Stewardship
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 …
S.O.S. Vanguard
Climate Finance | April 3, 2023
Move over, BlackRock. Vanguard is the new target for climate activists.
ImpactAlpha, April 3 – Tim Buckley is not a household name like Larry Fink. That may change, as shareholder activists take their climate …
Capitalism Reimagined | March 30, 2023
Impact investors lay out a theory of change for driving positive outcomes in public equities
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 30 – It’s long been something of a truism among impact investors that it’s not possible to demonstrate true impact with investments …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
The Reconstruction | January 8, 2022
On anniversary of Capitol attack, stakeholders hold corporations accountable for democracy
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 6 – Add political stability to the list of systemic risks that keep investors up at night. ‘Political risk’ has historically …
photo: Greg Reese, Pixabay
Impact Voices | January 4, 2022
Investors press oil majors to address emissions from products
Climate accountability is coming for Big Oil. That message came tucked in a recent news release from Phillips 66, as it became the …
Climate Finance | December 21, 2021
Climate finance in 2022: Mobilizing capital for exponential progress
‘Tis the season for our lookaheads to 2022 and, thanks to ImpactAlpha subscribers, we are able to make the roundups freely available. So …
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 …
Capitalism Reimagined | December 6, 2021
Three ways climate-committed shareholders can flex their power in 2022
While too many global investment firms filled the halls of Glasgow with more hot air, leading early-movers in shareholder action were finding new …
Climate Finance | November 24, 2021
Accelerating net-zero transition pushes incumbents to spin off green ‘ReNewCo’s’
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 24 – They were engines of growth for much of the past century. Now, some of the most iconic names of …
Troop cofounders Seb Jarquin, Felix Tabary and Zen Yui in Brooklyn
Stewardship | October 5, 2021
Retail investors get new tools to flex their collective power as engaged shareholders
ImpactAlpha, Oct. 5 – When online investors drove up the shares of GameStop in January, stock market watchers were captivated by the drama, …
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 …
Stewardship | September 8, 2021
Companies scramble to get on the right side of Engine No. 1 – and of history
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 8 – This year, companies are taking the call when Engine No. 1 reaches out. Chevron Corp., the world’s No. 8 …
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 …
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 …
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: …
Exxon CEO Darren Woods | Photo credit: McDermid/Reuters/Newscom
Stewardship | May 26, 2021
Shareholders notch historic climate wins against Big Oil
ImpactAlpha, May 26 – Big Oil is taking a big climate beating from shareholders and in the courts today. A Dutch court ordered Royal …
Climate Finance | May 26, 2021
Exxon’s shareholder drama is only beginning of the endgame for oil giant
ImpactAlpha, May 26 – It’s showtime. ExxonMobil faces restive investors today in a test for CEO Darren Woods and his strategy for the …
Amazon's Jeff Bezos
Corporate Impact | May 25, 2021
For the sake of Amazon and its workers, Jeff Bezos should fully retire
We thought he might fly into space, but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made it clear last month that he is not done with …
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 …
Climate Finance | April 1, 2021
Stewardship challenge: How to press fundamental change at ExxonMobil?
ImpactAlpha, April 1 – Some climate-focused investors say they have dumped shares of ExxonMobil as they purge fossil fuel companies from their portfolios. …
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 …
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 …
Climate Finance | January 27, 2021
Larry Fink’s corporate net-zero mandate pushes carbon markets mainstream
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 27 – Think all those corporate 2050 net-zero pledges are nothing but hot air? The price of carbon credits in voluntary …
Looking Ahead to 2021 | December 18, 2020
Looking Ahead: Investors, asset managers and, yes, corporations, set their sights on impact outcomes in 2021
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 18 – The COVID-19 pandemic revealed global financial systems as one disruption away from disaster. If the markets’ legacies of shareholder …
ESG | December 8, 2020
There’s a new impact sheriff in town: activist hedge funds
ImpactAlpha, December 8 – Environmental and social laggards beware. A growing set of hedge funds are redefining “activist shareholder” to mean pressure for …
Agrifood Tech | November 19, 2020
“Pandemic risk” spurs investors to press food producers for changes
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 19 – Factory closures. COVID hotspots. Worker lawsuits. Investors in the world’s largest meat, fish and dairy companies were unprepared for factory …
ESG | November 16, 2020
U.S. sustainable investing tops $17 trillion, a third of assets under management
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 16 – U.S. investors added more than $5 trillion to environmental, social and governance, or ESG, strategies from the start of …
Policy Corner | November 10, 2020
How far will the pendulum of ESG guidance swing back in a Biden administration?
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 10 – Investors poured nearly $50 billion into ESG-focused exchange-traded funds in just two days last week as the U.S. election …