Sustainability Archives

Survey of American institutional investors finds low take up of ESG criteria in investment decisions

There is a low rate of adoption of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in investment decisions among North American institutional investors according to a survey conducted by OFI Global Asset Management and Pensions & Investments.

The survey found that …

SEC says Exxon and Chevron must accept climate change shareholder proposals at annual meetings

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ruled that oil giants, ExxonMobil and Chevron, need to include shareholder proposals at their AGMs requesting information on the impact on their businesses of the policies on reducing carbon emissions and responding …

UK’s Investment Association explains how investors can boost productivity

The Investment Association (IA) has published an industry-wide Productivity Action Plan which it believes will boost the UK economy through long-term investment, helping to reverse the UK’s productivity problem. The action plan aims to encourage the provision of more long-term

Fund management mandates should include ESG criteria

The United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) initiative has launched a report, How Asset Owners Can Drive Responsible Investment: Beliefs, Strategy and Mandates, calling on asset owners to do more to reflect ESG risks and opportunities in their …

The global Corporate Human Rights Benchmark is launched

The first-ever ranking of the world’s largest publicly listed companies on their human rights performance, the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) has been launched beginning with a pilot benchmark process. The final scores will be available in November this year.…

Hong Kong to introduce its Principles of Responsible Ownership

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has introduced voluntary principles to provide guidance on how investors should fulfil their ownership responsibilities when investing in Hong Kong listed companies.

The SFC has published revised principles and responded to a consultation …

ShareAction judges autoenrolment sustainability credentials

As automatic-enrolment workplace pensions are rolled out to more employees UK pressure group, ShareAction, which campaigns to achieve ‘an investment system that truly serves savers and communities, and protects our environment for the long term’, has produced its first …

UK boards start to take values and ethics more seriously

Audit committees are increasingly overloaded and UK companies are looking at other way to monitor corporate responsibility (CR) and sustainability issues, according to a report published by the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE).

An IBE survey of the FTSE 350 …

UN bodies work to integrate sustainability into investors’ fiduciary duties

The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and The Generation Foundation, the advocacy initiative of Generation Investment Management, have launched a three year project which aims to persuade investors to take full …

UK consults on EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive

The UK government is consulting on how to incorporate the EU’s Non-Financial Reporting Directive into UK law and into the UK’s current company reporting framework. This amends an earlier directive and requires companies, with more than 500 employees, to disclose …