ESG
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 …
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 …
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, …
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 …
(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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Impact Management | March 7, 2022
Incentivizing corporate executives and suppliers to move the needle on climate and diversity
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 7 – From tech giants to global retailers, corporations are rewarding executives and suppliers for delivering on environmental, social and governance, or …
Athens, Georgia
Community Finance | March 3, 2022
Social bonds direct proceeds to racial equity as the “S” gains prominence in ESG
When it comes to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, the “S” has long been viewed as the more complicated piece of the …
ESG | March 2, 2022
Investors rush to dump Russian assets after years of ignoring ESG red flags
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 2 – Russia is the new tobacco. Or forced labor. Or apartheid South Africa. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered a sudden …
Screenshot from actualhq.com
ESG | February 24, 2022
Actual raises $5 million to simulate the impact of ESG strategies
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 24 – Regulatory and stakeholder pressures have C-suites scrambling for ESG strategies, net zero goals, impact reports and carbon spreadsheets. More challenging: …
Institutional Impact | February 14, 2022
If crypto is the Wild West of finance, impact investing is the country club
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 …
Impact Voices | February 10, 2022
Building beyond an ESG baseline to invest with an impact lens
Barely two months into this new year, concerning echoes of 2021 are already showing up in 2022. The ongoing pandemic disruption remains top-of-mind …
Institutional Impact | February 3, 2022
Race to the Top: How responsible asset allocators are investing for a better world
This post by Scott Kalb of New America is in response to “O Canada, how do your pension plans get high ESG scores …
Signals | January 26, 2022
Corporations move into plant-based proteins to hedge against the climate risks of meat
ImpactAlpha, January 26 – You’ve heard about stranded fossil-fuel assets. Get ready for stranded meat assets. The global food system is responsible for …
Photo credit: Summa Equity.
SDGs | January 24, 2022
Summa Equity closes third SDG impact fund at $2.6 billion
ImpactAlpha, January 24 — Summa Equity launched in 2016 to invest in companies working to solve the global challenges identified in the U.N. …
Institutional Impact | January 5, 2022
Long live ESG! ESG is dead! ESG is… stepping up?
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 …
Impact Investing | January 4, 2022
Where impact funds are looking to deploy $73 billion in dry powder
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 4 – Real assets. Emerging markets. Early stage impact tech. The financial data provider Pitchbook picked out nearly 700 active impact investment …
Impact Investing | December 14, 2021
Eight ways investors are going beyond ESG risk-mitigation to drive real-world impact
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 14 – The recent takedown of MSCI by a team of Bloomberg Businessweek reporters was the latest knock on environmental, social …
Impact Voices | December 13, 2021
Here’s how we can mobilize private capital for a green and just transition
In July this year, at the invitation of the UK’s G7 Presidency, the Impact Taskforce was formed to answer the pressing question: “How …
The cover of Capricorn Investment Group's 2021 impact report
Impact Management | December 8, 2021
‘Tis the season… for impact reports from fund managers and wealth advisors
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 8 – For all the clamor for greater disclosure and transparency in impact investing, few investors are likely to digest all …
Dealflow | November 10, 2021
Equitable economic growth tops agenda at Commerce Department convening
ImpactAlpha, November 10 — Top officials across the Biden administration committed to advance economic equity for communities of color and underrepresented groups, at …
Illustration by Adam Simpson.
Climate Finance | October 28, 2021
Persefoni scores $101 million to expand its carbon management platform
ImpactAlpha, October 28 — Tempe, Ariz.-based Persefoni’s software helps institutional investors and other financial institutions measure, forecast and report on their carbon footprint. …
Personal Finance | October 19, 2021
How to ride the climate transition with more than a dozen exchange-traded funds
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 19 – Clean energy. Batteries. Smart grids. ESG funds and clean energy ETFs tracking elements of the climate transition took off in …
Climate Finance | October 14, 2021
Yawning ‘ambition gap’ threatens global climate summit
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 14 – The International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook is full of stark warnings just 18 days before a make-or-break global …
Impact Management | October 7, 2021
Consortium launches Novata to drive ESG reporting in private markets
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 7 – Private companies and private markets represent the majority of the world’s economic activity, but their environmental, social and governance, or …
Signals | September 29, 2021
Investors push companies to set science-based targets and obey the “carbon law”
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 29 – Global financial institutions holding nearly $30 trillion in assets are pushing Boeing, Alaska Air, Fedex, Duke Energy, Tata Steel …
Impact Voices | September 29, 2021
Four steps investors can take to move beyond ESG greenwashing and drive real impact
ESG-focused assets — increasingly ubiquitous in the global investment landscape — have grown exponentially over the past 10 years. Currently in the United …
Photo credit: FortuneBuilders.
Climate Finance | September 15, 2021
Measurabl raises $50 million to help real estate investors measure for ESG
ImpactAlpha, September 15 — Global real estate investors are increasingly looking to implement environmental, social and governance initiatives in their investments and portfolios. …
Photo credit: Allbirds.
ESG | September 2, 2021
Eco-friendly shoe company Allbirds files for an IPO, or rather an SPEO
ImpactAlpha, September 2 — San Francisco-based Allbirds, launched in 2015, uses sustainable materials such as wool, castor bean oil and more to make …
Photo credit: REUTERS/NORIHIKO SHIROUZU
Impact Voices | July 27, 2021
Emerging markets emerge as sustainability leaders
Investors, take note: In emerging markets (EM), many companies are now at the forefront of change. In today’s EM, there is a rapidly …
Impact Management | July 22, 2021
CFOs turn on sustainability reporting and ESG metrics in enterprise software suites
Ubi concordia, ibi victoria. Where there is harmony, there is victory. This Latin proverb is particularly relevant to my vision for holistic steering …