Newsletter

Recent Research Conducted by the Governance & Accountability Institute Attempts to Answer Important Questions for Company Management

In the months of October, November and December each week we will be releasing the top 10 GRI sustainability aspects from three different sectors. The results are based on G&A's "Sustainability - What Matters?" analysis of 1,246 sustainability reports, across 35 sectors, for their level of disclosure around 84 GRI Performance Indicators, and 37 GRI Aspects.

The next three Top 10 GRI Sustainability Aspects released are for the Tobacco, Travel and Tourism and Universities sectors. We list them here for your ease of access.

Top 10 GRI Sustainability Aspects for the Tobacco Sector
Sustainability – What Matters in the Tobacco Sector? 

Top 10 GRI Sustainability Aspects for the Travel & Tourism Sector
Sustainability – What Matters in the Travel & Tourism Sector? 

Top 10 GRI Sustainability Aspects for the Universities Sector
Sustainability – What Matters in the Universities Sector? 

Check It Out...


G&A Institute Sustainability Update™
Informative, insightful, thought provoking
The Governance & Accountability Instituteblog focusing on the sustainable world evolving daily before our eyes.  Read it, absorb it, question it and challenge.

G&A's Sustainability Update™
Insights & perspectives for your sustainable journey...
Recent Posts

Attention Boards & CEOs: The Conference Board Has Important Insights to Share To Help Your Company…Survive and Succeed!

Imagine the Power to Address Climate Change As the Pope & Roman Catholic Church Focuses on Sustainability

Movers & Shakers in Shareholder Activism — Watch the 2015 Proxy Season and ICCR

_______________________________

Governance & Accountability Institute Research Reports

Learn more @ G&A!

_______________________________

Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility Reporting

G&A Institute is the Global Reporting
Initiative's (GRI) sole data partner for the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland. As the data partner we monitor, analyze and database information on all Sustainability reports issued in these territories. For a list of recently issued Sustainability reports please follow the links below:

_______________________________

Featured Events

_______________________________
Governance & Accountability Institute Service Highlight

Many Reasons to Contact
Governance & Accountability Institute. Is this one yours?
G&A's Stakeholder Identification, Monitoring & Engagement
Identifying, prioritizing, monitoring, and understanding the third parties and stakeholders watching your company…shaping the issues…influencing outcomes…creating risk and opportunity…and perhaps impacting license to operate.  Learn more About G&A's Stakeholder Identification, Monitoring & Engagement

_______________________________

Corporate ESG Performance Factors & SustainabilityHQ

Corporate ESG Performance Factors are important to financial analysts, asset owners and managers, and many stakeholders.  The ESG framework or approach considers environmental issues and impacts, the company’s positioning and actions on social/societal issues, and important aspects of corporate governance.

ESG key performance indicators are considered by investors as proxies for effective governance and management. Increasing numbers of of independent research and financial analysis firms monitor and measure these and advisie investors.  The Sustainability HQ™ platform is an important profiling and monitoring resource for the G&A team, and for our clients and subscribers.

ESG market players and corporate reputation influencers are profiled and monitored by G&A Institute. In these Highlights we provide some results of our continuous global scanning for ESG, sustainability and corporate responsibility news. The Associated Profiles indicated are in our Sustainability HQ™  platforms.  For more information, please email us at info@sustainabilityhq.com
_______________________________
 

Navigating the way to sustainability...
Contents © 2009 - 2015 | All Rights Reserved
Copyrights for other providers are noted where appropriate. Please credit the source if quoted.
_______________________________

Top Story of the Week

Top 10 Movers and Shakers in Sustainability-2014      
(Friday - January 02, 2015)
Source: Huff Post - 2014 saw an increased involvement in sustainability by the private sector and other actors in addition to the traditional non-profit organizations and environmentally focused government agencies. Many note-worthy developments...

Sustainability in Focus

Business Sustainability Prompted by Activism in 2014      
(Friday - January 02, 2015)
Source: Triple Pundit - The Harvard Business Review (HBR) recently posted a “top 10” list of the most important sustainable business stories of 2014. Given the gravity of the situation, it’s appropriate that the first five stories are around climate...

Sustainability 2015: the devil will be in the detail      
(Friday - January 02, 2015)
Source: The Guardian - Sustainability ambitions are soaring around the world. Many government initiatives to fight climate change and deforestation were announced this year, including a raft of new ones at COP20 in Lima. Companies increasingly...

6 Sustainability Investing Trends for 2015       
(Friday - January 02, 2015)
Source: Inc.com - Today our world is changing faster than ever before--economic, geo-political, and environmental challenges abound," wrote Warren Buffett in a recent report. "In times such as these, a company must invest in the key ingredients of...

Dutch Government Supports Greater Farm Sustainability      
(Wednesday - December 31, 2014)
Source: The Cattle Site - The Dutch government has announced financial support for 13 projects aimed at improving agricultural sustainability, including for better grassland management, local feed production and an expansion of the 'Beter Leven' welfare...

My 2014 Sustainability Moment of Optimism
(Wednesday - December 31, 2014)
Source: Triple Pundit - Looking backwards at 2014 I can find plenty of events that made me more optimistic. At the same time I can also find plenty of events that made me more pessimistic.

2014: watershed moments in sustainability      
(Tuesday - December 30, 2014)
Source: The Guardian - From the latest IPCC report documenting unprecedented levels of greenhouse gas emissions to the People’s Climate March, here are the most significant sustainability events of the year

Why there’s more to sustainability than 2015’s big global events      
(Monday - December 29, 2014)
Source: The Guardian - 2015 promises two big milestones for sustainability: the launch of the new sustainable development goals (SDGs) in New York in Autumn, and the COP21 climate talks in Paris in December. All eyes are on these processes, which...

The Secret Side of Business Sustainability      
(Friday - December 26, 2014)
Source: Triple Pundit - When it comes to making your business sustainable, there are a few different definitions. It could refer to long-term financial sustainability, or even cultural and social sustainability. But here, we refer to a business’s...

Sustainable finance: the top 5 stories of 2014      
(Friday - December 26, 2014)
Source: The Guardian - This year’s top stories on our finance hub featured crowdfunding, investing in renewable energy and buying out the US coal industry for $50bn

Top 10 sustainability campaigns of 2014       
(Friday - December 26, 2014)
Source: The Guardian - Pressuring Lego to part ways with Shell, putting a stop to the gendered marketing of toys and fighting for the survival of bees: these are the 10 campaigns that have taken 2014 by storm

Top business sustainability trends of 2014      
(Tuesday - December 23, 2014)
Source: The Guardian - It’s been a tough year for brand USA. There was a horrific torture report, police violence against blacks, a dysfunctional Congress – and a troubled middle class. Even our fun and games are not as much fun as they used to be:...

ESG Issues & Players

Why the Ruble Fell as Oil Rose
(Sunday - January 04, 2015) Associated Profiles : Bloomberg New Energy Finance
Source:bloombergview.com - Both the Russian government and the broader markets have seized on the decline in oil prices to explain the rapid drop in the ruble's value. Yet it now appears that the actions of the Russian Central Bank and...

2014 - The Year In Energy      
(Wednesday - December 31, 2014)
Source: Forbes - The year 2014, ending today, saw a lot of exciting, and horrible, things happen in the energy world..

10 Ways Politics Shaped the Environment in 2014      
(Wednesday - December 31, 2014)
Source: Triple Pundit - The environment and the effects of climate change were at the center of legislative debate in many countries this year. The release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2014 draft treatise on global warming helped...

Asset Managers, US Pension Funds, Sovereign Wealth Funds

Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund Declines to Divest from Fossil Fuels      
(Tuesday - December 30, 2014) Associated Profiles : Norwegian Government Pension Fund – Global (Statens pensjonsfond – Utland) , Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Norway
Source: Social Funds - One nation singled out by the study for its robust practices was Norway, whose largest public pension fund the Norwegian Government Pension Fund is a signatory to the United Nations'...

America's Best And Worst Banks 2015      
(Friday - December 26, 2014)
Source: Forbes - After surviving the global financial crisis that nearly crippled the banking system, the biggest banks have bounced back with strong profits and improved asset quality in recent quarters. U.S. banks and thrifts generated $40.2...

Pension Fund Deficit: Still 26 Years From Solvency
(Thursday - December 25, 2014) Associated Profiles : Hawaii Employees Retirement System (ERS)
- Honolulu Civil Beat - But the state still has a long way to go â 26 years to be exact, based on the latest actuarial report for the Hawaii Employees Retirement System. And it'll take even longer...

Watching the Watchers

Friends of the Earth (Europe)
Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium
Established: 1969

KEY PARTNERS
Part of Friends of the Earth International. Funders include several European Union Commission agencies, Oxfam Novib, and foundations.

OVERVIEW/MISSION
The organization summarizes its activities by writing: "Friends of the Earth Europe campaigns for sustainable and just societies and for the protection of the environment, unites more than 30 national organizations with thousands of local groups and is part of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, Friends of the Earth International."

BACKGROUND

Friends of the Earth was established in 1969 by David Brower, who gave the organization the motto, "Think globally, act locally." The UK branch of FoE was started in 1971.
FoE's belief in local grassroots activism is reflected in its structure.

News Sweeps
Civil society groups sound alarm bells on EU plans for regulatory cooperation in EU-US trade talks      
(Sunday - January 04, 2015) Associated Profiles : Friends of the Earth (Europe)
- America Latina en movimiento - Natacha Cingotti from Friends of the Earth Europe said: the leaked EU plans for regulatory cooperation fuel concerns about the negative impact of TTIP on essential protections...

Fracking Frenzy Threatens Developing Nations      
(Thursday - December 18, 2014) Associated Profiles : Friends of the Earth (Europe)
- Truth Out - Fracking is both a temptation and a curse for developing nations, says a new report released today by Friends of the Earth Europe as governments meet in Lima to make meaningful commitments to speed up...

Swiss Role in Aggressive Tax Avoidance by Royal Dutch Shell      
(Monday - December 15, 2014) Associated Profiles : Friends of the Earth (Europe)
- Royal Dutch Shell PLC - Shell appeased and collaborated with the Nazis. The oil giant instructed its employees in the Netherlands to complete a form giving particulars about their descent, which for some, amounted to a...

SustainabilityHQ Highlights is prepared by the Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc. based on continuous monitoring of trends and developments in Sustainability and ESG. Click here for more information on the Governance & Accountability Institute’s SustainabilityHQ resources. The SustainabilityHQ™ platform is available by subscription.

Governance & Accountability Instiute is the “Sustainability Headquarters™” for clients in the corporate, investment, public and social sectors. Based in New York, G&A is a for-profit consulting organization providing a range of value-added strategies, services and resources related to ESG & sustainability to clients in the corporate and capital markets communities.The G&A services portfolio includes:
ESG Counseling, Strategies & Benchmarking | Competitive Benchmarking | Sustainability Coaching, Team Building & Training | Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility Reporting | ESG & CR Issues Monitoring & Research | Stakeholder Identification, Monitoring & Engagement | Awards & Recognitions Program | External Assurance

SustainabilityHQ™ is managed and published by Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc.
For more information, contact us at:
845 Third Avenue, Suite 644, 6th Floor | New York, New York 10022
Tel 646.430.8230 | Web www.ga-institute.com | Email info@ga-institute.com