A new initiative by The “Big Four” accounting firms – Price Waterhouse, KPMG, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte – seeks to identify a set of universal ESG metrics that can be reflected in mainstream annual reports and other corporate financial disclosures.
In late June, the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a rule that would require retirement plan fiduciaries to prove that they are not sacrificing financial returns or increasing risk if they put money into Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)-related investments. The move comes at a time when investor interest in the space is surging in reaction to wildfires in Australia, the Covid-19 pandemic, a heightened awareness of racial inequity and social justice issues, and an economic downturn that has disrupted labor markets and global supply chains.
The world of impact investing just got a lot more interesting as Blackrock, the largest money manager in the world with nearly $7 trillion under management, committed to the space in a big way. The company’s chairman Larry Fink said last week that he believes “we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance” due to climate-change-related issues and committed the firm to making sustainability the new standard in its investment offerings.
The insurance industry isn’t usually who we turn to for solutions to humanity’s most pressing issues. However, far downstream from the vanguard of individuals who have been investing in companies that are making positive changes to their environmental, social and governance footprint in the world (and, likewise, divesting from bad actors), is a movement among insurers who themselves face an existential threat from climate change.
For a number of reasons, not all companies at the top of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rankings are affecting as much positive impact in the world as one might expect, nor are all bottom-line focused companies bad actors with regards to their environmental, social or governance behaviors.
Divestment has been a long-standing approach to influencing companies to be more socially and environmentally responsible.
For the past forty years or so, CEOs in America have said they had a fiduciary duty to shareholders to maximize profits.
Research has demonstrated the value of gender diversity in corporate leadership roles, namely as it relates to improved financial performance. Even though women comprise fifty percent of the global working-age population and have educational attainment comparable to men, they have significantly lower labor market participation rates than men.
For most of the history of impact investing, equities have dominated the conversation. There simply hasn’t been enough of a bond market driven by environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors
