ESG Archive

Two bright threads are now firmly woven into the fabric of modern finance – passive, index-based investing. And, a focus on sustainability. Every day each thread grows more tightly bound to the other. For example, consider that of the 15 sustainable funds attracting the most investment in this year’s second quarter, eight were index funds.  Chad...

In mid-June, the University of Oxford and the Rothschild Foundation sponsored the 8th Sustainable Finance Forum, an invitation-only, limited attendance, event. The forum aimed to identify ESG-related initiatives, be a networking and idea-sharing platform, showcase new initiatives and technologies to advance environmentalism, and discuss real issues surrounding issuer engagement. The Chatham House rule applied so key takeaways are highlighted without attribution....

The number of companies appointing a woman to their board in the US has more than doubled to 85 since July 2018, thanks to a campaign by the Thirty Percent Coalition’s institutional investor members that engaged 250 companies in the past year. The coalition – whose campaign was called Adopt a Company and which represents more than a whopping $5 tn in assets under management – and the 85 companies appointing a woman to their board for the first time have clocke...

Many approaches are taken to measure diversity and equality but the benefits of being on an index – in this case, the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) – were explored at the recent Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit in London. The index uses a number of detailed metrics related to a company’s approach to gender equality, such as whether there are women on the board or in the CEO role, as well as wider company gender statistics, benefits, gender-conscio...