[A]fter years of increasingly pointless ETFs being created to almost no acclaim, a new and attractive ETF has launched, one that well-advised normal people might soon be putting a lot of money into. The product in question is called the JUST U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF, it trades under the ticker symbol JUST, and it’s…
Tag: esg
Institutional investors call on government leaders to increase efforts on climate change – Pensions & Investments
A group of asset owners and managers representing more than $26 trillion in assets are calling on government leaders to step up their efforts to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting the average global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius; and also to support investments in a low-carbon economy, including phasing out fossil-fuel subsidies…
European development bank to share climate-related financial exposures | Public Finance
The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development will share its climate-related financial information in its investments for the first time this year.As part of its commitment to promote financial stability in the face of uncertainty caused by climate change, the bank said it would from 2018 share both the risks and opportunities of its climate-related…
A CEO Responds: Merck CEO Ken Frazier Responds to a Question at the Annual Meeting About his Resignation from Trump’s Advisory Committee
This is what corporate statesmanship looks like.
Do Institutional Investors Drive Corporate Social Responsibility? International Evidence
Honnes F. Wagner writes: We test for a relation between share ownership and firms’ E&S performance. It is hard to dismiss the hypothesis that E&S investments are beneficial to shareholders if they are a driving force behind firms’ E&S choices.We examine whether shareholders drive E&S performance for firms around the world, since pressure for E&S…
In a rare move, corporate America presses for gun-control restrictions ‘to take a stand’
VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow was quoted in the LA Times about shareholder pressure to improve gun safety: The effort by Dick’s and other private firms is not unlike earlier, concerted investor campaigns against tobacco companies and apartheid in South Africa, in which “people were taking those stocks out of their portfolios and putting pressure…
Corporate Responsibility Ranking — oekom sees an “Upward Trend”
The oekom Corporate Responsibility Review 2018, the annual report on sustainability in corporate management, confirms the upward trend observed over the past five years. The share of companies in the industrialized countries with good and very good ratings is currently 17.19 % – slightly higher than in the previous year. Moreover, at 43.62%, the group…
Avenue Capital to launch ‘impact’ investment fund, source says
Avenue Capital Group LLC, a New York-based investment firm with $9.4 billion in assets under management, plans to launch a fund this year that will focus on so-called impact credit investments, according to a person familiar with the matter.The Avenue fund will primarily make debt investments, along with some equity, in North American companies, the…
Disclosure Is About Risks And Opportunities, Not Politics
Felicia Jackson writes in Forbes: Climate and environmental information reporting is becoming mainstream. The focus on risk disclosure means it doesn’t matter whether you believe in climate change or not – what matters is transparency about corporate risk.As Richard Samans, Chairman, CDSB and Managing Director, Head of Policy and Institutional Impact at the World Economic…
CEOs Need ESP For ESG
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld writes in Chief Executive: In 1979, the industrialist George Weyerhaeuser told me, “We have a license to operate from society, which can be revoked if we violate its terms,” referencing a corporate social responsibility movement popular at the time. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s 2018 letter to CEOs is a new clarion call for…
Climate risk: Running out of time | Magazine | IPE
• Climate change is an existential risk whose elimination must become a corporate objective • Scenario analysis can be a powerful tool but can distract investors from engagement • Corporates need plans that address climate risk and outline moves to a low-carbon economy Source: Climate risk: Running out of time | Magazine | IPE
Facebook Turns Toxic for Some ESG Funds – Bloomberg
Just how toxic is the data-privacy scandal for Facebook Inc.?So toxic that some investment funds now are lumping in the social network with big polluters and other corporations they consider ethically challenged.As Facebook has struggled to contain the damage from Cambridge Analytica’s use of personal data from 50 million users, some environmental, social and governance…
