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Newsletter

Source: Governance & Accountability Institute

Sustainability-Highlights-Header
September 23, 2010

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From across the nation and around the world, INSIGHTS-edge brings you news, commentary and research in key areas of interest regarding ESG, Sovereign Wealth Funds and US Public Sector Pension Funds.  We watch the watchers...who are watching you.

ESG / Sustainability

UN body calls on all institutional investors to disclose RI stance
(Source: Responsible Investor) The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has called on all institutional investors to formally articulate their stance on responsible investment. UNCTAD noted how there are now two “different and distinct” groups of pension funds worldwide – the half that report no RI activity and the half that reports at least some activity.

BP Oil Spill Buffoons Make Sustainability Indexes: Today's Outrage
(Source: The Street) Back in June, Dow Jones and SAM, the boutique investment management firm that creates the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, removed BP(BP) from the environmentally and socially responsible investing index series. It seemed a logical move for the sustainability index group to make based on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the worst oil spill and worst environmental disaster in the history of the U.S. Yet now a company at the center of the ongoing oil spill blame game has been invited into the sustainability index series: Halliburton(HAL).

Majority of Executives and Consumers Think Businesses Not Committed To Sustainability
(Source: Triple Pundit) The majority of executives and consumers polled in a survey in July do not think the majority of businesses are committed to “going green.” Only 29 percent of executives and 16 percent of consumers polled think that the majority of businesses are committed to “going green.” Almost half (45 percent) of executives and 48 percent of consumers think that only “some” are businesses committed to sustainability.

Lessons from the Gulf: The American Public Believes Business Leaders Need to Be Well-Versed in Sustainability
(Source: MarketWatch/BusinessWire) Long after a remedy for the Gulf crisis is reached, the ripple effects will continue on across local beaches and economies as well as in America's waning confidence about the readiness of corporate leadership to respond to environmental issues. A recent national survey shows that only 13 percent of U.S. adults are confident that corporate America has the knowledge to make decisions that consider long-term impacts on the environment. The Sustainable Leadership Census was conducted by telephone within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of the University of Wisconsin-Extension May 19 - 23, 2010 among 1,006 U.S. adults.

Sovereign Wealth Funds

The self-denying sovereign wealth fund
(Source: FT.com Alphaville) This is – in a way - yet another of those posts commemorating the fall of Lehman Brothers, two years ago to the day. Then again — the post-Lehman sovereign wealth fund really has become something to behold, given the past two years of change. Especially because those changes show that not even sovereign wealth funds have escaped 2008’s release of the volatility genie. And yet they themselves seem unable to acknowledge it.

Sovereign Wealth Funds Are Going Mainstream
(Source: emii.com)  The financial crisis has forced most investors to question their assumptions about markets and reconsider their strategies. For sovereign wealth funds, those shadowy juggernauts that once seemed impervious to market swings, the challenge has been particularly great. When sovereign funds burst onto the public scene a few years ago, their massive buying power and lack of trans­parency aroused fear and distrust in many Western capitals, where officials worried that governments might use sovereign funds to achieve political rather than commercial objectives.

Sovereign wealth funds scale back
(Source: Fierce Finance)  That didn't take long. Just a year ago, people were spooked by the rise of seemingly opaque, cash-rich sovereign wealth funds that seemed  poised to exercise massive influence via huge investments. They came to the rescue of several financial service companies. But the world has changed since then. The financial crisis led to some painful lessons, and many are now retreating. Some sovereign wealth funds have pulled back sharply, notes Institutional Investor. Temasek, for example, sold its entire stake in Bank of America at a loss of roughly $4.6 billion. Many others have dialed back their exposure more modestly.

 

Coming Soon…


We are in the process of upgrading INSIGHTS-edge, including the addition of many more profiles, identification of ESG critical issues of importance to corporations and investors, adding to the toolbox (twitter, customized email alerts and more). You will see the 2.0 version soon. And, we are rebranding the platform to better identify the focus of our efforts SustainabilityHQTM
will be here Fall,, 2010.

For more on:

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

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

US Public Employee Pension Funds / Investors 
- State and Municipal Retirement Funds

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

 

Navigating the way to
Sustainability...

Contents © 2009, 2010
All Rights Reserved

Copyrights for other providers
are noted where appropriate.
Please credit the source if quoted.

US Public Sector Pension Funds

UN body calls on all institutional investors to disclose RI stance
(Source: Responsible Investor) The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has called on all institutional investors to formally articulate their stance on responsible investment. UNCTAD noted how there are now two “different and distinct” groups of pension funds worldwide – the half that report no RI activity and the half that reports at least some activity.

How Pension Funds Ignore Reality
(Source: Seeking Alpha) There was an amusing WSJ piece over the weekend talking about how most U.S. pension funds are sticking to 8% target returns on their portfolios and in their actuarial assumptions, despite not having delivered that sort of return in a decade. Kudos to them for their stubborn insistence on ignoring pesky things, like reality.

AP Investigation: CalPERS bumped pay as fund dived
(Source: AP) SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As its investment portfolio was losing nearly a quarter of its value, the country's largest public pension fund doled out six-figure bonuses and substantial raises to its top employees, an analysis by The Associated Press has found. Board member Tony Olivera said the California Public Employees' Retirement System tried to reduce the bonuses but was under contractual obligations to pay them.

How Pensions Can Get Out of the Red
(Source: NY Times) This summer’s revelation that New Jersey had misled the public about the health of its state pension funds is only the latest incident in a looming nationwide crisis. Public pensions at the state and local level are underfunded by more than $1 trillion; in many cities, pension obligations will soon consume a quarter or more of the annual budget — money that will be unavailable for parks, libraries, street maintenance and public safety.

Watching the Watchers

Council of Institutional Investors (CII)
Headquarters:  Washington, DC
Established:  1985

MISSION / OVERVIEW
The Council of Institutional Investors (CII) is a not-for-profit trade association focused on education and advocacy related to corporate governance. The organization is composed of public, union and corporate pension funds whose combined assets exceed USD$3 trillion.

The Council describes its work as “…addressing governance and investment issues that affect the trillions of dollars in retirement assets entrusted to our members.”
Member funds are typically major long-term institutional shareowners “…with a duty to protect the retirement assets of millions of American workers…”
CII educates and informs its member institutions and the public about “good corporate governance, shareowner rights and related investment issues, and to advocate on their members' behalf….”

RECENT NEWS

Wall and Main Streets -- The Pensioners' Perspective
(Wednesday - September 22, 2010)
- I attended the annual fall meeting of the Council of Institutional Investors over the past ... [more] 

Investors Object to Symantec's Virtual Annual Meeting
(Friday - September 17, 2010)
- Among the investors and groups that have written letters to Symantec are the Council of Institutional Investors, the California State Teachers' Retirement ...

Companies Change Tack, Seek Closer Ties As Investors Gain Clout
(Wednesday - September 15, 2010)
- ... executive director of the Council of Institutional Investors, which represents pension funds managing more than $3 trillion in assets. ...

Banks and large investors are clashing over new SEC-proposed disclosure rules
(Wednesday - September 15, 2010)
- ... Association (ABA) and many banks generally opposed and the Council of Institutional Investors and Investment Company Institute (ICI) largely supportive. ... [more] 

Unsettling Questions on BP, Boards, Risk Management
(Monday - September 13, 2010)
- ... the city's corporate governance program, and earning election to position of chairman of the Council of Institutional Investors' Executive Committee. ...

 

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