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Newsletter

Source: Governance & Accountability Institute

Sustainability-Highlights-Header
March 3, 2011

SERVICES  |  RESEARCH  |  EVENTS  |  WEBINARS  |  BLOG  |  ARCHIVE

Business leaders and managers are being challenged by the rising expectations of stockholders and stakeholder with regard to the corporate performance in the areas of ESG (environmental, social issue and governance) performance.  Peers and competitors are increasingly setting the pace for industries and sectors as they create and implement sustainability and corporate responsibility strategies and actions.

Who cares about this?  Asset owners and asset managers looking at investments through the ESG/Sustainability lens.  And third party stakeholders who are setting the pace in ESG research, standard setting (for industries), media, issue advocates…and others watching the corporate sector.

Our team is watching the watchers for you.  We bring you news, commentary and research in key areas of interest for both investors and asset managers -- and for corporate boards, executives and managers.  As Sustainability and ESG frameworks are adopted by more investors, the capital markets are determining winners, laggards and losers.   Track the trends, the news, updates, the important developments – makeSustainability HQ™ your headquarters for ESG knowledge management.

 

ESG / Sustainability

CSR Lessons for Middle Eastern Autocrats
(Source: Hank Boerner, CSRWire, Talkback)  Assignment: Fly over to visit the Middle East and provide advice on how to handle the events in the Arab streets. Responsibly. Using good governance practices. If you got such a call from one of the region’s leaders, all odds being from a dictatorial ruler, what advice would you pack in your kit as you winged off for the meeting? This is delicate, for sure – not like giving advice to a CEO or board chair. This is a high stakes meeting with the potentate – who has the power to make your life quite miserable. (Remember the Queen in Alice-in-Wonderland: Off with her head, was the cry!)

2011 Proxy Season Preview
(Source: As You Sow)  The As You Sow organization and Sustainable Investment Institute (SII) teamed to create the Proxy Preview 2011 report, which is used extensively by Sustainable and Responsible investors (SRI) as guide for corporate proxy campaign participation. (SR investors include mutual funds, foundations, faith-based groups, tax-exempt organizations, high-net-worth individuals, family trusts, and others.)  The 7th edition of the report features expanded coverage of upcoming votes on environmental and social resolutions and case studies of past successes of SRI campaigns. Associated Profiles: Sustainable Investments Institute, First Affirmative Financial Network 

Clothes Makers Join to Set ‘Green Score’
(Source: New York Times) With just a few clicks on Google Maps, anyone can call up a satellite image of blue dye and other chemicals washing downriver from textile mills in Xintang, China — the world capital of blue jeans production.  But American shoppers in a typical department store encounter no obvious connection between those polluting plumes of dye — or really any other environmental impact — and their favorite pair of designer blues. In many cases, the company whose name appears on the label is only marginally better informed.

Who Sustains the Standards for Sustainability Standards?
 (Source: Triple Pundit)  As sustainability becomes a widespread corporate mantra there are a number of choices available for companies seeking international responsibility codes and standards to guide their reporting and well, to brag about in CSRs. Since 2000 the United Nations Global Compact has been one of the leading such initiatives for businesses “that are aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption.”  Associated Profiles: UN - Global Compact

Shareholder Activism Grows During Latest Proxy Season  (Source:GreenBiz)  Socially responsible investment is again in the spotlight this week, with the release of a new report detailing the latest crop of shareholder resolutions aimed at improving companies' social and environmental performance. Associated Profiles: Ceres

Sovereign Wealth Funds

Wealth of nations (Source: HFM Week) The hunt for large-scale institutional investment is changing the way hedge funds operate, and investors don't come much bigger than state-owned sovereign wealth funds. As new countries join the handful of long-time hedge fund investors, HFMWeek looks at where this interest is coming from, and what hedge funds need to do to capitalise on it. Associated Profiles:  Abu Dhabi  Investment Authority, Korean Investment Corporation (KIC

ANALYSIS-Mideast upheaval signals sovereign fund rethink
 (Source: Forexyard.com) Popular revolts across the resource-rich Middle East and North Africa may transform the management of windfall oil wealth, potentially denting national balance sheets, boosting inflation and disturbing world markets. The region's state-owned funds, managing almost $1 trillion of assets -- equivalent to nearly two-thirds of the entire hedge fund industry -- have been a key driver in financial markets, making wide-ranging investments including stakes in blue chips such as UniCredit and luxury department store Harrods.  Associated Profiles:  : Emirates Investment Authority, Libyan Investment Authority , Mumtalakat Holding Company, Qatar Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority

Investors Urge Exxon, Conoco Phillips, Other Oil Companies in Libya To Cut Off Support to Qaddafi Regime
(Source:  Conflict Risk Network)  Twenty-four institutional investors, including Calvert Asset Management and Boston Common Asset Management have called on oil companies doing business in Libya to halt revenue or other payments to the Libyan government. The investors have called on oil companies to place revenue payments into a Libya Recovery Fund that would cut financial support from the government while avoiding undue economic harm to civilians. Associated Profiles: Libyan Investment Authority


Make SustainabilityHQ™ your daily headquarters for important news, commentary and research results – your HQs for Sustainability and ESG knowledge management. The key capital market players focused on Sustainability and ESG (environmental management, social issues and effective corporate governance) are profiled with an abundance of relevant information.  Updates are continuous. The third party organizations helping to shape corporate valuations and corporate reputations are profiled and news about these players is updated every day. Log in and check it out!

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Governance & Accountability Institute - Benchmarking Services

In-depth profiling and analysis of leaders in Corporate Sustainability.

Learn from the Leaders to develop Your Winning Corporate Strategies

For information: 
hboerner@ga-institute.com
Tel:  646 – 430 - 8239

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Strategic Governance - Enabling Financial, Environmental, and Social Sustainability
A new book by Hank Boerner and Mark Sickles of the Governance & Accountability Institute.  Click here for more information.

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For more on:

ESG & Sustainability Players
- Shaping Perceptions, Valuations & Decision-Making

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs)
- State-Owned Global Investors

US Public Sector Investors 
- State and Municipal Retirement Funds

Asset Managers
- Investors adopting ESG guidelines/policies & shaping market trends

Navigating the way to
Sustainability...

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Please credit the source if quoted.

United States Pension Funds

What Crisis? Nearly 200 Agencies Raise Pensions
(Source: Public CEOAfter the stock market crash punched a big hole in their CalPERS investment funds, a new report says 26 local government agencies reduced pension benefits - but nearly 200 cities, counties and fire and water districts increased pension benefits.  Associated Profiles: California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)

Christie's Pension Proposals Spur New Jersey Government Worker Retirements
(Source: BloombergNew Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s proposals to cut pension benefits and raise government workers’ health-insurance payments contributed to a 60 percent jump in retirements in 2010 as more than 20,000 people filed to leave.  Associated Profiles: New Jersey Division of Pensions and Benefits

Pension Funds Strained, States Look at 401(k) Plans
(Source: NY Times) Lawmakers and governors in many states, faced with huge shortfalls in employee pension funds, are turning to a strategy that a lot of private companies adopted years ago: moving workers away from guaranteed pension plans and toward 401(k)-type retirement savings plans. Associated Profiles:  Wisconsin Retirement System (SWIB), Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS)  

Pension fund shortfalls in Ohio among highest, but manageable, report shows
 (Source: Examiner Columbus.com)    In The Origins and Severity of the Public Pension Crisis (PDF), author Dean Baker provides a coherent, fact-based explanation that disputes the conventional narrative that shortfalls in state pensions funds should be remedied by either severely reducing the "generosity of public sector pensions" or defaulting on pension obligations already incurred, as some politicians, who blame government workers for receiving benefits they don't pay enough for, want to do. Associated ProfilesOhio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS)

Watching the Watchers

Ceres – the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies

Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts
Established: 1989, after Exxon Valdez tanker oil spill in Alaskan waters

KEY PARTNERS – PROJECTS
Investor Network on Climate Risk (a Ceres-managed investor coalition project); the Sustainable Governance Forum on Climate Risk (with Yale University and Marsh); Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy.

OVERVIEW/MISSION
“Ceres (pronounced “series”) is a national network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups working with companies and investors to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change.”

“Mission: Integrating sustainability into capital markets for the health of the planet and its people.”

Ceres brings investors and environmental experts together to work with companies and industries to address environmental challenges.

Ceres News Sweeps
Ceres Tackles Climate Risk Disclosure in New Report
(Wednesday - March 02, 2011) Associated Profiles : Ceres
- Ceres is a coalition of investors, environmental groups, and other public interest organizations working with companies to address sustainability challenges such as climate change and water scarcity. [more] 

Spotlight on Social Enterprise – Fair Food with CERES
(Wednesday - March 02, 2011) Associated Profiles : Ceres
- While almost all of the farmers are organic, Francis says Fair Food looks beyond organic accreditation to issues of sustainability. All revenue generated by the enterprise goes back into supporting education programs ...

SustainabilityHQ Highlights is prepared by the Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc. based on continuous monitoring of trends and developments in Sustainability and ESG.    The SustainabilityHQ™ platform is available by subscription.

Governance & Accountability Institute is a monitoring, research, intelligence-gathering and knowledge management organizations operating at the intersections of powerful forces reshaping relationship between stockholders and stakeholders, and the public corporation. For more information, contact us at 646.430.8230 or info@ga-institute.com.  G&A Institute manages SustainabilityHQ.