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Finance & Investment

The growing number of funds, tools, mechanisms and markets helping organizations, investors and the public put their money where their mouth is to drive sustainable change

BofA Commits $300 Billion by 2030 to Low-Carbon, Sustainable Business

Bank of America’s third environmental commitment is designed to advance solutions to issues aligned with the SDGs — including sustainable energy and transportation, climate resiliency, clean water and sanitation.

Wisdom Fund Aims to Close Lending Gap for Women

CNote's new impact investment vehicle provides funding to underserved women of color and low-income women entrepreneurs across the US.

Values-Based Investment Platform COIN Offers Portfolios Aligned with SDGs

Backed by John Hancock, COIN offers customers eight Impact Areas — including Better Health, Clean Water, Gender Equality and Reducing Waste — to invest in, with as little as $50.

Mastercard, Doconomy Launch the Future of Sustainable Payments

DO is a free, easy-to-use mobile banking service that lets users track, understand and reduce their CO2 footprints through carbon offsetting.

CPG Transparency Platform Now Incentivizes Consumers to Choose Sustainable Products

Almond, a groundbreaking economic framework that aims to tackle the world of sustainable consumer goods, rewards those who make an effort to purchase sustainable products and help to combat cheap consumer goods.

Clif Bar Ag Fund to Help Organic Farmers Weather Economic Challenges

The Clif Ag Fund will help increase the economic resilience of organic farmers in Clif’s supply chain — including lower energy costs from day one.

Financial Services Lead Charge in Linking Financial Performance, Sustainability

Companies increasingly recognize the importance to their bottom line of a comprehensive sustainability strategy, which includes reporting.

New Reporting Standard Aims to Drive Finance Towards SDGs

Now, under SD VISta, projects seeking funding must demonstrate, to the satisfaction of a third-party assessor, that they advance the SDGs.

New Guide Will Empower Banks to Quickly Assess Natural Capital Risk

New step-by-step guide from Natural Capital Finance Alliance builds on launch of web-based tool, ENCORE, in November.

Less Medley, More Value: Creating a New Quality for Corporate Reporting

This week at the COP24 climate summit in Katowice, Poland, the discussion about how to implement the directives of the Paris Agreement is in full swing.

Corporate Reporting Dialogue Launches 2-Year Project to Drive Better Alignment

Today, the Corporate Reporting Dialogue — a coalition of major international corporate reporting standard setters and framework providers — announced a groundbreaking, two-year project focused on driving better alignment in the corporate reporting landscape, to make it easier for companies to prepare effective and coherent disclosures that meet the evolving information needs of capital markets and society.

Future Value, Submerged Value, 'ROP' & Other Facets of the ROI of Sustainability

Last week at Sustainable Brands’ New Metrics ’18 conference in Philadelphia, PA, over 300 delegates from brands, NGOs, strategists and practitioners across sectors gathered to share the newest credible tools and solutions for assessing the ROI of Sustainable Business.

Nespresso, Starbucks, Lin-Manuel Miranda Partner to Revive Puerto Rican Coffee Sector

The Hispanic Federation, together with actor Lin-Manuel Miranda and his family, today announced the launch of a five-year initiative to revitalize Puerto Rico’s coffee sector. The founding partners include Hispanic Federation, Nespresso, The Rockefeller Foundation, Starbucks, TechnoServe and World Coffee Research, all of which are committed to supporting smallholder coffee farmers on the island.

Women-Led Alternative to Top-Down Philanthropy Is Driving Change

The often-patrician act of philanthropy and the #MeToo movement may not seem like the most obvious pairing, but for Cynthia Nimmo, president and CEO of the Women’s Funding Network (WFN), they are two sides of the same coin.

How Silence Is Sabotaging Your Impact Strategy

As impact investing marks its 10-year anniversary, the movement reaches an inflection point. As with any movement that quickly gains traction and attracts followers, it also sees outsiders and newcomers jumping on the impact bandwagon to profit from the trendline. In the age of ‘fake news,’ what can the impact investing community do to ensure that real change happens?

From Risky to Resilient: 3 Perspectives on Future-Proofing Your Investments

One of many highlights of Climate Week NYC was a roundtable discussion hosted by SustainAbility and the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, on “Innovating Investments for Climate Resilience.” Tensie Whelan, Director at the Center for Sustainable Business, moderated the conversation with Robert Engle, Director at NYU Stern Volatility Institute; Anne van Riel, Head of Sustainable Finance for the Americas at ING; and Courtney Thompson, Manager of Global Sustainable Finance at Morgan Stanley.

Investors Can Now Compare ESG Scores on New ESGHub™ App

Responsible investing has been an overriding theme of the past two weeks, with a proliferation of new initiatives, campaigns and reports joining a growing list of recently released resources for sustainable and impact investors to increase the quality of their investments emerging during last week’s Global Climate Action Summit and this week at Climate Week.

Q&A: EcoAct on How the Dow 30 Measure Up on Climate Action

Since its founding in 2006, EcoAct Group has grown from raising awareness at the local level in France into a global collection of experts engaging with the private and public sectors to aid in the transition to a low-carbon economy. In addition to advising companies on climate change and carbon neutrality strategies, EcoAct also conducts research to assess publicly listed companies’ efforts in these areas.

Lenders Focus on SMEs Playing a Giant Global Role

As the world’s focus turns to the opening of the United Nations’ 73rd session of the General Assembly, attention will turn to the state of progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an overarching set of aims intended to improve environmental, economic and social conditions by 2030.

California Mandates 2 Largest Pension Funds Factor Climate Risk into Investments

Big news from California: The state legislature has just passed a bill, SB 964, that requires two massive pension funds run by the state, the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), to factor in climate-related financial risk and report progress both on that, and towards meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement.