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 INVESTORS WITH AUM $43 BILLION CALL ON COMPANIES SITTING ON THE U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BOARD TO EVALUATE THEIR ROLE (Source: Walden Asset Management) BOSTON, MA – In letters sent to 35 major companies serving on the Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (“the Chamber”), 44 investors and investment organizations, representing approximately $43 billion in assets, urged company managements to evaluate their role and to assess the risks and benefits of Board membership. In particular, the investors pointed to the significant risks posed by misalignment between company and Chamber policy objectives as well as the Chamber’s aggressively partisan role in electoral politics.
Business Leaders Launch Strategy to Boost Global Food Security (Source: World Economic Forum) Davos, Switzerland – A coalition of business, governments and farmers today launched a strategy to significantly increase food production while conserving environmental resources and spurring economic growth. The approach is already being implemented in two countries, Tanzania and Vietnam. Led by 17 global companies, the strategy sets ambitious targets for collective action to increase production by 20%, decrease greenhouse gas emissions per tonne by 20%, and reduce rural poverty by 20% each decade.
UN Secretary-General Launches New Platform for Corporate Sustainability Leadership(Source: 3BLMedia) Underscoring the role of business in addressing global threats - from climate change to widespread poverty or humanitarian emergencies - a group of chief executives joined UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Davos/Switzerland today for the launch of Global Compact LEAD - a new platform created by the UN Global Compact to take environmental, social and governance performance to the next level and set a new benchmark for corporate sustainability. The executives represent a group of 54 companies, all participants of the UN Global Compact, that have made an ambitious commitment to work towards implementation of the Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability Leadership, a comprehensive roadmap outlining roughly 50 concrete actions businesses can take to achieve greater sustainability.
The How and the Why of CSR Reporting (Source: Just Means) A new global survey from three UK firms examines a key CSR issue - sustainability. The aim of the survey was to look at why firms report their sustainability performance and to help improve accountability of the process. The survey compared the reporting objectives of 90 organisations with the expectations of the reports' readers. It was conducted by accountants KPMG and consultants Futerra and SustainAbility and turned into a report entitled 'Reporting Change'. Sovereign Wealth Funds Norway: Oil, Wealth and Humanitarianism Go Hand in Hand (Source: The Epoch Times) Most variations of international-relations realism include some notion of states sacrificing ethical considerations at the altar of national interest. It's never been completely clear, of course, whether this is a descriptive claim, or a prescriptive one—whether, in other words, the idea is that states should behave this way, or that they in fact do.Those pondering this question ought to consider the case of Norway. In a brief but revealing cable included in the vast WikiLeaks "CableGate" trove and published last week by the Norwegian paper Aftenposten, U.S. embassy officials report that the Nordic nation opted to divest its sovereign wealth holdings from companies violating "humanitarian principles" and "fundamental ethical norms."
China moves to calm fears over corporate investments (Source: Telegraph –UK) Western governments have nothing to fear from China's $300bn (£189bn) sovereign wealth fund and should stop blocking investments in their countries' companies, its chief investment officer has said. In unusually open comments, Gao Xiqing, vice-chairman and president of the Chinese Investment Corporation (CIC) said the fund has a bias towards emerging markets where it does not face the same degree of political hostility. "Sometimes the government makes it clear they will make it difficult for us, so we say 'forget it'," he said.
IMF Says Some Sovereign Funds Too Quick to Change Asset Policy (Source: Bloomberg) Some sovereign wealth funds may have been too quick to alter their investing policy during the financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund said in a report posted yesterday on its website. Sovereign wealth funds have “substantial” capacity to play a stabilizing role in international capital markets because of their size and long-term investing strategy, the Washington- based lender said. The report said funds responded to the crisis in ways that included increasing liquidity, taking on more risk or adding new roles to their traditional mandates. |
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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United States Pension Funds
State pension + debt = big numbers (Source: CNN Money) NEW YORK -- States' debt loads are high enough, but when you combine them with their pension obligations, the numbers are really eye-popping. Hawaii's debt, for instance, is $5.2 billion. But so is its pension obligation. Combined, the dual obligations make up 16.2% of the state's economy, according to a report released Thursday by Moody's Investors Service. That's the nation's highest total liability as a share of the state's gross domestic product.
Cuccinelli pursues Va. pension fund manager (Source : Washington Post) RICHMOND - Virginia Attorney Gen. Ken T. Cuccinelli II is alleging that a major New York financial institution defrauded the state's public pension fund by regularly overcharging for foreign currency trades. Cuccinelli (R) intervened this week in a lawsuit brought by a private whistleblower that seeks $150 million in damages from the Bank of New York Mellon, which has served as the master custodian of the Virginia Retirement System since 1988.
Muni board looking into pension funds disclosure (Source: Reuters) Prompted by huge state and local government pension liabilities, the group that oversees the U.S. municipal bond market has begun looking into greater disclosure of the problem to protect investors, its chairman said on Monday. The billions of dollars owed to public employees' pensions is one of the largest problems looming over financially troubled states following the 2007-2009 recession and years of low returns on investments by the pension systems
Pensions Seek to Reduce Equity and Bond Exposure, Favor Alts (Source: AI-CIO) Research has shown that pension funds and other institutional investors are backing out of traditional equity and bond allocations and increasingly favoring alternative asset classes. On a global basis, in its fifth bi-annual Pension Funds Asset Allocation Survey compiled from studying 50 institutional investors representing nearly $205 billion of assets, financial services consultant firm bfinance noted that the findings from its recent study signals a shift in sentiment by pension funds, as they are seeking to diversify away from core asset classes and into property and alternatives, with infrastructure and private equity attracting the most popularity. In an interview with CFA Institute magazine, the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia), said it continues to focus on infrastructure assets for its long-term stable yields. Watching the Watchers  Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
Headquarters: New York City, USA
Established: 1970-71 – formed by leading church denominations, the National Council of Churches; later became an independent not-for-profit investor coalition.
KEY PARTNERS: Trucost
OVERVIEW / MISSION
As stated by ICCR – the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility is a coalition of almost 300 faith-based investors, including national denominations (Methodist, Presbyterian, etc.), religious communities, pension funds, foundations, hospital / healthcare corporations, colleges, unions, and asset management organizations. ICCR members are in the vanguard of many corporate annual proxy season campaigns, filing and supporting (each other’s) shareholder-sponsored resolutions. ICCR itself does not file resolutions; the organization serves as a gathering point for members and affiliated organizations, and conducts extensive research on issues of interest to the ICCR investment and asset management community.
The Coalition states its core values as:
•"Faith: We shape our priorities for action through faith.
•"Justice: We challenge ourselves to accountability for right relationships with all creation.
•"Integrity: We are striving to be credible practitioners of the values we set forth.
•"Inclusive: We embrace and promote diversity as we covenant to work together."
ICCR News Sweeps
International faith coalition of investors press BP on corporate accountability
(Wednesday - January 26, 2011)
- A diverse coalition of investors, led by members of the US-based Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) have announced a historic agreement ... 6th annual responsible sourcing summit 2011
(Monday - January 10, 2011)
- David Schilling, of the Interfaith Center of Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). Rev. Schilling leverages decades of experience to paint a broad overview of ... |
