Impact investors looking to drive positive benefits across their portfolios, however, have to ask a tougher question: Does ESG performance actually make any difference in terms of actual social and environmental impact? As ImpactAlpha’s podcast roundtable put it earlier this year, “If ‘ESG investing’ is so great, why is the world going to hell?” …Smarter…
Tag: esg
Nell Minow on ERISA, the Trump Executive Order, and ESG
VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow writes on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation about the Labor Department’s review of ERISA fiduciaries and ESG under the Executive Order issued last month by President Trump. She wrote: ERISA, the 1974 law that governs pension funds, recognizes that the third parties who manage…
Private Green Investments Now Reach $10.387 Trillion
Ethical Markets Media Certified B. corporation released its annual Green Transition Scoreboard for 2019-2020, tracking private green investments since 2009, now a cumulative $10.387 trillion. New capital continues expanding Earth-saving clean energy, green construction, corporate R& D and widening the healthier global plant-protein food sector. … ‘TRANSITIONING TO SCIENCE-BASED INVESTING: 2019-2020” updates our continual research…
Does ESG Investing Produce Better Stock Returns?
It’s time to put to rest the conventional wisdom that investing for anything other than shareholder value results in poor investor outcomes. There’s plenty of evidence that companies prioritizing ESG issues actually generate superior long-term financial performance across a range of metrics — including sales growth, return on equity (ROE), return on invested capital (ROIC),…
Fossil Fuel Subsidies Cost U.S. More than Defense Budget: IMF Report – Rolling Stone
Investors should monitor this closely as the prospect of any reduction or even elimination of these subsidies will have a critical impact not just on fossil fuel companies but throughout the economy. It is important for investors to make sure corporate boards are considering these risks — and opportunities — in their strategic planning. The…
Investors Pressure Oil Giants on Ocean Plastics Pollution | InsideClimate News
Despite the dismissive tone of the Wall Street Journal’s John D. Stoll in suggesting that shareholder interest in reducing plastic garbage is somehow disconnected from risk and return, the fact is that the ability of corporations to continue to externalize their costs is likely to be sharply reduced and consumer preferences are increasingly tied to…
Fossil Fuel Subsidies Cost U.S. More than Defense Budget: IMF Report – Rolling Stone
It is vital for investors to be aware of these subsidies, which distort traditional reporting of risk and return. The United States has spent more subsidizing fossil fuels in recent years than it has on defense spending, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF found that direct and indirect subsidies…
ISS Endorses Shareholder Challenge to Dominion Energy
Majority Action is calling on Dominion Energy to appoint an independent board chair because “the board’s composition and the qualifications and outside connections of board members in key leadership positions call into question whether the board is well-positioned to provide independent oversight.” Proxy advisory firm ISS has recommended a vote in favor of the resolution….
Climate Change Disclosures–More and Better
For more than 20 years, large companies have been ramping up the depth and breadth of their disclosure on GHG emissions. At the same time, the amount of forward-looking financial information on climate risks and the opportunities being provided to investors has been patchy at best. But in the short time since July 2017, following…
