https://www.commonfund.org/news-research/blog/top-stewardship-imperatives/
Real Estate Investors Need to Prepare (Bloomberg)
The impacts of climate change, including rising seas and extreme weather events, are quickly emerging as formidable challenges for the real estate industry and our cities.
Moody’s recently warned cities to take steps to prepare for climate change or face downgrades in their bond ratings. Last year, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors and the U.N.-backed Sustainable Insurance Forum outlineduniversal standards for how insurers should account for climate risks.
Neither of these actions should be surprising, because the consequences of climate change are only growing costlier. Natural disasters caused a record $300 billion in damage in the U.S. in 2017, most of it to real estate.
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.