ESG
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 …
ESG | July 20, 2021
The numbers may be fuzzy, but the trends are clear when it comes to sustainable investment
ImpactAlpha, July 20 – The top line numbers from the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance’s biennial review back the now-conventional wisdom that interest is …
Impact Voices | July 15, 2021
Bringing transparency to the growing market for sustainability-linked debt
Sustainability-linked debt is gathering momentum globally. The umbrella term, which includes instruments such as sustainability-linked loans (SLLs) and sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs), is one …
Corporate Impact | July 12, 2021
DuPont spinoff acquires George Serafeim’s ESG consultancy KKS Advisors
ImpactAlpha, July 12 – Chemical giant DuPont spun out DuPont Sustainable Solutions two years ago as an industrial consultant. DuPont Sustainable Solutions has …
Photo credit: Getty Images.
ESG | June 30, 2021
J.P. Morgan acquires OpenInvest to customize clients’ ESG portfolios
ImpactAlpha, June 30 — San Francisco-based robo-advisor OpenInvest launched in 2015 with the ambitious goal of democratizing impact investing, and attracted investment from …
Impact Voices | June 29, 2021
Giving individual investors a bigger say in corporate stewardship
Editor’s note: ImpactAlpha is pleased to partner with Sustainable Research and Analysis LLC to provide timely market snapshots of trends and developments affecting the sustainable …
The waterfront in downtown Buffalo New York. Photo credit: Xylem.
Dealflow | June 24, 2021
Buffalo Sewer Authority issues a $54 million environmental impact bond for stormwater management
ImpactAlpha, June 24 — Environmental impact bonds, or EIBs, reward investors for backing projects that achieve positive environmental outcomes. Baltimore, Atlanta and Hampton, …
Photo credit: Douglas fir forest.
Climate Finance | June 23, 2021
J.P. Morgan Asset Management acquires Campbell Global to secure forest-carbon credits
ImpactAlpha, June 23 — J.P. Morgan Asset Management has acquired Portland, Oregon-based Campbell Global. The acquisition gives the bank exposure to the growing …
Stewardship | June 23, 2021
Engine No. 1’s VOTE ETF aims to wield shareholder power for E, S and G
ImpactAlpha, June 23 – Divest or engage? In the running debate over public-equities impact strategies, engagement is gaining ground. In the proxy season …
Capitalism Reimagined | June 22, 2021
Turning the renewed power of workers into a lasting pillar of stakeholder capitalism
These days, American workers could well be saying, as Richard Fariña wrote and Nancy Sinatra sang, “Been down so long it looks like …
Photo credit: Veeva
Capitalism Reimagined | June 21, 2021
A stock market test for stakeholder capitalism as public benefit corporations go public
ImpactAlpha, June 21 – All of a sudden, there is a public market for public benefit corporations. In the decade or so since the …
Corporate Impact | June 21, 2021
‘Buzzword bingo’ and other ways companies are gaming ESG
ImpactAlpha, June 21 – There’s a new game playing out between companies and investors in sustainable finance. Publicly-listed companies know that being seen to …
ESG | June 21, 2021
Europe paves path to standardized ESG disclosure with Sustainability Reporting Directive
ImpactAlpha, June 21 – What a difference a year makes. U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement on the first day …
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
Sustainable Snapshot | June 15, 2021
Mixed performance for sustainable funds in May
Editor’s note: ImpactAlpha is pleased to partner with Sustainable Research and Analysis to provide timely market snapshots of trends and developments affecting the sustainable investing …
Andy Karsner | Photo credit: The Arctic Circle/YouTube
Signals | June 3, 2021
A third insurgent joins Exxon’s board
ImpactAlpha, June 3 – ExxonMobil chairman and CEO Darren Woods will face even more restive directors. The oil company said preliminary results showed Andy …
Charlie Penner, Engine No. 1 | Photo credit: WSJ/Paul Morse
Agents of Impact | May 28, 2021
Charlie Penner, Engine No. 1
ImpactAlpha, May 28 – It was the little engine that could. This week, Engine No. 1, a tiny, five-month old activist hedge fund, prevailed …
Stewardship | May 27, 2021
Victory for insurgents stuns Exxon as shareholders vote for a low-carbon future
ImpactAlpha, May 27 – In a single day, separate developments at ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell sent an unmistakable signal to oil companies and investors: …
Photo credit: EMILY SIDES/INSIDENOVA
Climate Finance | May 24, 2021
Micron’s lenders reward environmental performance with $3.7 billion in sustainability-linked loans
ImpactAlpha, May 24 — Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology has closed $3.7 billion in sustainability-linked loans. The computer memory and storage maker will get …
Stewardship | May 18, 2021
Shareholders flex their muscles as the drama builds toward votes at ExxonMobil
ImpactAlpha, May 18 – Slowly and then all of a sudden, shareholders have management on the run in a series of proxy votes …
Photo by André François McKenzie on Unsplash
Sustainable Snapshot | May 18, 2021
Add “crypto” to the list of new ESG exchange-traded funds
Editor’s note: ImpactAlpha is pleased to partner with Sustainable Research and Analysis LLC to provide timely market snapshots of trends and developments affecting the sustainable …
Corporate Impact | May 11, 2021
Transparency is elusive as investors assess governance risks in China
ImpactAlpha, May 11 – There are by now dozens of ways to measure corporate exposure to climate risks, but few good methods to assess …
Impact Management | May 11, 2021
ESG scorecards for countries
ImpactAlpha, May 11 – Impact investors dealing with countries flagged for social and governance concerns, such as Saudi Arabia or China, should proceed …
Photo credit: Campbell Soup Company
Impact Voices | May 10, 2021
Campbell promotes “circularity” as it continues to supply single-use packaging
Editor’s note: Impaakt is a crowd-sourced platform that uses collective intelligence to produce impact analyses and scores. Each week, the Impaakt reviewing team …
Policy Corner | April 27, 2021
Regulators in the U.S. and Europe put ESG fund managers on notice for “greenwashing”
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 27 – A sure sign that environmental, social and governance performance has arrived: governments want to regulate it. In Europe, the Sustainable …
US Securities and Exchange Commission | Photo: AevanStock
Sustainable Snapshot | April 27, 2021
Standards are on tap for ESG investing after a ‘risk alert’ from the SEC
Editor’s note: ImpactAlpha is partnering with Sustainable Research and Analysis LLC to provide timely market snapshots of trends and developments affecting the sustainable investing market. …
Institutional Impact | April 26, 2021
Sustainability is at risk when asset managers are the judge, jury and executors of the ESG agenda
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 …
Mexico City, Mexico | Photo credit: Bruno Doinel
Corporate Impact | April 7, 2021
Companies in emerging markets are getting on board with board diversity
For any investor who has initiated a conversation about a company gender diversity, particularly in the boardroom, does any of this sound familiar? …
Image: Dmitrijs Kaminskis
Corporate Impact | April 7, 2021
Africa’s business and investment leaders step up to meet demands for impact and ESG investing
ImpactAlpha, April 7 – Investors, non-governmental organizations and civil society groups are increasingly pressuring African businesses to shift to more responsible ways of doing …
Sustainable Snapshot | April 5, 2021
Sustainable investing strategies account for 30% of all SPACs
Editor’s note: ImpactAlpha is pleased to partner with Sustainable Research and Analysis LLC to provide timely market snapshots of trends and developments affecting …
Long-termism | April 1, 2021
Overheard at Phenix Capital: Making the connections between social and environmental impact
ImpactAlpha, April 1 – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calls the the E.U.’s ambitious plan to become carbon neutral by 2050, “our …
Ethic's Jay Lipman, Doug Scott and Johny Mair
ESG | March 31, 2021
Ethic raises $29 million to grow customized sustainable portfolios for wealth advisors
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 31 – Ethic has raised $29 million to grow its customized sustainable portfolios for wealth advisors. The tech-driven asset management platform says …
ESG | March 30, 2021
BTG Pactual launches $200 million strategy for mid-size businesses in Latin America
ImpactAlpha, March 30 – BTG Pactual started making environmental, social and governance, or ESG-focused investments six years ago. Now, the Brazilian investment bank …
Emmanuel Faber
Corporate Impact | March 24, 2021
Emmanuel Faber’s ousting puts Danone on ‘impact watch’
The recent events at Danone have raised critical questions about the evolution of capitalism. Activist hedge funds, stating a concern for maximizing shareholder …
Corporate Impact | March 17, 2021
In Danone’s drama, union pension fund advisor CtW turns the tables
ImpactAlpha, March 17 – Activist investor Artisan Partners may have thought it had exacted its revenge on the French food giant when it …
Impact Management | March 17, 2021
IFC and The GIIN release harmonized impact standards
ImpactAlpha, March 17 – As impact investing goes mainstream, the need for a common set of metrics to measure and compare companies’ impact …
The Reconstruction | March 15, 2021
General Catalyst aims latest SPAC at Black tech founders
ImpactAlpha, March 15 – Listings of special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, hit a record in February, raising more than $27 billion. Venture capital …
Impact Management | March 9, 2021
Tools to help keep companies and funds accountable on climate, diversity and racial justice
ImpactAlpha, March 9 – Two-thirds of the companies in the S&P 500 made statements calling for racial justice in the aftermath of last …
ESG | March 3, 2021
Principles for Responsible Investment will push signatories to vote their, uh, principles
ImpactAlpha, March 3 – The “voluntary and aspirational” PRI will beef up minimum standards for its 3,700 signatories. The move comes in the …