In the News

California's Leadership in Climate Change:

The Latest: Jerry Brown to Trump: 'Get Out of the Way'
U.S. News & World Report
California Gov. Jerry Brown is urging President Donald Trump to start fighting climate change or to "get out of the way" and let the rest of the world work ... World leaders, investment funds and energy magnates promised to devote new money and technology to slow global warming at a summit in Paris ...  
   
California Billionaire Tom Steyer Sees Oregon As Key Player In Climate Change Battle
OPB News
California billionaire and environmental activist Tom Steyer is hoping Oregon will be the next state to fight the Trump administration's policies on climate change. Oregon Democrats are working on legislation for the upcoming February session that would cap greenhouse gas emissions. Steyer, who was ...

Dirty oil stains California's climate leadership
San Francisco Examiner
After touting California's climate leadership to the world at the United Nations climate conference in Germany, Gov. Jerry Brown addressed a home crowd ... California's dirty oil fields not only fuel climate change, but they endanger the health of surrounding communities. Oil drilling operations spew toxic ...

Sustainable Investing:

Does Sustainable Investing Help or Hurt Returns?
Morningstar.com
First, many consultants and advisors have the misimpression that sustainable investing today is little different than socially responsible investing from two decades ago, which was largely based on aligning portfolios with an investor's values and relied on exclusionary screening based on products or ...

The New Frontier in Sustainable Investing
Barron's
Arabesque Asset Management is a relative newcomer to sustainable investing, but the young firm has made a big splash. Steered by Omar Selim, 54, who led the European firm's 2013 buyout from Barclays (where he was a top banker), Arabesque manages $150 million, including two European ...

OppenheimerFunds Taps UN Sustainable Investment Expert to Head ESG ETFs
ETF Trends
OppenheimerFunds may be expanding on its line of environmental, social and governance, or ESG, related ETFs after appointing Aniket Shah as Head of Sustainable Investing. “As investor demand for sustainable investing strategies continues to rise, expanding our ESG capabilities to further meet ...

Global Reporting Initiative:

Conagra Brands Issues 2017 Citizenship Report
PR Newswire (press release)
In preparing the 2017 Citizenship Report, Conagra Brands followed the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. More information on GRI is available at http://www.globalreporting.org. All data in the report reflects Conagra Brands fiscal year 2017, which ended May 26, ...

Turkish Airlines proceeds its' sustainability journey with awards
eTurboNews
... in the world, operating with a strong sense of environmental and social responsibility for Turkey and the communities at our flight destinations in 120 countries, has released its third sustainability report, which was prepared in accordance with the “core” option of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 ...

Allstate Enhances Sustainability Reporting
PR Newswire (press release)
... annual report on the company's philosophy and results on responsible business practices and social impact. In-depth information is provided on corporate governance, ethics, environmental practices, inclusive diversity and social impact in alignment with the Global Reporting Initiative framework and ... 

Renewable Energy Investments:

Boosting renewable energy bankability in Southeast Asia
eco-business.com
In turn, this has led many to consider the emerging renewable energy markets, and especially Southeast Asia, as fertile ground for their investments. Across a number of countries in the region, including Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, a combination of growing energy demand, strong wind and solar ...   
   
GE Cutting 12000 Jobs as Renewables and Energy Storage Upend Fossil Fuels
Motley Fool
The only segment where GE seems to have taken renewable energy seriously is financing. The company has financed $5 billion of projects over the last three years. But that level of investment isn't going to drive earnings for a $153 billion company. To take renewable energy seriously, I think GE needs ...

Footing The $9 Trillion Renewable Bill
OilPrice.com
As the world is growing increasingly conscious of the need to invest in cleaner and more sustainable energy to limit the impact of global warming, it's no secret that a faster and universal renewable energy transition will require trillions of dollars of investment over the next couple of decades.

CDP Sustainability:

N/A

Impact Investing:

Middle Mensch: Meet The Man Making Impact Investing Swell
Forbes
Nobody knows this better than the founder and CEO of impact outfit Swell Investing: hard-hat-clad David Fanger, who listens intently as Ruiz explains the promise of new pumps made by a company called Xylem. The gear being tested at Tillman helps blast wastewater with ozone, a technique just as ...

It's an exciting time to look at impact investing in India, says Maya Chorengel
Economic Times
We believe that a confluence of social and technological factors has brought impact investing to an inflection point, from where we believe it can be executed at scale globally. The private sector is an important and underutilized player in addressing important societal needs, in India and around the world ...

The Venture For The Future: Sustainable, Responsible And Impact Investing
Seeking Alpha
Sustainable, responsible and impact investing or "SRI" has been around since the '60s, but has been increasing in popularity over the last decade. This boost is most likely linked to millennials being introduced into the investment sector. As we know, millennials are an extremely influential generation, ... 

Resource Conservation Investments:

Yaw Announces State Investments Protecting Watersheds, Enhancing Local Park and Trail ...
NorthcentralPa.com
Gene Yaw (R-23) today announced several state investments for local watersheds, as well as park and trail projects throughout the 23rd Senatorial District. The projects are part of $44 million, distributed by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Community Conservation ...

Socially Responsible Investing:  

Goldman Sachs Is Starting a Socially Responsible ETF
Bloomberg
With socially responsible investing -- also known as ESG for its focus on a company's environmental, social or governance policies -- surging to more than $23 trillion globally, ETF issuers are looking to get a piece of the action. At least nine funds started this year offer exposure to values-based strategies ...

Do-Good Investors: If You Own These Funds, The Holdings Will Surprise You
Forbes
Take the two largest asset managers in the world, BlackRock and Vanguard. Both have ESG funds with holdings that defy what many might consider socially responsible. BlackRock's MSCI KLD 400 Social ETF holds McDonald's, ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum, even though McDonald's has ...

Funds for Sustainable Investing:

Does Sustainable Investing Help or Hurt Returns?
Morningstar.com
As you can see in Exhibit 1, funds that use ESG criteria or pursue sustainability themes perform well compared with their Morningstar Category peers on a risk-adjusted basis. The current distribution of Morningstar Ratings among sustainable investing funds is skewed in a positive direction, suggesting ...

Can Index Funds Be a Force for Sustainable Capitalism?
Harvard Business Review
The investment industry is changing. Among other things, there is growing demand from both retail and institutional investors to align their capital with better environmental and social outcomes, and more resources going into index fund or quasi-indexing products. These two trends may seem ...

Do-Good Investors: If You Own These Funds, The Holdings Will Surprise You
Forbes
Take, for example, American Century's $227 million Sustainable Equity Fund. In 2004 it launched with the name Fundamental Equity, focusing on large companies. Last year the frequent underperformer was renamed to meet growing investor demand for sustainable investing. Says portfolio manager ... 

Sustainability Investing:

OppenheimerFunds Announces Senior Sustainable Investing Appointment
Triple Pundit (blog)
NEW YORK, Dec. 05 /CSRwire/ – OppenheimerFunds, a leading global asset manager, today announced the appointment of Aniket Shah as Head of Sustainable Investing. In this new position, Shah will be responsible for working with OppenheimerFunds' portfolio managers and investment product ...

Philanthropic Investing

Impact investing: A force that transforms
Investment Magazine
Evidence already exists that these types of impact investments do also generate appropriate risk-adjusted market returns. The Goodstart Early Learning deal is one example that demonstrates the potential to build on networks across Australian corporate, government and philanthropic sectors when ...

Green Bond Funds:

Indian railways' agency lists bond on London Stock Exchange
Economic Times
LONDON: The Indian Railways' financing arm today listed its first green bond on the London Stock Exchange with an aim to finance infrastructure for ... Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) was set up in 1986 as the dedicated financing arm of the Indian Railways for mobilising funds from domestic ...

The case for sovereign green bonds
The Business Times
In March this year, Lawrence Wong, Minister for National Development and Second Minister for Finance, said MAS will "seek to promote the development of a wider range of sustainability-oriented benchmarks, funds and products" to cater to a growing regional demand, starting with green bonds.

Low Carbon Funds:

Alberta sets aside $1.4 billion for industry to reduce carbon emissions
TheChronicleHerald.ca
CALGARY — Alberta is setting aside close to $1.4 billion from climate levies to help industry reduce carbon emissions. The government said the funding, spread over seven years, will make it easier for industries to invest in new technologies, stay competitive and create jobs. "The business case for ...
   
EAPF leads climate-change push
Top1000funds.com
“Our updated policy sets the pace for pension funds that need to keep up a strong financial performance in the race to a low-carbon economy,” Howard Boyd says. The EAPF will also integrate the United Nations' sustainable development goals into its portfolio. A deep dive into water risk – one of the ...

New £20m tech funding available for retrofit and innovation for the built environment
Specification Online
BSRIA is urging members to register for a slice of £20 million investment available in the Government Innovation funding for the Built Environment aka Investing in Low Carbon Heating Technology Innovation recently launched by the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).