Newsletter

ESG / Sustainability

Governance & Accountability Institute Announces Launch of SustainabilityHQ™ 
(Source: Governance and Accountability Institute)  New York, New York– Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc. (www.GA-Institute.com) today announces the launch of its sustainability and ESG knowledge management platform SustainabilityHQ™  (www.SustainabilityHQ.com), formerly known as INSIGHTS-edge™.SustainabilityHQTM is a Web-accessed, subscription-based information and knowledge management platform that helps users identify, monitor, track, and better understand the actions of important market players and trends that are re-shaping corporate valuations and reputations.  These third parties strongly influence global capital markets through their focus on the investment themes of Sustainability and ESG factors (corporate performance related to environmental management / energy, social issues and corporate governance).

Independent Audit by ITS Global Shows Greenpeace Faked Data to Build Phony Case Against APP
(Source: BusinessWire) JAKARTA, Indonesia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Greenpeace was caught using false and misleading information to attack the credibility of a company to advance its agenda, according to an independent peer reviewed audit released  by ITS Global. the international audit group studied the July 2010 document “How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet,” a report that focused most of its attention on the sustainable forestry practices of the Jakarta-based Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), one of the world’s leading pulp and paper companies.

CEO Pay – Is it Over the Top? What’s the Effect on Worker Morale? The Debate About Executive Compensation
(Source: Hank Boerner, Chairman, Governance and Accountability Institute)  STAY TUNED…to the growing number of commentators that have been weighing in on the effects of corporate CEOs appearing to gorge themselves at the workers’ and investors’ expense.  The debate gets very heated when CEOs thought to be overpaid are presiding over under-performing companies.  But deciphering actual CEO compensation can be a daunting task – even for financial analysts.  There are many complexities to exec compensation – same as when we were trying to unravel the complexities created by Wall Street’s Masters of the Universe when collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) were conjured up for investors.

Ceres and CalPERS Announce Initiative to Accelerate Corporate Action on Global Sustainability
(Source: Ceres & CalPERS) NEW YORK CITY - Amid rising global temperatures, population growth and resource constraints, Ceres formed a collaboration today with Nike, the Skoll Foundation and the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation's largest public pension fund, to use their collective clout to urge the nation's largest companies to move more quickly to understand global sustainability risks and develop new business models and solutions.

Sovereign Wealth Funds

China's possible Potash bid fans unease over SWFs
(Source: Reuters) China's possible bid for Potash illustrates the priority some surplus-rich countries still put on pursuing strategic national goals with their windfall cash and risks a regulatory backlash against sovereign wealth funds

Singapore wealth fund GIC recoups losses from financial crisis
(Source: Monsters and Critics.com)  Singapore - The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) sovereign wealth fund said it has recouped most of the 20-per-cent loss in its portfolio from the global financial crisis as stock markets recovered in 2009.

Sovereign wealth funds offer stability to markets
(Source: Gulf News.com)  Lack of confidence in financial markets has driven investors and funds away from corporations. As balance sheets deteriorate, companies are in need of more and more capital, which investors are not willing to provide. In this setting, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have emerged as the funding source of the next decade.

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!

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US Public Sector Pension Funds

Hevesi is Expected to Plead Guilty in Pension Case
(Source: NY Times) Alan G. Hevesi, the former state comptroller, is poised to plead guilty to a felony corruption charge after a lengthy investigation into his office’s rewarding of pension investment business to investment firms that provided financial benefits to Mr. Hevesi and his aides, The New York Times’s Danny Hakim and William K. Rashbaum reported, citing people with knowledge of the case.

South Carolina Starting Firm for Its Pension Fund
(Source: NY Times) For decades, public pension funds have bankrolled the private equity industry, investing billions of dollars with large firms like Apollo Global Management and the Blackstone Group.Now, frustrated by what it sees as expensive fees and a lack of transparency at private equity firms, one state has decided on a do-it-yourself approach, Peter Lattman of The New York Times reports.
 
CALPERS and The Murky CSR Issue of Executive Pay
(Source: Just Means) This morning I read an AP piece in the Huffington Post about compensation at the pension fund CALPERS and thought it worthy of a special post on what I consider to be one of the murkier corners of CSR.  Basically, the article described CALPERS officers walking away with bonuses despite the fund losing money this year.  While balanced to a point, it would be more than possible to walk away from reading the AP article thinking that CALPERS was doing something egregious.  As is often the case, however, the issue is less cut-and-dry than it may seem based on how the article was written.

Watching the Watchers

Association for Sustainable & Responsible Investment in Asia
Headquarters: Hong Kong
Established: 2001

KEY PARTNERS: Carbon Disclosure Project, Asian Development Bank

OVERVIEW / MISSION
The Association for Sustainable & Responsible Investment in Asia (ASrIA) defines its work: “ASrIA is a not-for-profit membership association dedicated to promoting corporate responsibility and sustainable investment practice in the Asia Pacific region. ASrIA’s members include investment institutions managing over US$4 trillion in assets, however membership is open to any organisation which has an interest in sustainable investment.”

RECENT NEWS

Plastic Disclosure Project Launched At Clinton Global Initiative's Opening ...
(Tuesday - September 21, 2010)
- Erik Floyd, Joint Executive Director of ASrIA, said "We are pleased to have been asked to join in launching this important corporate disclosure initiative. ... [more] 

Remains of murdered Filipina Andaw home
(Friday - September 10, 2010)
- KUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: The remains of Norhaisa Andaw, who, along with another Filipina, Asria Samad Abdul met a violent death sometime in July this year were ... [more] 

RP post in Kuwait looking for kin of Filipino who killed self
(Sunday - August 22, 2010)
- Meanwhile, the remains of Asria Samad Abdul, the Filipina domestic helper who was allegedly murdered by her employers, was finally repatriated Thursday ... [more] 

Help find family of Filipino who committed suicide, urges embassy
(Friday - August 20, 2010)
- Meanwhile, the body of Asria Samad Abdul, the Filipina maid who was brutally murdered by her employers was finally repatriated Thursday afternoon, ... [more] 

No ban yet on Filipino housemaids in Kuwait
(Sunday - August 08, 2010)
- In-mid July, Asria Samad Abdul, 34, [housemaid] was allegedly tortured by her employer on a daily basis before being run over several times with a car to ...

Governance & Accountability Institute is a monitoring, intelligence-gathering and knowledge management center operating at the intersections of powerful forces reshaping relationship between stockholders and stakeholders, and the public corporation. For more information, contact us at 646.430.8230 or info@ga-institute.com.