In August 2019 the Business Roundtable issued a statement proclaiming that corporations should justify existence by looking beyond the traditional narrow focus of serving shareholders. It must, as the statement declares, consider other stakeholders, including suppliers, employees, customers, and the environment. Reflecting on this statement, the author of this New York Times article draws our attention [...]
This post by the Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investment summarizes well the SEC’s proposed limits to shareholder proxy rights, as well as those meant to weaken and hamstring proxy service providers. Included are links to statements from several reputable investor organizations and news outlets. Equally worth reading are the links to statements from two [...]
Most of the world's largest asset managers show little to no progress adjusting their portfolios for a 2 degree warming scenario. Given the poor voting records that was fodder for discussion in the fall of ‘19, this may not seem like new news. But there are other interesting details in the influence map report issued in [...]
This brief article is a refreshing reminder that the survival of ESG investing is not dependent on achieving a state of perfect and comparable data sets. To the contrary, imperfect data sets are an opportunity for active managers. And perhaps most importantly, we are reminded that ESG investment vehicles don't make themselves, nor are they the [...]
In this newly published white paper, Rogers and Serafeim deftly walk us through how issues evolve into relevant, material issues. This dynamic has been underdiscussed and remains under appreciated. And yet it is critically important in a world where ESG factors continue to emerge as drivers of return and destroyers of value. How Sustainability Issues Become [...]
Many investors are attracted to the low fees charged by passive index funds. But are these passive funds good stewards of investors’ assets? This Reuters article explores the proxy voting record of passive funds and raises important questions around investor engagement. Or worse, what happens when it is abdicated. Reuters: Index funds invest trillions but rarely [...]
As interest in ESG investing has steadily grown, investment products capitalizing on this demand have flourished. This NPR article explores how ESG fund designed can vary, and how investors can be surprised to learn the extent to which they resemble conventional investing. https://www.npr.org/2019/10/26/771323268/as-investors-try-to-be-more-ethical-some-find-no-escape-from-businesses-they-det
This paper out of Demos Helsinki gives long overdue attention to asset valuations as held on company balance sheets, and their vulnerability to ESG risks. While typically addressed in the context of the oil industry, where reserves may be referred to as “stranded assets”, here the authors make the point that various ESG risks similarly threaten [...]
The Intentional Endowment Network (IEN) together with Catalyst at Large (led by Suzanne Biegel) led the efforts of a Gender Lens Investing (GLI) working group to produce a GLI primer. The objective was to create a tool that would introduce educational endowments to the concept of GLI, while laying out the reasons why such an investment [...]
Mannequins erected in London's Marble Arch to promote Safer Cities for Women Day. Image: Action Aid Because many of us are not practiced in identifying the influence of gender, it’s common to assume it is irrelevant to businesses, the environment, the economy, etc. Even the suggestion that gender plays a role can take people by surprise. [...]
