In the News

California's Leadership in Climate Change:

County, cities carry on contrarian climate change campaign
Sonoma West
As the Trump Administration works to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency and deny human-caused climate change and the State of California keeps suing to preserve west coast environmental protections, the smaller governments of Sonoma County are flying under the radar, steadily ...

EPA chief signals a showdown with California over fuel economy rules for automakers
Los Angeles Times
The Trump administration's chief environmental regulator signaled a coming showdown with California, warning that the state won't dictate the future of ... away reports that White House officials have killed his plans for a "red team, blue team" debate examining the scientific research on climate change.

This California City Is About to Put Big Oil's Bad Science on Trial
Mother Jones
The New York Times reported last week that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly quashed the so-called “red team–blue team” plan after senior ... Last year, San Francisco, Oakland, and other California cities sued a bunch of oil companies for contributing to climate change and covering up what they ... 

Sustainable Investing:

Global 'Green Finance' Index Launch Boosts Sustainable Investing Drive
Forbes
Renewable Energy Investment, Green Bonds and Sustainable Infrastructure Finance were rated as “areas of high impact on sustainability and of high interest to respondents.” And, disinvestment from fossil fuels was rated as high impact on sustainability, but low interest to respondents, which suggested ...

Sustainable investing: why the rise in interest?
Money Marketing
In the first video in our series on sustainable investing, Mike Fox shares two key reasons why he believes we are seeing growing interest around sustainable funds. He looks at changes in dominant demographics and challenges historic beliefs that investment returns will suffer if you 'do the right thing' in ...

Impact Investing Basics
Investopedia (blog)
Impact investing is one of the fastest growing trends and a huge topic of discussion in market and investing news. The idea of impact investing has existed for decades. While the buzzwords behind this investing strategy have continued to evolve, the motivation remains: Investors want to be purposeful ... 

Global Reporting Initiative:

HKScan's Annual Report for 2017 has been published
GlobeNewswire (press release)
This year corporate responsibility was among the themes highlighted in the Annual Report. It comprises a Corporate Responsibility Report conforming to the sustainability reporting guidelines issued by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). “HKScan plays an active role in the food value chain all the way ...

Sponda's Sustainability Review 2017: Sponda is the energy-efficient forerunner in the property sector
GlobeNewswire (press release)
In its reporting, Sponda adheres to the Core guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Standards 2016. Furthermore, the GRI's sector-specific Construction and Real Estate recommendations (Construction and Real Estate Sector Disclosures) have also been applied in ...

RTA releases first public transport sustainability report
Emirates 24|7
The Roads and Transport Authority, RTA, in Dubai has released the world's first sustainability report for public transport and roads in line with the new Global Reporting Initiative, GRI. The move is part of RTA efforts to broaden the scope of sustainability. Expressing his delight with the achievement, Nasir ...

Renewable Energy Investments:

Statoil No Longer Wants 'Oil' in Its Name
Bloomberg
Since Chief Executive Officer Eldar Saetre took over the company in 2014, the company has increased investments in offshore wind power, and recently entered solar energy. The rebranding costs are estimated at between 230 million kroner ($30 million) and 250 million kroner, a person familiar with the ...

To compete globally, clean energy industry needs a federal partner
The Hill
The current transformation in clean energy technology is nothing short of astounding. The industrial leaders of the 20th century can't count on keeping their perch in the rapidly changing world we find ourselves in. China alone accounted for nearly half of global clean energy investment and now they ...

When Fintech Goes Green
INSEAD Knowledge (blog)
Going one step further, small investors can now even get in on some of the megatrends that have traditionally been the domain of investment bankers. Take investing in green energy in Germany for example. Financing renewable energy in Germany has become an established banking market in which ... 

CDP Sustainability:

N/A

Impact Investing:

Demystifying impact investing for newcomers — and the rest of us (podcast)
ImpactAlpha
The fintech company Liquidnet hosted the panel,“Demystifying Impact Investing,” at its New York offices, in collaboration with the Tristate Area Africa Funders Network. Brian Trelstad of Bridges Fund Management set the stage, explaining impact investing has grown at the crossroads of two distinct ...

Building an Impact Investing Business that Makes a Real Difference
INSEAD Knowledge
How one of the world's largest asset managers is experimenting with a unique impact investing model in Asia. Responsible investing is all the rage. By some estimates, one in every four dollars under professional management today was invested under a socially responsible investment (SRI) strategy.

Resource Conservation Investments:

N/A

Socially Responsible Investing:

'Socially responsible' investors reassess Facebook ownership
Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - With European and U.S. lawmakers calling for investigations into reports that Facebook user data was accessed by UK based consultancy Cambridge Analytica to help President Donald Trump win the 2016 election, investors are asking even more questions about the social ...

Opinion: How financial advisers can give investors a socially conscious portfolio that works
MarketWatch
Another seismic shift in investing has been taking place over the past 25 years, as interest in Socially Responsible Investing and related Environmental, Social and Governance criteria has increased steadily. Investors across demographics, but especially millennials and women, now want their wallets ...

Inspire Corporate Bond Impact Fund Grows to Become Largest Socially Responsible Investing ...
Digital Journal
SAN JOSE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / March 19, 2018 / Inspire Investing continued their ascension in the investing industry with a big day of inflows on Tuesday, propelling their Inspire Corporate Bond Impact ETF (NYSE: IBD) to become the largest Socially Responsible-themed fixed-income ETF by assets ...

Funds for Sustainable Investing:

ImpactAssets Drops Investment Minimums and Fees on Private Debt and Equity Impact Investment ...
Triple Pundit (blog)
In addition to dropping fees and minimums, ImpactAssets added two new private debt funds to it growing roster of investment solutions that open access to impact investments in ecoforestry, climate change solutions, sustainable food and agriculture, underserved small business owners, the growing ...

Ethical investor: Mainstream funds are now going green
Citywire.co.uk
Ethical investing is still seen by many as an approach where investors must sacrifice potential returns to align their investments with their values. But it has evolved in the past three decades, from the adoption of environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards by mainstream fund management to ... 

Sustainability Investing:

How Women Are Influencing Impact Investing
Investopedia (blog)
Women today are taking on the challenges of this millennium with uncommon vigor and creativity by managing family, career and education in ways that are transforming how we live and work. Not surprisingly, as they begin taking a more active role in investing, the feminine footprint is making a notable ...

Philanthropic Investing:

What Does Lilly's New $10M Philanthropic Investment Mean for Rural Engagement?
Nonprofit Quarterly
The Lilly Endowment, one of the world's largest private foundations with assets of more than $10 billion, recently announced a $10 million grant to the new Center for Rural Engagement at Indiana University Bloomington. This investment is both encouraging and thought-provoking, raising important ...

Venn Foundation and collaborators push a new approach to philanthropic investment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Three business veterans with a philanthropic bent have created a new foundation to breathe life into a little-used alternative-investment tool, Program Related Investments, or PRIs. And they are working with other foundation executives to further so-called “impact investing.” On Wednesday, the Venn ...

Latinos can use philanthropy to strengthen collective power
Miami Herald
As the new president of Hispanics in Philanthropy, I am working to usher in a new era of philanthropy for the Latino community — one that is for us, by us and about us. Imagine if we took just a small fraction of the $1.4 trillion buying power of Latinos in the U.S. and invested it back into our communities.

Green Bond Funds:

MP Concerned With Use Of Green Bond Funds
Fiji Sun Online
SODELPA MP Aseri Radrodro says while Government describes the response to the raising of the Green Bonds as phenomenal, the obtaining of the funds is not the issue. “It's use, and the adherence to the framework for the disbursement of the funds, rather, is the Opposition's concerns,” he said.

Green bond query
Fiji Times
Dr Gounder said with this announcement, how could the Fijian public be assured that funds from the green bond would strictly be used towards environmentally or climate benefit outcomes. In his ministerial statement, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the Prime Minister would travel to London to officiate at the ...

An Increasingly Relevant Bond ETF
MarketWatch
Fixed income investors looking to diversify away from traditional corporate debt, municipal bonds and Treasuries have interesting options to consider in the world of exchange traded funds. Those looking to apply an environmental screen to their bond investments could consider green bonds and the ...

Low Carbon Funds:

Department of Energy grant funds University-involved bioenergy research
Daily Illini
Using bioenergy would keep the process of creating and using biofuels carbon neutral. The oil in the plants will also be converted into biojet fuels, which is only slightly more complicated than regular biodiesel, Long said. “As the transportation industry wants to move to low carbon fuels, it is very difficult ...

Paris plays host to global finance leaders at Sustainable Investment Forum Europe
Climate Action Programme
Topics on the day were broad and bold in their scope: how to decarbonise the energy sector; financing the low-carbon transition, building the right regulatory environment for ESG and translating the Sustainable Development Goals into investment opportunities, were all discussed. Niklas Ekvall CEO of ...

IFC, IBRD, MIGA, and government of Canada support a landmark solar energy plant in Gaza
ZAWYA
The IFC-Canada Climate Change Program promotes private sector financing for clean energy projects and received funding under Canada's fast-start financing to catalyze investments in renewable, low-carbon technologies that would not otherwise happen. The Government of Canada is committed to ...