From across the nation and around the world, SustainabilityHQ™ (formerly 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 PepsiCo reveals sustainable business plan (Source: Marketing Week) PepsiCo has announced an “ambitious” sustainability strategy to cut water usage and carbon emissions by 50% in the farming and packaging of its brands. Its first Sustainable Farming Report outlines plans to work with 350 British farmers to reach its aim of ’50 in 5’. PepsiCo, which owns the Walkers, Quaker and Tropicana brands, says the Farming Report is the next step in its journey to become a more sustainable business. NACD Blue Ribbon Commissions Recommend New Principles for Audit, Performance Metrics, and Board Evaluation (Source: PR NewsWire) The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) released three new Blue Ribbon Commission reports today outlining new strategies and leading practices for board oversight at their 2010 Corporate Governance Conference in Washington, D.C. (For up-to-the-minute details from the Conference. In light of increased pressure on the boardroom and its oversight responsibilities, coupled with a lack of clarity around metrics to evaluate corporate performance, the NACD released a new report on Performance Metrics, a new Audit Committee report, and a revision to its report on Board Evaluation. Newsweek 2010 Green Rankings (Source: Newsweek) To produce the 2010 Green Rankings, NEWSWEEK collaborated with MSCI ESG Research—a leading source of environmental, social, and governance ratings—which served as lead research organization; Trucost, which specializes in quantitative measurements of environmental performance; CorporateRegister.com, the world’s largest online directory of social responsibility, sustainability, and environmental reports; and our editorial partner, ASAP Media. The goal was to assess each company’s actual environmental footprint and management of that footprint (including policies and strategies), along with its reputation among environmental experts. Sovereign Wealth Funds Sovereign wealth funds entitled to protection: FRC (Source: Accountancy Age) The UK Government should hold fire when criticizing foreign government investment funds if they subscribe to a newly released investor code, a key regulator has said. The UK’s reporting regulator, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), hopes its new Stewardship Code will provide a frame work for investment funds to engage with companies, including sovereign wealth funds, which are owned by foreign governments. Why Does Abu Dhabi Own All of Chicago's Parking Meters? (Source: The Atlantic Wire) The city of Chicago has 36,000 parking meters. In 2008, it sold them on a 75 year lease for over one billion dollars. The buyers were led by Morgan Stanley. But as Matt Taibbi reports in his forthcoming book Griftopia, previewed in Rolling Stone, the state-owned investment arm of Abu Dhabi ended up owning a large share -- possibility a controlling majority -- in Chicago's parking meter system. Rollover roulette (Source: The Economist) WHEN financial turmoil threatened to engulf Ireland last month, the government took an unusual step: it scrapped bond auctions for the rest of the year. The move was possible because the country has enough cash to last until next May. US Public Sector Pension Funds State pensions face steep shortfalls, report concludes (Source: LA Times) Wrapping up its State of the State Conference at the Beverly Hilton on Tuesday, the Milken Institute released a sobering look at California's public pension system. Their conclusion: Dramatic changes are needed to cope with demographic trends and funding shortfalls. Public Sector Pension Funding Just Became Three Times More Fun (Source: Big Government.com) Californians have become increasingly concerned that public employee pension costs may be a future burden on taxpayers. However, due to the complex world of actuarial mathematics and lack of accounting standards, most financial geniuses could not give you a straight answer about the costs. The Government Accounting Standards Board (“GASB”), a group of “uber” accountants, is about to make pension costs a frightening surprise. Reform the pension system - Editorial (Source: Buffalo News.com) If the recent guilty plea to a felony corruption charge by former State Comptroller Alan G.Hevesi doesn’t make the case for establishing a board of trustees to maintain the state pension fund then nothing ever will. And to think that he once came to Erie County and declared that our own public officials were in need of “adult supervision.” How ironic. |  Please note – the INSIGHTS-edge™ platform has been enhanced and re-named – this is now SustainabilityHQ™, your headquarters for important Sustainability and ESG knowledge. The new name better reflects the content and features of the platform, which focuses on the increasing importance of Sustainability topics and issues to corporate managers and to investors (asset owners and managers), and to a host of third parties / stakeholders.Log in and check it out! Navigating the way to Sustainability... 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Watching the Watchers Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Headquarters: Oslo, Norway Established: 2002, secretariat opened in Oslo in 2007. Key Partners: Include Revenue Watch Institute and Publish What You Pay, among others. OVERVIEW / MISSION The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative was organized to promote revenue transparency and standards, and improve governance: “The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) supports improved governance in resource-rich countries through the verification and full publication of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining.” EITI works to unite governments, business interest, non-profit organizations, and investors. Countries wishing to become “EITI compliant” must first achieve candidate status. Recent News Ghana awarded 'compliant' status in oil, gas and mining sectors (Wednesday - October 20, 2010) - The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a global standard for improved transparency in the oil, gas and mining sectors has awarded Ghana ... Mining woes (Wednesday - October 20, 2010) - Indeed, the latest news from the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative NEITI is of an internal war amongst its top officials - a war that ... Parliament Unaware of Oil and Gas Agreements – Lawmakers (Tuesday - October 19, 2010) - ... oil and minerals on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), they voiced full support for issuing an access to information law and a ... strong>LEITI Warns Companies (Tuesday - October 19, 2010) - ... their reporting templates in time in order to minimize discrepancies in the country's 2010 Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) reports. ... |