Finance & Investment
The latest in the spheres of socially responsible investing, impact investing, and other ways investors and shareholders are asserting their desire for ethical investment options.
Thread Partners with Kiva to Raise $10K, Rev Up First Mile Micro-Loan Program
Certified B Corporation Thread is taking its commitment to end poverty by creating dignified jobs and responsible, high-quality fabrics to the next level with the announcement of a partnership with nonprofit Kiva. The startup, which transforms plastic bottles from the streets and canals of Haiti and Honduras into responsible fabrics, has used Kiva’s direct-to-social enterprise loan program to raise $10,000 for its zero-interest micro-loan program.
ESG2.0: Investors Can Now Use AI, Big Data to Reveal Companies' Real-Time ESG Momentum
This week, TruValue Labs unveiled its ESG Momentum™ score – the first ESG indicator that leverages artificial intelligence, big data and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s (SASB) materiality framework – as part of its Insight360™ suite of products. The score reveals the positive or negative direction, or trend, of ESG performance based on daily data.
New Alliance Launches to Accelerate Impact Investment Movement
Bringing together financial institutions, investors and intermediaries to continue catalyzing the impact investing moment, the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance has launched its expanded network of impact investing leaders. The Alliance was founded last year by representatives from philanthropy, business and finance to drive impact investing in the U.S. by increasing awareness, fostering deployment of and demand for impact capital across asset classes globally and partnering with policymakers and other stakeholders to build the impact investing ecosystem.
What’s the Climate Risk of Your Insurance Company?
Recently, on National Insurance Awareness Day, I reflected on the previous week, when California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones keynoted at the Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) lunch meeting.
HP Inc. Pledges $20 Million to Improve Education Outcomes Across the World
Putting its commitment to improve access to quality education and lifelong learning for all into action, HP Inc. has pledged $20 million in technology, training R&D and funding contributions between 2015 – 2025 at the 2017 Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg, Germany.
Ceres Launches Guide to Help Investors Identify Risks in Food Sector Supply Chains
With environmental and social impacts increasingly influencing investor decision making, Ceres has developed a new peer-reviewed resource guide to help investors better analyze financial risks in the food sector.
U.S. Climate Innovators: Live in Fear or Flee to France? Filling the U.S. Federal Funding Void
French president Emmanuel Macron’s offer of refuge to U.S. climate scientists and innovators in the wake of Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement was not only a defiant policy rebuke, but a clear signal that France – like many other countries – now wants to seize momentum and take advantage in the absence of American leadership on climate.
Defining New Accounting — As If the Future Counts
This is part three of a four-part series on themes explored at the 4th International Reporting 3.0 Conference. Read parts one and two.
Why Monetization Should Not Be Used for Sustainability Accounting
I have over the years developed a rule of thumb or criterion for assessing the efficacy of sustainability measurement and reporting methods that goes something like this: If it is possible for an organization to perform “well” according to the principles of a particular measurement and reporting system and yet still be putting vital resources or human wellbeing at risk, then the system itself fails on its face and should be rightly rejected.
Finally, Real Action from Big Banks on Deforestation
This month BNP Paribas, the world’s seventh-largest financial institution, announced a new palm oil policy that sets responsible palm oil production as a pre-condition for financing. The policy requires that companies receiving financing protect forests and indigenous people.
CDP, Bank of America, Barclays Introduce World's First Investment-Grade Carbon Pricing Scheme
While the adoption of carbon pricing is on the rise, members of the We Mean Business Coalition, including Barclays, Bank of America and Hermes Investment Management have introduced the world’s first investment-grade carbon pricing system for the power sector — which accounts for one-quarter of global emissions — in an effort to accelerate the transformation needed to limit global warming to a 2°C scenario.
Redefining the Good Life: The Investing Power of Millennials
Over the next few years, the private sector will inherit the enormous responsibility of sustaining the health of our planet. Although this daunting challenge may force companies to operate outside of their comfort zones, businesses should recognize that with great responsibility comes great opportunity. In a market where consumer attitudes and brand loyalties are shifting to prefer socially and environmentally conscious products, companies hoping to remain competitive must integrate sustainability into the core of their business models.
'The Biggest Prosperity Opportunity in History': Joel Solomon on the ‘Clean Money Revolution’
By 2050, $40 trillion will change hands in North America alone – the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history – and the effects will transform the world as we know it. This is Joel Solomon’s opening gambit as he launches his passionate and persuasive primer on The Clean Money Revolution: Reinventing Power, Purpose, and Capitalism, published this month (New Society Press, co-authored by Tyee Bridge).
Bluon Energy Enlists Leonardo DiCaprio to Boost Energy Efficiency, Tackle Climate Change
California-based startup Bluon Energy, creator of an energy-efficient replacement refrigerant for existing HVAC-R systems, has scored new investors and a board advisor to boost awareness of the role its refrigerants can play in the fight against climate change and to bolster sales. This comes at a time when existing HVAC-R refrigerants used by the majority of the US and the world are becoming obsolete due to federal regulation and global phase-outs.
S&P DJI, Trucost Release New Carbon Scorecard
Just months after launching its new S&P Green Bond Select Index, which measures the performance of green-labeled bonds that finance sustainability projects, S&P Dow Jones Indices and Trucost have announced the publication of the S&P Dow Jones Indices
Closed Loop Foundation Gears Up to Boost Circular Economy Investment with New Research Initiative
In an effort to boost capital investments geared towards recycling infrastructure and the development of the development of the circular economy, the Closed Loop Foundation has launched a new research initiative.
Calvert Foundation Launches Capital Aggregation to Catalyze Impact Investing
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.
Triodos Bank Is Taking Sustainable Banking Mainstream in the UK
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.
Lack of Transparency, Climate Action Putting $4.5T in Global Assets at Risk
Long-term climate change risks are increasingly informing financial decisions for the world’s biggest investors says a recent report from the London-based Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP). Yet, a considerable number of companies in the financial sector, particularly in North America, Asia and the Middle East, show no evidence of any action to address climate change, putting $4.5 trillion in global assets at risk.
Philips' Sustainability Performance Influences Interest Rate for New Revolving Credit Facility
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.