability Board, Carney had tapped the billionaire businessman in December to head up […]

May 26, 2016 BlackRock Shareowners Vote on CEO Pay    by Robert Kropp The Stephen M. Silberstein Revocable Trust files a shareowner resolution with the mutual funds giant, requesting that its proxy voting practices reflect a link between executive compensation and corporate performance. SocialFunds.com — Despite his millionaire status, Stephen Silberstein is viewed as a […]

Many leading U.S. insurance groups are significantly invested in oil & gas and other fossil fuel industries, even as these sectors face growing pressure from the global clean energy transition and physical impacts associated with climate change, according to a first-of-its-kind report announced today. Authored by the nonprofit sustainability group Ceres in collaboration with investment […]

In a world first, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) has become the first entity to issue a green bond certified under the Water Climate Bonds Standard, a screening tool that specifies the criteria that must be met for bonds labelled as “green” or earmarked for funding water-related, low carbon initiatives. Proceeds from the […]

As the clean energy transition continues to pick up steam globally in the wake of the Paris Climate Agreement, the nonprofit sustainability Ceres and major investors welcomed today’s commitment from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to significantly cut methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. The oil and gas sector is the largest source […]

Ground-Breaking Tools Now Available to Financial Services Providers   Chicago, Ill., May 10, 2016 /3BL Media/ – Today, the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) released a landmark report that urges financial services providers to measure the financial health of their customers. The work, which benefitted from the strategic and financial support of MetLife Foundation, equips […]

  In April the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) initiative marked ten years as the world’s leading proponent of responsible investing. Launched as collaboration between the United Nations Global Compact and the U.N. Environment Programme Finance Initiative, the PRI promotes six principles involving environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues that should be integrated into […]

Momentum is building in the U.S. for better climate disclosure. Investors and analysts continue to send strong signals that Paris marked a turning point on climate action. On Friday, Occidental Petroleum announced the results of voting on a 2 degree stress testing resolution at its annual meeting, and yet again the votes represented a high-water […]

The SRI Conference Fossil Fuel Divestment Survey results are now online! Advisors were asked a variety of questions about investing in the fossil fuel industry. 78% of advisors surveyed believe that there are growing risks associated with Fossil Fuel investments, and 68% fear they are in danger of becoming stranded assets. Click here to view […]

LONDON, UK, May 5, 2016 (Maximpact.com News) – Half the world’s 500 largest investors are acting to lessen the risks posed to their portfolios by climate change, but the other half are ignoring climate risk entirely, finds the latest Global Climate 500 Index. The fourth annual benchmark report on the industry from the Asset Owners […]

May 06, 2016 SEC Backs Shareowner Challenge of Dominion Nuclear Plant    by Robert Kropp The utility’s effort to exclude the resolution calling for analysis of the financial risks associated with a nuclear reactor which could cost over $19 billion is turned down by the Securities and Exchange Commission. SocialFunds.com — Dominion Virginia Power wants […]

  Banking came into its own in the first industrial revolution. Banks were the intermediaries between the people with money and the ideas and opportunities of the community they served. Now, says UBS’s Global Head of UBS and Society, Caroline Anstey, it is time to remember this. “Towards the end of the Twentieth Century, finance […]

April 30, 2016 Second Benchmark of Corporate Human Rights Performance Launches    by Robert Kropp KnowTheChain, founded in 2013 to address California’s Supply Chain Transparency Act, will initially benchmark the human rights performance of 20 companies in the information and communications technology industry sector. SocialFunds.com — The endorsement, in 2010, by the United Nations’ Human […]

A week after more than 170 countries signed the Paris Agreement and investors voted on a shareholder climate risk resolution at the AGM of US utility AES Corporation, a global network of more than 270 institutional investors (representing assets worth over €20 trillion) has published a guide setting out the threats facing the utilities sector […]

April 29, 2016 Institutional Investors Support Increase in Solar Deployment    by Robert Kropp The Green Infrastructure Investment Coalition, launched during the COP21 negotiations, now counts over $60 trillion in assets under management supporting a trillion dollar investment in solar. SocialFunds.com — Sustainable institutional investors have always expressed their support for moving their investments toward […]

April 22, 2016 Despite Climate Commitments, World Bank Still Funding Fossil Fuels    by Robert Kropp Oil Change International reports that the World Bank Group’s investments in fossil fuel exploration actually increased in 2015, to $313 million. SocialFunds.com — Even before the potentially historic COP21 agreement in Paris—and well before today’s Earth Day signing—the World […]

  LONDON, NEW YORK, ZURICH, APRIL 19, 2016 /3BL Media/- S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI), one of the world’s largest providers of financial market indices, and RobecoSAM, the investment specialist focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing, today announced the launch of the S&P ESG Index Series, which is designed to measure the performance of companies in […]