ESG
Impact Investing | September 11, 2023
How some US companies are preparing for mandatory impact reporting (Q&A)
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 11 – Markets around the globe are likely to require corporations to report on their social and environmental impact before the end …
Impact Investing | August 21, 2023
Developing a pro-ESG narrative around transparency, long-term returns and political freedom
As political and corporate actors continue to discredit the ESG movement in national publications and on broadcast television, it is more important than …
Photo: Mark Blyth @MkBlyth
ESG | July 19, 2023
BlackRock’s latest move has climate advocates asking, ‘What’s up with Larry Fink?’
ImpactAlpha, July 19 – Larry Fink has jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Last month, the BlackRock CEO said he was …
Institutional Impact | July 18, 2023
For ESG Month, let’s have an honest discussion about the limits of shareholder engagement
Move over infrastructure week. On Capitol Hill, it’s ESG month! It’s hard for me, too, to contain my excitement. Environmental, social and governance …
Corporate Impact | July 17, 2023
Flex of worker power raises the stakes for quality jobs
Investors focused on societal impact are often concerned with corporate treatment of workers. To assess job quality performance across a portfolio, they generally …
Impact Investing | June 28, 2023
Institutional investors shrug off ESG backlash to move forward on impact investing
ImpactAlpha, June 28 – The backlash against ESG is not (yet) hampering impact investing. It may even be driving some institutional investors toward …
ESG | June 28, 2023
Debunking six ESG myths to help investors drive real change
At the beginning of ‘Godfather III’, Corleone’s daughter gives $100m to the Catholic Church to ‘resurrect Sicily’ in the name of the family …
ESG | June 15, 2023
Active ownership, an overlooked path to collective liberation
As we approach Juneteeth while celebrating LGBTQIA+ this month, we should think about how active ownership of publicly traded stocks is imperative for …
Personal Finance | June 14, 2023
Targeting solutions with impact ETFs, ‘cut carbon notes’ and other new investment products
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 14 – A new family of exchange-traded funds will align around companies that derive the bulk of their revenues from solutions for …
Institutional Impact | June 5, 2023
Forget ESG. The greening of the global economy is a boon for institutional investors.
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 …
Corporate Impact | June 1, 2023
Impact reports from Tesla, Warby Parker and others tout climate and community solutions
Tired: ESG risk reporting. Wired: Reports on company impact. Almost nine in 10 companies in the S&P 500 now regularly issue some sort …
ESG | May 31, 2023
The mounting costs of the attacks on ESG investing
Where politics and finance collide, the crusade against ESG is a rollercoaster ride filled with intrigue, backroom deals, and unforeseen consequences. From politicians …
ESG | May 31, 2023
Big Chill: Political backlash and legal threats sap shareholder support for climate action and ESG
ImpactAlpha, May 31 – Shareholders are voting on a record number of resolutions related to corporate action on climate and ESG – for …
Policy Corner | May 25, 2023
US SIF’s Lisa Woll: Attacks on ESG demonstrate the growing importance of sustainable investing
The old adage still serves: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” For Lisa …
Impact Management | May 23, 2023
UN metrics measure enterprise impact on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals
Time is running out to meet the ambitious UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set for 2030. There are real concerns that data related …
Impact Management | May 15, 2023
Leveraging ESG data for impact investing
Management guru Peter Drucker is credited with the popular maxim “what gets measured gets managed.” This holds true also in impact investing where …
ESG | May 11, 2023
ESG fund managers are going too far, or not far enough, depending on who you ask
ImpactAlpha, May 11 – It is a fraught moment for asset managers with ESG-labeled funds. In Washington, DC this week, Republicans staged a …
China | April 17, 2023
Can China’s impact investing ecosystem expand beyond green energy and ESG?
ImpactAlpha, April 17 – China manufactures more batteries than the rest of the world combined, by far. The country’s spending of $546 billion …
Human Rights | April 17, 2023
Managing human rights risk rises up the agenda of venture capitalists
Governance is the new big thing for tech investors, since the FTX fraud and investigations by the SEC have brought it out on …
Policy Corner | April 4, 2023
Get ready: ESG critics are coming for ‘S’ issues
The year ahead promises to be a momentous one for progress on ‘S,’ or social issues, in public policy solutions, as a recent …
Corporate Impact | March 23, 2023
This season’s shareholder resolutions are proxies in the ESG culture war
ImpactAlpha, March 23 – Votes on climate action, corporate political influence and reproductive rights will liven up this spring’s corporate annual general meetings. …
photo: World Economic Forum
Institutional Impact | March 16, 2023
In Larry Fink’s letter to investors, ESG is the business imperative that dare not speak its name
ImpactAlpha, March 16 – Don’t expect BlackRock to back off from ESG any time soon. Even if the acronym appears nowhere in chairman …
Return on Inclusion | March 6, 2023
Want to wring impact from ESG? Look to governance
If ESG is a foot in the door to an economy built around sustainability, inclusion and equity, then governance is the power that’s …
ESG | March 3, 2023
ImpactAlpha Deal Spotlight: ESG in private markets
ImpactAlpha, March 3 — Limited partners in venture capital and private equity funds are deemphasizing ESG considerations, according to a survey by Adams …
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Muni Impact | March 1, 2023
The winding road to ESG standards in the municipal bond market
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 29 – In October 2021, a paper manufacturer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, issued $100 million of what it called “green bonds” through …
Policy Corner | February 24, 2023
Policymaking for workers and communities in the Year of the ‘S’ (video)
ImpactAlpha. Feb. 24 – “A labor market where workers have more opportunities and have more power and have more leverage is a good …
Impact Management | February 22, 2023
Streamlined, standardized and benchmarked: Optimizing impact data for capital markets
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 22 – It’s the data wonks’ time to shine. With more than $1 trillion in impact investing assets under management, investors are …
photo: dylan nolte
Policy Corner | February 21, 2023
New rules to account for a key corporate asset: employees
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 21 – Unemployment is at record lows. Manufacturing and union jobs are making a comeback. Workers are holding their employers to …
Kelly McCarthy
Impact Management | February 8, 2023
Q&A with Kelly McCarthy: Architect of IRIS+ is ready to put impact management theory into practice
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 8 – It’s not yet the holy grail of impact measurement, but IRIS+ has given investors a starting point for comparable …
ESG | February 1, 2023
How Europe is recalibrating tech, one ESG step at a time
A crisis is usually followed by learning. If in 2022 tech private markets were defined by the crash of some of the highest-valued …
Oklahoma on the map of USA
Impact Voices | January 30, 2023
Is ESG an emergency from which the public needs protection? Oklahoma legislators ride to the rescue.
Scores of anti-ESG bills were introduced in Republican-led states in January. The onslaught continues despite the more than $1.1 billion in financial costs …
Policy Corner | January 25, 2023
The state of impact investing public policy – and opportunities for 2023
The past year has been one of both exciting growth and unexpected challenges for the impact investing industry. Amid an uncertain macroeconomic forecast …
Eric Glass
Muni Impact | January 24, 2023
‘You can’t do impact on a passive basis’: Q&A with activist muni-investor Eric Glass
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 24 – After 15 years as an analyst, trader, and portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein, Eric Glass was asked in 2015 to develop …
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announcing Rivian's $5 billion electric vehicle factory.
ESG | January 24, 2023
Local economic benefits spur GOP governors to tack toward the center on ESG
Last year’s attacks on ESG seemed to be a final nail in GOP’s “pro-business” coffin. The backlash to consideration of environmental, social and …
Muni Impact | January 12, 2023
The billion-dollar cost to the ESG culture wars
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 12 – Banks that use environmental, social, or governance, or ESG frameworks in their investing practice are being targeted by state legislators …
Newly elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy
Institutional Impact | January 11, 2023
GOP ditches ‘pro-business’ with attacks on ESG that hurt corporations, investors – and red states
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 …
Looking Ahead to 2023 | January 3, 2023
Big ideas and predictions for ESG in 2023
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 3 – ESG – for enterprise operations and investment decision-making that account for environmental, social and governance considerations – took a beating …
ESG | January 2, 2023
A baker’s dozen of shareable studies that make the case for ESG
ESG will continue to be a hot button in 2023. But research over the past year showed that environmental, social and governance investments …
"The Fearless Girl" statue facing Charging Bull in Lower Manhattan
Looking Ahead to 2023 | December 22, 2022
Using ESG and impact to sort leaders from laggards in 2023
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 22 – It’s not about the scores. It’s about the solutions. ESG – shorthand for the consideration of environmental, social and governance considerations …
ESG | December 19, 2022
Elon’s reputation tanks along with his credibility on ESG
Crypto-evangelist Dan McArdle was apparently peeved with ESG when he tweeted: “Clothes dryers in the US use more energy than all bitcoin mining… …
Corporate Impact | December 14, 2022
Are Elon Musk’s Twitter escapades putting Tesla’s climate impact at risk?
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 14 – Some Tesla shareholders are frustrated that CEO Elon Musk is hurting the electric vehicle maker’s share price with his acquisition …
Muni Impact | December 12, 2022
Cities embrace ESG in muni bonds even as overall market dips
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 12 – Municipal bond issues are down 17% this year compared to 2021 as interest rates have spiked, according to SIFMA. But …
Muni Impact | December 8, 2022
S&P Global acquires Shades of Green’s climate-risk assessments for bonds
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 8 – Issuers of social, green and other sustainability bonds seek “second-party opinions,” or SPOs, from ratings agencies like S&P Global to …
Source: Amplify ESG
Policy Corner | December 5, 2022
Pro-ESG forces rally to confront backlash against corporate accountability, workers rights and risk management
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 5 – It took a while, but advocates for the integration of environmental, social and governance factors in investment decisions are …
Institutional Shift | December 5, 2022
ESG is dead? European asset owners in venture capital think differently
The backlash to environmental, social and governance, or ESG, investing is in full swing in the U.S. In Europe, asset owners are to …