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For Finance / Investing Professionals:
ESG IN FOCUS IN ALL-DAY WORKSHOP
Hosted At Baruch College/CUNY - NYC

The interest in sustainable investing continues to rise in the mainstream investment community.  Numerous data & analytics providers, ratings & rankings organizations, and other influentials are busily shaping new approaches in and for the mainstream investment community. Corporate “ESG” factors are an important addition to the ubiquitous Bloomberg terminals, as example (i.e. the ESG Dashboard).  Mainstream asset managers -- notably BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, State Street, and others -- are putting sustainable investment approaches in place and launching new products for clients that are demanding “investable” vehicles for “doing well and doing good” with their assets.

As an investment professional, are you up to speed on these developments?  Need to “be more in the know” about sustainable investing?  Here’s a suggestion:  plan to attend an all-day workshop hosted at the Newman Vertical Campus of Baruch College/CUNY and presented by Governance & Accountability Institute and Global Change Associates (GCA). Participants will receive a Certificate of Completion from G&A Institute and GCA. 

Mark the Date:  Wednesday, December 14, 2016
The course begins at 8 a.m. and features a full day of lectures from leaders in the field of sustainable investing and corporate sustainability. A networking lunch is included. The topics to be covered include:  

• What is Corporate ESG & Why It Really Matters to Shareowners;
• ESG Analysis, Rating & Research;
• What Investors Need to Know about the Rising Importance of Impact Investing;
• The Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB);
• Case Study of Corporate Malfeasance -- the VW Case;
• ESG Equity Fundamental – Data Analytics;
• About the Baruch CSR-Sustainability Monitor Project; 
• and, Looking Beyond Corporate Sustainability & Financial Performance.

Presenters include:  Samuel Block, MSCI; Kate Starr, Flat World Partners; Eric Kane, SASB (Healthcare); Hideki Suzuki, Bloomberg LP; Mert Demir, PhD, Weissman Center at Baruch College.  And, there’ll be presentations by the principal organizers: Peter Fusaro of Global Change Associates; and, Hank Boerner, Chairman, and Louis D. Coppola, EVP (and co-founders) of G&A Institute.

We look forward to seeing you there, at Baruch College in December! 

Top Story

Employees care more about sustainability than their employers, says new survey   
(Thursday - November 03, 2016)
Source: The Drum - Employees feel strongly about working for companies that care about the impact their business is making on the environment.

Sustainability in Focus

New UFI research highlights “Best Practices in Sustainability”
(Monday - October 31, 2016)
Source: Travel Daily News - UFI – the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry has released its “Best Practices in Sustainability” report “Best Practices in Sustainability” report, which showcases the winning and shortlisted entries for the...

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: Promising and promoting sustainability
(Monday - October 31, 2016)
Source: MineWeb - Mining companies have been implementing sustainability-themed programs for decades. They have long realized that their continued operations rely on the building of positive relationships with the likes of NGOs, governments and...

United Technologies, National Geographic Team Up On Sustainability Project
(Tuesday - November 01, 2016)
Source: Hartford Courant - Population growth of cities around the world has long been key to how United Technologies Corp. sells jet engines, elevators and heating and cooling systems in homes and commercial buildings.

Source: CFO - Public confidence depends on transparency and trust. And lack of transparency provides the opportunity for obfuscation, deception, and corruption that erodes and ultimately destroys public trust.

Volvo Group Delivers Sustainability Recommendations to UN
(Tuesday - November 01, 2016)
Source: Heavy Duty Trucking - Volvo Group CEO Martin Lundstedt, in his role as co-chair of the High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport, has submitted a report to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon containing ten recommendations on how...

Just Fix It: How Nike Learned to Embrace Sustainability
(Wednesday - November 02, 2016)
Source: Business of fashion - The Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse,” Phil Knight, then chairman and chief executive officer of Nike, told journalists at the National Press Club in Washington DC in 1998.

Source: AG Journal - Farmers and ranchers frequently complain about burdensome and sometimes counter-productive regulations that make it more difficult to do the day-to-day business required on the farm. Some of the regulations require more training...

What Walmart is Doing to Increase the Recyclability and Sustainability of Product Packaging
(Wednesday - November 02, 2016)
Source: Waste 360 - Walmart is looking to help make packaging more sustainable, while continuing to keep product prices low.

Source: Iowa State Daily - In a state that relies on agriculture for 24.3 percent of its industrial output and $3.68 billion of its gross state product, sustainability yearns to play an important role in protecting the Iowan economy.

Sustainability as a human right   
(Thursday - November 03, 2016)
Source: Huff Post - You may ask why sustainability is a human right. The answer is simple of you just consider that the lives of our children and their children acutely depend on our decisions today.

ESG Issues & Players

Climate Change Is Already Forcing Americans to Move   
(Tuesday - November 01, 2016)
Source: Bloomberg - As global warming causes more extreme weather and sea-level rise, coastal communities around the U.S. are starting to think about whether, and how, to help people move away from the water.

One of the most influential economists in the world explains why a carbon tax is a good idea
(Wednesday - November 02, 2016)
Source: Business Insider - A "carbon tax" is actually a series of taxes that increases the cost of activities like burning coal or buying gasoline that pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

New vehicles in U.S. more fuel efficient than ever  
(Thursday - November 03, 2016)
Source: Reuters - New vehicles sold in the United States last year were more fuel efficient than ever before, even as more Americans bought larger trucks and SUVs instead of cars, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Wednesday.

Brexit’ Must Face a Parliamentary Vote, U.K. Court Rules   
(Thursday - November 03, 2016)
Source: New York Times — The British government must consult Parliament before proceeding with formal negotiations over its withdrawal from the European Union, the High Court ruled on Thursday, a move that is likely to aggravate the political...

Asset Managers, US Pension Funds, Sovereign Wealth Funds

Fed Gives Subtle Nod on December Hike    
(Thursday - November 03, 2016)
Source: Bloomberg - The Federal Open Market Committee, led by Chair Janet Yellen, said in its statement Wednesday that it only needed “some” further evidence that inflation and employment were on track toward their goals to hike, after leaving rates...

Norway Govt Pension Fund Global returns -3.73% YTD   
(Wednesday - November 02, 2016) Associated Profiles : Norwegian Government Pension Fund – Global (Statens pensjonsfond – Utland) , Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Norway
Source: europeanpensions.net - The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global return fell by 0.41 per cent in the third quarter of 2016 and was down 3.73 per cent in the year to date, it has reported. In its recent results, the Government...

Hedge Funds Lose Favour with Investors   
(Tuesday - November 01, 2016) Associated Profiles : California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)
Source: internationalbanker.com - One of the most high-profile disinvestments in hedge funds was made by the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) in September 2014. At that time, the institution that managed $298...

Watching the Watchers

Corporate Watch
Headquarters:
Oakland, California, USA
Established: 1996

KEY PARTNERS
Corporate Watch is a project of the Tides Center and an affiliate of Friends of the Earth International. Collaborations include the Center for Corporate Policy, the Corporate Research Project, and the Ruckus Society.

OVERVIEW/MISSION
Corporate Watch says it uses "…non-profit investigative research and journalism to expose corporate malfeasance and to advocate for multinational corporate accountability and transparency. We work to foster global justice, independent media activism and democratic control over corporations." Further: "We seek to expose multinational corporations that profit from war, fraud, environmental, human rights and other abuses, and to provide critical information to foster a more informed public and an effective democracy."

BACKGROUND
Corporate Watch says it evolved from a book --  The Corporate Planet: Ecology and Politics in the Age of Globalization, by Joshua Karliner -- who founded Corporate Watch. The About Us Web page cites examples of the organization's forward thinking, including "its first major shot across the corporate bow in 1997 when it blew the whistle on working conditions in Nike's operations in Vietnam," and beginning an investigation of Enron in 1998.

STRUCTURE
Corporate Watch seems to be a very small organization that depends heavily on freelancers.

News Sweeps

• Beyond Dakota Access: Energy Transfer Partners Pipelines To Ferry Fracked Gas To Mexico
  (Friday - October 28, 2016 - Source: mintpressnews.com)
• Right-Wing Death Squads are Subverting the Peace Process in Colombia
  (Sunday - October 23, 2016 - - Source:  constantinereport.com)
• Wikileaks: Stratfor Spied on Bhopal Activists for Dow Chemical Co./Summary of the E-Mails/Video  
  (Tuesday - October 11, 2016  - Source: constantinereport.com)

SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICE -- SAVE $100 -- REGISTER TODAY!

Become part of our "G&A Sustainability Training HQ Pioneers Program." Learn how pioneers taking part in this limited time program can become certified in CSR with a significant discount off the regular price, and at the same time gain considerable recognition as a pioneer in the field.   Contact lcoppola@ga-institute.com to find out more!

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G&A Institute Sustainability Update™
Informative, insightful, thought provoking Governance & Accountability Institute's blog focusing on the sustainable world evolving daily before our eyes.  Read it, absorb it, question it and challenge. Recent posts:

• New Training Announcement: Introduction to Corporate Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) for Investment & Finance Professionals Certification
   
• Lots of Important Sustainability Events & Training To Tell You About!

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Learn more about Sustainability Recognitions & Awards

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FLASH REPORT: Eighty One Percent (81%) of the S&P 500 Index Companies Published Corporate Sustainability Reports in 2015





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DATA PARTNER

G&A Institute is the exclusive Data Partner for the Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) in the USA, UK and Ireland.  This means that we identify, receive, collect, analyze, database and then communicate on every report issued by an organization in any of these three countries. Over the past 5+ years, G&A has analyzed more than 5,000 sustainability reports in this role and databased more than 100 important data points for each of the five thousand reports.
Find out more @ G&A's What's A Data Partner

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