MARKETING AND COMMS -
President Trump has threatened to pull the plug on U.S. involvement of the Paris Agreement ahead of the G7 Summit in Italy later this month, spurring major companies to speak out in support of continued climate change efforts.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
Global financial institution Calvert Foundation has announced a new business line, Capital Aggregation, designed to pool capital from multiple institutional and accredited investors, in the form of syndications and participations in fixed income transactions, to enable investment at scale in mission-driven organizations.
PRESS RELEASE -
Kimberly-Clark Corporation has approved an investment of $75 million for construction of a new on-site combined heat-power plant at its tissue mill in Mobile, Alabama. This plant, to be constructed over a two-year period, is expected to improve the facility's long-term energy efficiency and costs, as well as boost its overall competitiveness within Kimberly-Clark.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
Following the announcement of Philips’ new sustainability-driven revolving credit facility, Dutch banking group Triodos has launched a personal current account in the UK in response to a growing demand for responsible banking products.
“Our new personal account brings an inspiring new option to the UK current account market, which we believe is dysfunctional and is obviously dominated by a small number of large banks,” said Bevis Watts, Managing Director of Triodos UK.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Media giant Bloomberg has officially hopped aboard the sustainability wagon, adding a new section to its site dedicated to climate science and the future of energy. ClimateChanged.com will focus on the ways in which climate change affects financial markets.
“Climate change is fundamentally an economic story, it’s an economic problem,” Bloomberg’s sustainability editor Eric Roston told The Huffington Post. “It’s naturally a business story and it’s naturally a concern to rationally minded executives in any sized enterprise.”
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
The Mekong Business Initiative (MBI) and Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) have announced the 18 tourism startups from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos who will participate in the upcoming Mekong Innovative Startup Tourism (MIST) startup accelerator program. Assessed by US-based Travel Startups Incubator, applications were weighed against criteria such as potential for investment, business plan quality and strength, sustainability and other socio-economic criteria.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
Royal Philips (Philips), a leader in health technology, has announced an agreement with a consortium of sixteen banks for a new €1 billion Revolving Credit Facility with an interest rate that will be dependent on the company’s year-on-year sustainability performance improvement.
FINANCE & INVESTMENT -
Green Century Capital Management, in collaboration with Trillium Asset Management and 350.org, has released a new fossil fuel-free investing guide for environmentally and socially conscious investors. Make a Clean Break: Your Guide to Fossil Fuel Free Investing — an update to previous versions released in 2014 and 2013 — provides improved insights and analysis about the potential financial advantages of eliminating fossil fuel corporations from investment portfolios and reinvesting
MARKETING AND COMMS -
We recently presented on “The Role of Storytelling in Corporate Reporting” — a subject that many organizations struggle to address properly.
Our view on the subject is straightforward: A report is not for storytelling.
Very few stakeholders spend time reading dense, formal corporate reports, and those that do want two things:
MARKETING AND COMMS -
When it comes down to assessing corporate sustainability performance and impacts, investors, rating agencies and other stakeholders have developed a growing appetite for accurate, relevant, consistent and comparable data. In a globalized world prone to economic volatility, alternative facts and corporate scandals, solid financial and “non-financial” disclosure is expected to serve them as a beacon of trust in a complex planning environment.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
American airline JetBlue has released the results of its annual environmental and sustainability report, which highlights the company’s achievements in 2016 and outlines how it plans to continue to integrate long-term environmental planning measures and corporate responsibility into its core business. Major developments include the announcement of one of the largest renewable jet fuel agreements in aviation history and carbon offsets totaling more than 1.7 billion pounds of CO2e emissions.
WASTE NOT -
Less than one year after partnering with the Closed Loop Fund and investing $10.75 million in new infrastructure — including recycling carts and a newly upgraded county-owned and operated materials recycling facility (MRF) — Iowa’s Scott County has seen a 61 percent increase in recycling and generated $100,000 in savings and revenue.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
The Ford Foundation announced today that it is committing up to $1 billion from its $12 billion endowment over the next 10 years to mission-related investing (MRIs). The commitment is one of the largest ever made to MRIs, and the largest by a private foundation. The move sends a signal to other foundation and institutional investors that the time has come to consider the potential of impact investing.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Many corporations don’t realize the connection between nonfinancial performance and investor behavior. To bridge the gap, Ernst & Young (EY) surveyed more than 320 senior decision-makers at buy-side investment institutions around the world for its third annual Climate Change and Sustainability Services (CCaSS) survey. The survey aims to improve understanding of the role integrated reporting practices can play in highlighting a company’s value creation story.
CLEANTECH -
IBM and Energy-Blockchain Labs have launched the world’s first blockchain-based carbon credit management platform based on the open source, openly governed by Hyperledger Fabric, a blockchain technology that is intended as a foundation for developing blockchain applications or solutions.
PRESS RELEASE -
Danone will invest €2 million during the next three years in a new wastewater system at its dairy plant in Tres Cantos, Spain.
The investment will allow the facility to increase its water autonomy to 80%, and furthers Danone’s goal to become self-sufficient at the site north of Madrid. The move will make the Tres Cantos factory more economical with its water usage – currently, it uses 800 cubic metres of water every day to support capacity of 4 million yogurts and custards.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
$19 trillion — According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), that’s amount the global economy stands to gain if countries rise to the challenge of meeting the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement on climate change.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
The CEO of a large industrial company recently described the Trump administration as “the most pro-business since the Founding Fathers.” It’s a popular perception in the business community, with or without the hyperbole, and the stock market is reacting accordingly.
WASTE NOT -
World Water Day typically sees brands unveil new initiatives designed to reduce impact in their supply chains, report successes and team up with charities to raise awareness about water security in vulnerable regions across the globe.
While there is certainly progress to celebrate, the reality of the matter is that much more must be done to address the growing global water crisis.
First, the good news.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Global investment management corporation BlackRock, which controls assets worth $5.1 trillion, is getting serious about climate change and the risk it poses to businesses. The fund manager has recently threatened to put directors of companies that fail to address climate risks on the chopping block.