NEW METRICS -
Day 2 of New Metrics ‘16 kicked off with a main stage presentation from Reputation Dividend director Sandra Macleod, who provided us with a broad overview of how social impact and other factors can influence brand reputation; reputation, she contends, is a core factor that drives investor behavior.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
This week at COP22, the Global Adaptation & Resilience Investment Working Group (GARI) released its discussion paper, “Bridging the Adaptation Gap,” reporting that 70 percent of private investors surveyed see both risk and investment opportunity from the impact of climate change. According to GARI, 78 percent of 101 surveyed investors and other stakeholders thought evaluating the physical risk from climate change was “very important,” while 70 percent would consider making investments that supported adaptation to climate change or climate change resilience now.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
I’ve yet to meet a corporate CSO or sustainability team member who told me that they really look forward to filling in their annual sustainability questionnaires. In fact, the opposite is almost unanimously true.
It’s not that questionnaires don’t have their place per se; they absolutely do. But it seems like every new framework comes with yet another set of (different) questions, requiring participants to input sensitive company information into a ‘black box’ mechanism in order to get a single number or rating in return.
NEW METRICS -
You may have heard the common business aphorism, “people are our greatest asset.” CEOs such as Richard Branson — founder of the Virgin Group, and Anne Mulcahy — former CEO of Xerox, are among many business leaders who have publicly made statements of this kind. This sentence even appears on the ‘Who We Are’ portion of the Goldman Sachs website. But while businesses so often claim to value their human capital, how do we ensure this aspiration becomes a reality?
PRESS RELEASE -
Bank of America Corporation announced today the issuance of its third and largest green bond for $1 billion in aggregate principal amount, furthering the company’s commitment to advancing renewable energy generation.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Closed Loop Fund (CLF), a private sector investment fund that finances recycling infrastructure and sustainable manufacturing technologies to advance the circular economy, released its first public progress report. Details reveal investment opportunities in the recycling industry that deliver clear environmental and financial returns for cities, companies, and private investors, despite the headwinds of low commodities prices.
PRESS RELEASE -
SAN FRANCISCO, November 14, 2016 – Members of the Sustainable Brands® community gather in Boston, MA to kick off the 6th annual New Metrics conference. Nearly 300 global senior executives across diverse sectors are convening today through Nov 16th to unveil cutting-edge corporate practices that measure and quantify environmental and social impacts and tie them to financial and business value. Conversations are focusing on Corporate Strategy & Operations, Customer Insights & Engagement, Investor Trends & Relations, as well as Supply Chain Impact & Management.
CLEANTECH -
An association of global electricity companies, the Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership (GSEP), is offering their expertise to development finance institutions and other international organizations to jointly identify electricity technology investments that can help countries reduce their carbon emissions on schedule in accordance with the Paris Agreement goals.
WASTE NOT -
UK retailer Sainsbury’s has unveiled its latest move in the fight against food waste, by announcing a £1 million fund available to towns and cities across the United Kingdom. The commitment is the second phase of its Waste Less, Save More strategy - a five-year plan designed to help households save money by reducing food waste in the UK.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN), a project of As You Sow, recently reported which major brands are leading in adequately protecting human rights and informing investors about their conflict minerals risk, and those who are failing to do so.
Mining the Disclosures is RSN’s annual analysis of conflict minerals reporting, ranking 200+ individual companies across 25+ industries in risk mitigation, human rights impact, and reporting quality.
PRESS RELEASE -
Following the release of data compiled for its Q2 CSR report, outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland shared that the company has met and exceeded its 2015 goal to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This achievement is a part of the company's commitment to innovate and operate in an accountable and responsible manner in terms of its products, the outdoors and communities around the world. Timberland reports the company has reduced GHG emissions by 53 percent, exceeding its target of 50 percent for 2015.
NEW METRICS -
The Harvard Business Review (HBR) recently published its 2016 list of the world’s top 100 CEOs. As in the past, HBR’s staff looked at the financial and ESG (environment, social, governance) performance of the CEOs of 1,200 large companies. They used a measure of financial performance developed by a team of Harvard academics for 80 percent of their score. The remaining 20 percent came from averaging two overall measures of corporate sustainability performance, including CSRHub.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
The European Commission has approved an investment package of €222.7 million from the EU budget to support Europe's transition to a more sustainable and low-carbon future. The EU funding will spur additional investments leading to a total of €398.6 million, which will be used to finance 144 new projects in 23 member states.
The support comes from the LIFE Programme for the Environment and Climate Action, the EU's funding instrument for the environment and climate action. €323.5 million will go to projects in the field of environment and resource efficiency, nature and biodiversity, and environmental governance and information.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
A survey conducted by ethical investment specialists Triodos Bank of UK investors has revealed an overwhelming interest in increasing ethical investment options, while a surprising majority revealed they had since been unaware of opportunities to do so.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
A growing number of investors are looking for high-quality information on a company’s sustainability performance. Earlier this year Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, called on S&P 500 CEOs to demonstrate how environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors contribute to long-term commercial success.
PRESS RELEASE -
GivePower Foundation, a non-profit organization that uses solar energy technologies to deliver essential community services to the developing world, was awarded a second $500,000 grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, totaling $1 million in grant funding in the past year.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
As much of the Southeast U.S. is still cleaning up from Hurricane Matthew, the country’s 13th billion-dollar weather disaster this year, a new Ceres report ranks the nation’s largest insurance companies on their responses to escalating climate risks, including severe weather events. The report finds that while more U.S. insurers are improving their disclosure and management of climate risks, most are still giving it minimal attention, both in terms of risks and opportunities.
PRESS RELEASE -
Bank of America announces new environmental operations goals to be met by 2020, including plans to go carbon neutral. This announcement supports the bank’s continued efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of its operations. Bank of America will work to reduce location-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50 percent, energy use by 40 percent, and water use by 45 percent in its operations across the globe by 2020.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
A new campaign is calling on investors and money managers everywhere to make their investments part of a “tremendous force for good in effecting positive change.” Launched by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), the campaign asks investors and money managers to commit capital to impact investing efforts aimed at meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, or Global Goals) agreed upon by the United Nations roughly one year ago.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
We’re undergoing a transition to a new economy - one where business is not only focused on returns to shareholders, but also one that understands and prioritizes the complex ecosystem between business, the environment, employees, and the greater community. This new pivot to prioritizing all stakeholders not only creates a framework for accountability and ethical business, but also builds better resilience and long-term value.