https://www.commonfund.org/news-research/blog/top-stewardship-imperatives/
SEC Commissioner’s Speech Rankles ESG Industry (ThinkAdvisor)
https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2019/07/08/sec-commissioners-speech-rankles-esg-industry/
Impact investing took a direct hit with a speech by Securities and Exchange Commissioner Hester Peirce delivered recently to the American Enterprise Institute, just before the July 10 Financial Services House Committee hearing on Building a Sustainable and Competitive Economy: An Examination of Proposals to Improve Environmental, Social and Governance Disclosures.
The speech, which took on environmental, social and governance ratings and proxy voting especially, was seen by some in the impact investing business as anything from surprisingly uninformed to a call to action for the ESG industry to do better.
The Case for a World Carbon Bank (Kenneth Rogoff)
To the dismay of many energy experts, the World Bank recently rather capriciously decided to stop funding virtually all new fossil-fuel plants. But phasing out readily available coal is a move that most major developing countries simply cannot afford without adequate incentives.
Sustainable Finance just ranked a top sustainability blog!
https://blog.feedspot.com/sustainability_blogs/
Feedspot just ranked us at #31 among the top 75 sustainability blogs in the world.
The Trustee Governance Guide is now out!
Our new book, The Trustee Governance Guide: The Five Imperatives of 21st Century Investing is now available!
- Focuses on both structural and process factors of governance
- Covers related investment topics in each chapter, including fiduciary duty, financial literacy, asset allocation, and socially responsible and impact investing
- Draws from the annual U.S. Public Pension Governance Survey and other leading industry and academic research
- Includes special “practitioner sections” in each chapter geared to the more technical reader
More than 80% of the financial assets in the United States fall under the purview of a trustee. That’s a big responsibility for an estimated 1% (around 1.5 million people) of the U.S. working population charged with overseeing investments for millions and millions of beneficiaries, public sector, and non-profit organizations. In a world proliferated by investment products, increasingly dominated by indexes, faced—particularly in the pension world—with increasing liabilities, more regulation, and a growing number of social and sustainability objectives, what’s a trustee to do?
The Trustee Governance Guide is here to help guide today’s board trustee through the brave new world of 21st century investing. The book focuses on the critical aspects of the Five Imperatives: Governance, Knowledge, Diversification, Discipline, and Impact. Based on more than a decade of research, practice, and discussions with many key decision makers and influencers across the industry, this book addresses the many topics related to better governance, greater mission-driven financial performance, and impact. The questions the book addresses include:
- What is good governance, how do we know it when we see it, and why does it matter?·
- How much knowledge is necessary to be a competent board member?
- How big should my endowment be?
- What are the key elements of a diversified portfolio?
- How much does cost matter?
- What’s the difference between socially responsible and ESG investing?
- Can I focus on sustainability and still be a good fiduciary?
This book provides a way for boards to improve and benchmark their own governance performance alongside their peers, and uniquely covers related investment topics in each chapter.
ESG and the Commons: From Tragedy to Governance? (CFA Enterprising Investor)
https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2019/06/12/esg-and-the-commons-from-tragedy-to-governance/
Sustainable investing will become the rule and no longer the exception. But this transition comes amid a disquieting change in how we must view capital, production, and their attendant effects.
The world’s largest investor says a $3.8 trillion market faces growing climate-change risk (Market Insider)
Link to report: https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual/insights/blackrock-investment-institute/physical-climate-risks
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is doubling down on its view that investors in the US don’t yet fully appreciate the just how disastrous an economic impact climate change could have at a time when environmental, social, and corporate governance investing is garnering mainstream attention.
“Climate-related risks already threaten portfolios today, and are set to grow, we find,” strategists at the BlackRock Investment Institute wrote in a report this week, homing in on threats the massive US municipal bond market could face as the planet warms.
Advisors on ESG Investing: We Need Better Data (ThinkAdvisor)
https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2019/05/20/why-advisors-shy-away-from-esg-investing/
Link to Natixis Survey: https://www.im.natixis.com/us/resources/esg-investing-survey-2019
Investors are more interested than ever in how publicly traded companies handle environmental, social and governance issues, but many say they lack the information to make ESG investment decisions and their advisors often offer little help.
Those are some of the major findings of a new Natixis survey on ESG investment issues, which essentially combines the results of four previous global surveys of close to 12,500 individual investors, financial professionals, institutional investors and professional fund buyers. About 12.5% of those surveyed are from North America, primarily the U.S.
As Retiree Health-Care Bills Mount, Some States Have a Solution: Stop Paying (WSJ)
States across the U.S. are testing how far they can reduce health benefits for their retirees as a way of coping with mounting liabilities and balancing budgets. State and city governments increasingly began looking to cut these costs as they struggled following the 2008 financial crisis. In Detroit and Stockton, Calif., officials agreed to reduce their support for retiree health care as a way of negotiating their exits from municipal bankruptcy protection in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
Global sustainable investments hit over $30 trillion in 2018 (GSIA Report)
http://www.gsi-alliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GSIR_Review2018.3.28.pdf
Globally, sustainable investing assets in the five major markets stood at $30.7 trillion at the start of 2018, a 34percent increase in two years. In all the regions except Europe, sustainable investing’s market share has also grown. Responsible investment now commands a sizable share of professionally managed assets in each region, ranging from 18 percent in Japan to 63 percent in Australia and New Zealand. Clearly, sustainable investing constitutes amajor force across global financial markets.
From 2016 to 2018, the fastest growing region has been Japan, followed by Australia/New Zealand and Canada. These were also the three fastest growing regions in the previous two-year period. The largest three regions— based on the value of their sustainable investing assets—were Europe, the United States and Japan.