Corporate Impact
Impact Voices | September 26, 2022
How asset managers are digging in on diversity to stand out from their peers
ESG begins at home. As increasing numbers of investors are looking for environmental, social and governance investment opportunities, asset managers are directing more …
Climate Week NYC. Photo: Luiz C. Ribeiro for the Climate Group
Climate Finance | September 23, 2022
Trillions are the talk of Climate Week, as opportunities drive climate action.
ImpactAlpha, Sept.23 – The energy transition is moving from talk to action. Those not moving fast enough are finding themselves on the hot …
CNote co-founder and CEO Cat Berman | Photo by CNote.
Corporate Impact | September 20, 2022
CNote raises nearly $7.3 million to tap corporate cash for community development
ImpactAlpha, September 20 — CNote has raised $7.3 million to expand its network of more than 2,000 CDFIs. Since it launched in 2017, …
Capitalism Reimagined | September 20, 2022
Tanking one holding to boost returns and reduce risks across your portfolio
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 20 – Few big institutional investors would deliberately encourage their portfolio companies to make moves that hit their valuations. The Shareholder Commons, …
Photo by Jonathan Hung.
ESG | September 15, 2022
Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan-backed Ethic raises $50 million growth investment
ImpactAlpha, September 15 — New York-based Ethic has raised $50 million to expand into new markets and products. The tech-driven asset management platform …
Policy Corner | September 14, 2022
Reclaiming ESG as pro-business and pro-worker
The culture wars have come for sustainable investing. Right-wing politicians at both federal and state levels have started latching onto the well-known term …
Muni Impact | September 14, 2022
To manage climate risk, municipal bond insurer taps data on community vulnerability
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 14 – Public finance investors buy hundreds of billions of dollars in municipal bond issuances each year, providing much needed capital for …
Personal Finance | September 8, 2022
Young savers, if not Republican governors, want their banks out of fossil fuels
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 8 – Politicians that seek to ban ESG investing are up against some serious headwinds from the next generation. “Banking with …
ESG | September 7, 2022
Dow Jones raises stakes in ESG data competition with news-driven ratings
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 7 – The opinion page of The Wall Street Journal has proudly championed the campaign to discredit environmental, social and governance, or …
ESG | September 5, 2022
Infowars investing invades “anti-competitive” Texas
Something’s rotten in the State of Texas. Once self-styled as a bastion of free markets and friendly regulation, a down-ballot politician now wields …
Institutional Impact | September 1, 2022
My summer fun: Parsing the proposals to regulate ESG
Editor’s note: ImpactAlpha contributing editor Imogen Rose-Smith, a longtime senior writer for Institutional Investor, contributes a bi-weekly column on the policies, practices and strategies of the …
Impact Voices | August 25, 2022
Tips for strengthening ESG investing from emerging market fund managers
ImpactAlpha, August 25 – Environmental, social and governance, or ESG, investing is dogged by inconsistent, and sometimes conflicting, reporting criteria and ratings that make …
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
ESG | August 24, 2022
Riskwashing: How the crusade against ESG is hurting businesses, taxpayers and retirees
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 24 – Firms engage in ‘greenwashing’ when they deceive customers or investors about their environmental practices and their impact. Now come politicians …
Vivek Ramaswamy (photo: Wikipedia)
ESG | August 16, 2022
With his anti-ESG fund, Vivek Ramaswamy takes a page from the Infowars playbook
Alex Jones is getting his overdue comeuppance, but this godfather of conspiracy theories has spawned a new generation of acolytes with marginally more …
Arlan Hamilton. Photo: Arlan Hamilton.
Dealflow | August 15, 2022
Backstage gets a shot in the arm from Bank of America amid fundraising woes
ImpactAlpha, August 15 — Arlan Hamilton’s Backstage Capital scored a much-needed commitment from Bank of America. The investment comes less than two months …
Institutional Impact | July 13, 2022
ESG and its discontents: A defense of HSBC banker Stuart Kirk and a critique of ESG orthodoxy
Stuart Kirk has had enough. Last week, Kirk resigned as HSBC’s head of sustainability, saying his position had become unsustainable. The news wasn’t …
Stewardship | July 12, 2022
Why did shareholder resolutions on climate action and racial equity fall short? Big asset managers.
Even amidst the short-term turmoil of turbulent markets, ongoing war in Ukraine, and political attacks against ESG, responsible investors in 2022 deepened their …
Policy Corner | July 7, 2022
The S.E.C.’s new rules (Part Two): Five features of the ESG proposal that warrant attention from investors
I recently wrote about the transformational pair of proposed rules from the SEC that would, at long last, lend clarity and comparability to …
Policy Corner | July 6, 2022
The S.E.C.’s new rules (Part One): An opportunity to rein in greenwashing in asset management
Fossil fuel industry-supported activist groups and politicians have launched a campaign to discredit ESG investing as “woke capitalism.” This new push appears to …
Brussels
Refugee Lens Investing | June 21, 2022
Tracking corporate action to address the climate-driven refugee crisis
Every three seconds another person is forced out of the rhythms of normal life and into crossing a border to find safety. From …
Frontiers in Social Innovation | June 15, 2022
Three practices to help make ESG metrics as reliable as financial metrics
This post is part of ImpactAlpha’s “Frontiers in Social Innovation” series with Stanford GSB Center for Social Innovation. The posts in the series …
ESG | June 14, 2022
“Greenwashers” on notice as global crackdown on ESG mislabeling continues
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 14 – Another day, another bank under investigation over misleading ESG claims. Goldman Sachs is the latest financial institution to come under …
Photo by Guild Education.
Inclusive Economy | June 9, 2022
Guild Education raises $175 million to help employers unlock career mobility for their employees
ImpactAlpha, June 9 — Denver-based Guild Education has raised $175 million to help employers create career development opportunities for their employees. The company …
Capitalism Reimagined | May 31, 2022
Can investors respond to the systemic risks gun violence poses to the American economy?
ImpactAlpha, May 31 – Investors may not be primarily responsible for finding ways to reduce the risk of mass shootings. That would be our …
Impact Voices | May 31, 2022
Three ways to reboot ESG for social value
ESG investing – short for Environment, Social and Governance – now accounts for about $15 trillion of assets under management in the USA, …
Stewardship | May 26, 2022
Engine No. 1 opts for accommodation over confrontation with Big Oil and big banks
ImpactAlpha, May 26 – A year ago, the tiny fund manager Engine No. 1 was The Little Engine That Could. This year, it’s …
SEC Chair Gary Gensler | Photo credit: Getty Images
Policy Corner | May 26, 2022
S.E.C. rules would require funds to back up their ESG claims
ImpactAlpha, May 26 – The $1.5 million fine levied on BNY Mellon this week by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over misleading ESG …
New York Stock Exchange | Photo credit: Javen
Corporate Impact | May 24, 2022
Shareholders test their power with votes at Exxon, Chevron, BlackRock and McD’s
ImpactAlpha, May 24 – It’s spring, and your fancy may lightly turn to thoughts of love – or summer vacation. Shareholder activists are focused …
Impact Voices | May 18, 2022
A former Exxon executive poses four climate questions oil companies must answer for shareholders to invest responsibly
ImpactAlpha, May 18 – As oil and gas companies enter the annual shareholder meeting season, they face a concerned, perhaps skeptical, investment community. Their …
Former vice president Mike Pence | Photo credit: Gino Santa Maria
Capitalism Reimagined | May 12, 2022
ESG opponents get political under the guise of getting politics out of investing
ImpactAlpha, May 12 – The war in Ukraine and high gas prices gave oil and gas interests an opening to push back against efforts …
Photo credit: Global Conservation.
Climate and Clean Tech | May 9, 2022
Pachama scores $55 million to verify forest-based carbon credits
ImpactAlpha, May 9 — Pachama, which uses satellite imaging and artificial intelligence to monitor carbon stored in forests, has raised $55 million in …
(left to right) Eugene Cornelius (Milken Institute), Kweilin Ellingrud (McKinsey) and Kimberley Reid (Future Fund Management Agency) at Milken Global Conference 2022 | Photo credit: Milken Institute
Capitalism Reimagined | May 5, 2022
Overheard at the Milken Global Conference: Mission and margins
How to understand and harness the recent influx of capital into ESG products was the conversation at the center of this week’s 25th …
Impact Voices | May 5, 2022
Reports of the death of responsible investment are greatly exaggerated
Face it: responsible investment is about political choices. Short of this reckoning, the fate of ESG might be the least of our concerns. …
Stewardship | April 27, 2022
Gates Foundation’s Berkshire Hathaway dilemma shines a light on proxy voting role by charitable groups
ImpactAlpha, April, 28 – Shareholder activists are looking for record wins at this year’s annual general meeting season, which runs through the summer. …
Policy Corner | April 25, 2022
Expanding the ‘S’ in ESG to account for the full scope of corporate impact on workers and communities
ImpactAlpha, April 25 – From the Great Resignation to the historic worker-organized unionization of an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, N.Y., worker empowerment …
Erie, Pennsylvania
Policy Corner | April 13, 2022
Keeping an eye on policymaking for impact investing
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 13 – From Opportunity Zones reform to SEC nominees, it’s been a busy few days on Capitol Hill for policy affecting impact …
Impact Investing | April 12, 2022
Stripe leads a $925 million ‘advance market commitment’ for carbon removal
ImpactAlpha, April 13 – If you buy it, they will come. That was how Stanford University’s Alicia Seiger summed up a new initiative …
Labor unions demonstrations in Jakarta, Indonesia | Photo credit: Adam Erlangga
Impact Management | April 12, 2022
If you like the alpha in ‘E,’ you’ll love the S-factor
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 12 – Perhaps it’s the urgency of the climate crisis. Or the relative simplicity of counting tons of carbon or gallons of …
Vladimir Putin and EN+ Group's Oleg Deripaska
Institutional Impact | April 11, 2022
The curious case of the U.S. ESG critic at the head of a Russian aluminum conglomerate
Editor’s note: ImpactAlpha contributing editor Imogen Rose-Smith, a longtime senior writer for Institutional Investor, contributes a bi-weekly column on the policies, practices and strategies of …
Signals | April 4, 2022
Build back, don’t buy back, Biden tells corporations in his budget blueprint
ImpactAlpha, April 4 – Stock buybacks are back. In the early days of the COVID disruption, it looked as if corporations might be …
Impact Voices | March 30, 2022
Be just a little bit brave: Six ways big business can lead on climate action
Chief executives’ public displays of affection for decarbonization and the Sustainable Development Goals far outstrip their ardor for the “actually doing something” phase …
Photo by Robert Ramirez on Unsplash
Policy Corner | March 30, 2022
On ESG disclosure, companies should listen to the opinion of the American public
The risk that climate change poses to business operations and investment portfolios and companies’ role in contributing to global temperature increases are now …
photo: Third Way Think Tank
Policy Corner | March 22, 2022
SEC disclosure rules signal the arrival of climate accountability
ImpactAlpha, March 22 – Better than expected. That was the consensus among advocates for greater transparency for corporate climate-related risks and impacts after …
Stewardship | March 16, 2022
Emboldened shareholders ready fights with management on human rights, climate and political spending
ImpactAlpha, March 16 – Grab some popcorn and pull up a chair. This year’s annual general meetings season, when corporations face off with …
Capitalism Reimagined | March 11, 2022
Call No. 39: Moving from ESG talk to action at major corporations (video)
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 11 – It’s one thing for a corporation to set environmental or social goals. It’s another to shift executives, employees and supply …