Amid the growing influence of ESG in the investment arena, new research suggests that almost two thirds of institutional investors believe ESG-related strategies will become the norm in the next five years.
The report from Natixis Investment Managers – which uses data from its global surveys of financial professionals, individual investors, institutional investors and professional fund buyers – also finds that 55 percent of respondents plan to increase their all...
ESG Archive
ESG-related considerations are important to retail investors, with individuals tending to place slightly greater store in social issues above governance and environmental matters, according to research by Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America. But a lack of comparable disclosures may be hampering actual investment patterns.
Much of the attention on the growing influence of ESG issues in recent times has focused on companies’ reporting and engagement with...
BlackRock has warned that investors are underpricing the impact of climate-related risks and need to rethink their assessment of asset vulnerabilities.
As part of an ongoing analysis, the asset manager asserts that although the physical manifestations of climate change are clear - including rising sea levels and more intense hurricanes, wildfires and droughts - how investors incorporate these risks into their analysis is not.
The research indicates that many ...
Petrochemical companies are facing pressure to disclose incidents where they have spilled plastic into the ocean, which leads to what is said to be a major source of pollution.
As You Sow, a non-profit organization that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility via engagement, investor pressure and other legal strategies, has filed proposals seeking such reports with four major companies this proxy season.
If approved, the proposals would req...
US companies appear unlikely to face additional ESG-related reporting requirements in the near future, despite calls from major investors for new rules.
William Hinman, director of the SEC’s division of corporation finance, recently expressed caution about mandating specific disclosures in the ESG field, expressing a preference for market forces to determine what companies report. He noted that sustainability disclosure is of interest to investors but pointed to t...
Human capital management is fast becoming an important topic for corporations and investors alike, and governance teams and directors need to be prepared to tackle the challenges and opportunities it entails.
Earlier this year, in his annual letter to chief executives, ...
Earlier this week, the world’s second Fearless Girl statue was installed in London, just feet away from St Paul’s Cathedral. As is the case with her counterpart in New York – originally installed opposite the Financial District’s Charging Bull and now stationed outside the NYSE – she stands tall, hands on hips, looking proudly out to the world.
When New York’s Fearless Girl statue was installed, on International Women’s Day 2017, it marked the beginnin...
New analysis from Ceres and FundVotes indicates robust growth in support for climate-related proposals among the largest institutional investors operating in the US.
During the 2018 proxy season, 46 percent of asset managers voted for more than half of climate-related shareholder proposals tracked by Ceres, up from roughly 33 percent in 2017. The shareholder proposals analyzed asked companies to take action by, for example, setting greenhouse gas reduction targets, ...
Private equity firms are increasingly considering the ESG impact of their investment before pumping money into a company, according to a PwC survey.
The survey finds that investors are tuning into the fact that steering sustainable business practices through responsible investment can drive financial returns. PwC polled 162 finance companies from 35 countries, including 145 private equity firms.
Almost 91 percent of respondents say they have an ESG policy in ...
New research underlines the increasing pressure on companies – and in turn their governance teams – to respond to demands from investors with effective engagement, disclosure and policies on an ever-broader array of topics, including human capital.
Eighty-five percent of investors polled by Morrow Sodali say climate change will be the most-prioritized sustainability topic of their corporate engagements in 2019 – up 31 percentage points from last year and 35 pe...