In the News

This week's post features new items from ACHR NEWS, The Maritime Executive, The Hill, JD Supra, PRNewswire, Lexology, FreightWaves, Triangle Business Journal, pv magazine USA, waste360, Yahoo Finance, www.businessgreen.com, The New York Times, The Revelator, Forbes, Investment Week, Mondaq News Alerts, Energy Storage News, Business Wire, TechCrunch, Florida Politics, cityandstatepa.com, FOX 10 News Phoenix, Daily Energy Insider, Microgrid Knowledge, FEMA, The Wall Street Journal and many many more...We scour the web so you don't have to!

                                                                                                                                                                                    

Coronavirus and Sustainability:

COFCO emphasizes sustainability in wake of COVID-19
World Grain
... said it remains committed to sustainable business and agriculture practices despite the challenges presented in 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on People's Needs, Expectations in the Office
SB News
Since the onset of COVID, Steelcase has conducted ongoing research to ... Mary Ellen Mika, Director of Sustainability for Steelcase, recently shared ...

EXCLUSIVE Groups urge G20 to adopt Brady-style debt-for-climate swaps
Reuters
While major economies are using COVID-19 stimulus funds for kickstarting a green pivot, it has proven challenging to marry the urgent need for debt ...

Sector Based Decarbonization:

Decarbonization Plans to Work in Both Residential and Commercial HVAC Sectors
ACHR NEWS
The decarbonization wave is underway, momentous, and messy. ... Add conflicting priorities within the decarbonization effort — electrification is the most ... resulting from the disconnect of supply and demand based on renewables' ...

North American Shipping Industry Forms Decarbonization Coalition
The Maritime Executive
Recognizing that it will be critical for all segments of the maritime industry to work together to achieve the goals of reducing GHG emissions, a broad ...
 

Global nuclear sector has much to offer a decarbonizing power sector
The Hill
This attribute, in turn, limits the ability of a 100 percent renewable-based system to reliably supply the amounts of electricity that our electrifying ...

Global Reporting Initiative:

ESG Organizations: The Journey Toward Consolidation and Collaboration Continues
JD Supra
SASB and GRI. Another effort to promote clarity in the sustainability disclosure landscape is the SASB and GRI collaborative work plan announced last ...

Momentive Performance Materials Announces Environmental, Social & Corporate Governance ...
PRNewswire
In 2020, the company elevated its focus on sustainability, implementing global reporting initiative (GRI) principles in its 2019 Sustainability Report.

ESG Organizations: The Journey Toward Consolidation and Collaboration Continues
Lexology
Many companies use both SASB and GRI standards to meet the needs of their audiences, which provide complementary standards for sustainability ...

Renewable Energy Investments:

Amazon ramps up renewable energy investments
FreightWaves
Amazon is investing in 14 additional renewable energy projects in North America and Europe. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves) ...

RTI: Solar dominates as Triangle, NC see renewable energy investment soar
Triangle Business Journal
Sustainable Energy Association, found investment in clean energy development in North Carolina increased from $56.5 million to $19.8 billion between ...

Sunrise brief: Amazon adds renewable energy projects, pushing its total capacity to 10 GW
pv magazine USA
The projects bring Amazon's total renewable energy investments to date to 10 GW of capacity, making it one of the largest corporate buyers of ...

CDP Sustainability:

Dow Joins CDP Supply Chain Program to Expand Supplier Engagement on Climate
waste360
This is part of Dow's expanded Sustainable Procurement multigenerational plan. The CDP program supports Dow's “protect the climate” targets, ...

Investors & Climate Change - Leading Institutions and Their Growing Networks Are Urging ...
Yahoo Finance
G&A's Sustainability Highlights (6.24.2021) ... companies with “high environmental impact” to use CDP's system to disclose their environmental data.

CDP: Record number of investors with $17tr in assets call on corporates to disclose environmental ...
www.businessgreen.com
Netflix and the Alibaba Group are among companies urged to disclose their environmental data by fast-growing coalition of investors. CDP has ...

California's Leadership in Climate Change:

Once Again, the Earth Is Being Wrung Dry
The New York Times
Droughts in the West are nothing new, and on a warming planet they are ... There is little national leadership. ... Between 2012 and 2016, California experienced the most severe drought in ... But some experts worry that the law does far too little to address water shortages exacerbated by climate change.

The Effects of Climate Change
The New York Times
Climate change has plunged the Western U.S. into its worst drought in two ... Cities have been adapting in other ways: Tucson, Ariz., is a national leader in ... The court ruled against a California regulation that let union organizers ...

California's Opportunity to Shape Worldwide Biodiversity Policy
The Revelator
That's why we — as a member of California's State Assembly, the political and ... to the treaty and has been mostly disengaged — a massive leadership gap. ... Protecting nature is fundamental to mitigating climate change, growing ...

Impact Investing:

12 UK Universities, From Cambridge To Coventry, Launch An Impact Investing Fund
Forbes
Now, a new consortium of 12 leading universities is trying to change that through a just-announced impact investment fund. Called Impact 12, the ...

Time to blur the boundaries of ESG and impact investing
Investment Week
Responsible investing no longer niche. Fiona Frick. clock 28 June 2021 • 4 min read. Share.

Australia: Impact investing: key considerations for new investors
Mondaq News Alerts
In contrast, impact investments aim to address specific environmental or social problems, with impact investors often having regard to the 17 ...

Energy Storage

Time for California to 'follow the science' on pumped hydro energy storage
Energy Storage News
It would utilise infrastructure left behind at an abandoned mining site and offer more than 18GWh of emissions-free energy storage. It's a win-win project ...

Maine becomes 9th US state to adopt energy storage deployment target
Energy Storage News
A 5MW / 10MWh battery storage facility in Rumford, Maine. Image: Agilitas. Janet Mills, Governor of Maine, has signed legislation that makes hers the ...

Honeywell launches BESS Platform technology and energy-storage-as-a-service partnership
Energy Storage News
Global technology company Honeywell has launched its own battery energy storage system (BESS) Platform, which includes integrated controls, ...

Science Based Carbon Performance Targets:

WestRock Commits to Emissions Reductions; Pledges to Set a Science-Based Target
Business Wire
Science-based targets are greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets that are in line with the level of decarbonization required to meet the goals of the ...

Brooks Running Announces a Science-Backed Plan to Achieve Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2040
Business Wire
In addition to meeting strict criteria for selecting carbon offsets projects, each of the projects provides additional environmental and social benefits – ...
    
After raising $10M, Ryte launches 'Carbon KPI' to measure the CO2 footprint of web sites
TechCrunch
It has now launched the 'Ryte Website Carbon KPI', which claims to be able to help ... Ryte says it worked with data scientists and environmental experts to ... carbon emissions and thus lay a basis for a comprehensive climate action ...

Climate Change Winners and Losers:

Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics — Week of 6.20.21
Florida Politics
The biggest loser: Climate change deniers. Despite mountains of scientific evidence that humans contribute to climate change, well, you can't convince ...
    
This week's biggest Winners & Losers
cityandstatepa.com
Glenn Thompson has made headlines for his focus on … wait for it … climate change. The Republican congressman has introduced a series of bills ...

House Republicans form group to address climate change
FOX 10 News Phoenix
"We didn't do it with mandates, we didn't do it with picking technological winners or losers. We did it because of America's innovators, because of the ...

Microgrids:

Hawaii microgrid tariff second in nation, sets stage for hybrid microgrids
Daily Energy Insider
With the approval of a new microgrid tariff by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission last month, the island state has been only the second in the ...

As Extreme Heat Overwhelms the Northwest, Congressional Briefing Looks to Microgrids
Microgrid Knowledge
With a heat dome bringing record setting high temperatures to the Pacific Northwest, US Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., said microgrids are one of the ...

Hazard Mitigation Assistance Grant Funding for Microgrid Projects
FEMA
Definition of a microgrid ... A microgrid is a group of interconnected energy-consuming devices and equipment (e.g., homes, businesses, or industrial ...

Socially Responsible Investing:

The New Math of Socially Responsible Investing
The Wall Street Journal
Once a niche investment sector, strategies that screen companies and other assets based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria are ...

The difference between ESG, SRI, and Impact Investing.
Women of Influence
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investing ... As the name suggests, ESG investing uses a framework that takes into account three factors ...

Engine No. 1 Looking Beyond ExxonMobil with EFT Launch
Natural Gas Intelligence
The socially responsible investment (SRI) strategy would be carried out through shareholder votes, campaigns to promote sustainable investments ...

Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage:

Sen. Cramer, Colleagues Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Improve Carbon Capture Tax Credit by ...
Kevin Cramer
The CATCH Act would build on the Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage Tax Credit Amendments Act, a bipartisan bill Senator Cramer helped ...

UW professor awarded $750000 for carbon capture study
Casper Star-Tribune Online
... of Texas at Austin received a $750,000 grant last week to fund a study on the implementation of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS).

Coal-fired plant carbon capture projects face headwinds
S&P Global
Carbon capture at aging U.S. coal plants has always been a long shot ... The $1.4 billion carbon sequestration and storage facility planned for the ... said April 30 during an event hosted by the Carbon Utilization Research Council.

Sustainability Investing: 

Environmental Investing Frenzy Stretches Meaning of 'Green'
The Wall Street Journal
Environmental Investing Frenzy Stretches Meaning of 'Green'. Seabed miner positions itself as an ecological crusader with a planned $2.9 billion ...

Sustainable investing: No longer an option but an expectation?
BenefitsPro
More than half of survey respondents who currently are not doing so expressed interest in allocating funds to sustainable investments. Those who ...

BMW i Ventures announces new $300 million fund to invest in sustainable technology
TechCrunch
Fund II will further emphasize sustainability and zero emissions in all the sectors that lead up to designing, manufacturing and building a car, rather than ...

Geoengineering:

Fear of Geoengineering Is Really Anxiety About Cutting Carbon
Bloomberg
Research into unproven technofixes isn't a replacement for eliminating emissions, even if the debate over geoengineering is stuck on that concern. By.

The Brave New World of Geoengineering
University of Nebraska Omaha
The Brave New World of Geoengineering ... Elizabeth Chalecki, Ph.D. ... The threat of climate change has challenged the world to find new and innovative ...

Controversial geoengineering scheme will dump iron filings in the sea
New Scientist
... to drop iron filings in oceans to tackle climate change and restore marine life, in a major geoengineering project that is likely to prove controversial.

Green Bond Funds:

The ESG Fixed-Income Universe Is Growing Rapidly — But Green Bonds Are Still Being Overlooked
Institutional Investor
Green bond funds account for only 0.2 percent of assets in fixed-income funds worldwide, according to Morningstar. By Jessica Hamlin. June 30, 2021.

Muni bonds gain traction for climate and social change
CNBC
Experts at the CNBC Financial Advisor Summit covered what to know about these muni bond trends. Hero Images | Getty Images.

Low Carbon Funds:

BNP Paribas AM targets low-carbon leaders with new ETF
citywireselector.com
BNP Paribas AM launched its first low-carbon-focused fund in 2008 and now has €860m in assets under management across such strategies.

BNP Paribas Asset Management Launches Low Carbon ETF With Global Exposure
Exchange News Direct
... BNP Paribas Easy Low Carbon 300 World PAB UCITS ETF, a thematic listed index fund offering savers an investment solution to reduce the carbon ...

M&G revamps two equity funds as Article 9 strategies with Paris targets
citywireselector.com
The portfolios will include either low-carbon firms, with a weighted average carbon intensity lower than 50% of the benchmark, or companies that are ...