Sustainability Now

As a vicious heatwave hovers over the US and Canada, we get into the dirty details of oil pipelines and the intersection between climate change and community and biodiversity impacts. And in a world of growing inequality, we take a look at Ally Bank’s decision to permanently scrap overdraft fees

The APAC region is one of the richest in terms of ESG opportunities, such as renewables and electric vehicles, yet also one of the highest risk areas, with pollution and supply chain risk in abundance. The good news? Some of the highest risk markets in APAC have seen some of the biggest improvement in ESG scores in the past three years. We talk about what this means. And then we discuss what would...

After nearly a decade, the SEC has begun to update the reporting requirements for companies on climate change. But before they can do that, they need to hear what the public has to say. In March 2021 the SEC sent out a 15‐question consultation that asked investors, data providers, companies, academia, and others what the most appropriate climate change disclosures would be. Comments were due this...

Biodiversity has finally become mainstreamed, and the world is better understanding what its destruction means for our ongoing concern as a species. Many industries play a significant role in global biodiversity loss, and the mining industry is one of the big ones. We look at how mining is impacting biodiversity and where mining is impacting biodiversity. Then we provide you with another proxy sea...

After the murder of George Floyd, protest and unrest rocked the world as people gathered to express outrage at systemic inequality. In the corporate world, many companies made big promises in the name of advancing racial equality in the workplace. A year later, we revisit those promises and see if there have been any advances in the disclosure of workplace racial and ethnic diversity. And discuss...

There has been a paradigm shift in the oil industry. An activist investor campaigns against Exxon's preparedness for climate change and wins two board seats because of it; A Dutch court orders Royal Dutch Shell to cut its emissions; and shareholders for Chevron and ConocoPhillips vote to have to the companies report on their scope 3 emissions. We discuss what this all means for the future of...

A military coup in Myanmar has left Telenor with a complex stakeholder balancing act. Meanwhile Eskom looks for its deus ex machina in the form of five floating powerstations.

More regulations have been enacted to try and stop the use of modern slavery and coerced labor in the global supply chains. We discuss what companies are affected by these regulations and what they say about companies' responsibility to prevent its use in their supply chains. And then we discuss how mining needed for renewable energy is encroaching on Native American Nations.

This week’s episode is a special five-person roundtable on this year’s proxy season! It’s a long one but full of good knowledge about the current proxy season highlights and emerging trends. We go through how companies are reacting to the current environmental and social issues, and how investors are trying to keep them accountable.

As a vicious second wave hits India, we talk to Ravi Sankar about the conditions on the ground in Mumbai and Pune and the resilience of our colleagues based there. Then we rifle through the contents of the US' recent climate pledge and confront the devil lurking in the details of carbon budgets

Joined by the CECP's Brian Tomlinson and our own Sam Sue Ping, we look at how companies are taking a firmer step onto the ESG stage. Executives and directors are starting to talk a serious game. But can they do it where it matters ‐ in the haloed earnings call? For more, check out Brian’s paper here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3607921

Earth Day was this Thursday and in its spirit, companies and countries have announced net‐zero plans as a climate summit began in the US. We explore a new tool we are using to track the progress the global economy is making toward a low‐carbon future. An important player in lowering our collective carbon emissions is China. And we explore what China is trying to do to limit its carbon footprint.

Amazon workers have voted down a union drive at the company's Alabama warehouse. The victory was decisive, and it the loss signals a change in the corporate labor market. We discuss what that paradigm shift is, as well as some good old discussion about Amazon as an economic force. Then we discuss the move by the French government to try and ban short‐haul flights in order to cut the country&a...

The COVID‐19 pandemic has overshadowed the opioid epidemic in the US, but the opioid crisis in the has grown during the pandemic creating more problems for communities and companies that have been blamed for the crisis. During the 2021 proxy season, companies are disclosing more opioid related liabilities to shareholders causing dissent in some cases. We discuss both the opioid epidemic and these...

A ship blocked the entire Suez Canal! To honor that, we discuss the ESG of marine shipping, the industry that handles 90% of the world's shipping. And then we discuss how billion‐dollar leverage bets by a family investment office called Archegos exposed a major systemic risk in the banking industry.

Industries like steel and cement are some of the most important sectors and largest emitters of carbon dioxide. This is due both to the molecular makeup of their products and a possible lack of effort in finding viable low-carbon solutions. In this episode we discuss if hydrogen, the molecule that helps power the sun, can help lower our Industrial emissions.

Most of the largest online education companies are based in China. As the industry gets larger, so too does pushes for regulation and concern that companies are spending more on advertising than they are on educating their students. We discuss what this might mean for the industry’s future. And then we discuss the push by Yum! Brands to eliminate antibiotics from its massive meat supply chain.

New research about sustained board gender diversity suggests that companies with more people that identify as women demonstrated a stronger track record on reducing carbon emission than their sector peers. We discuss this finding and what it means for the future of board gender diversity. Then we hear from five primary care givers about how they have fared during the pandemic.

How a company sets CEO pay is an important function of its board of directors. When its effective, pay can align a CEOs interests with the strategic goals of the companies it runs. When its ineffective, CEOs can take home millions while their company flounders and fails. In this episode, we discussed new research on how effective CEO pay has been between the years of 2006 to 2020. And then we disc...

As Schneider Electric and LafargeHolcim issue their first sustainability‐linked bonds, we ask how to tell apart a marketing exercise from a genuine effort to improve. And for Amazon, the transition of founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos into the role of executive chair may have kicked up more questions than answers.

As Texas continues to suffer from power outages caused by a rare cold front, we discuss how energy grid resiliency plays an important role in preparing for the effects of climate change. And then we discuss the feasibility of the announcement by auto manufacturer GM that it will only sell electric vehicles by 2035.

Exxon has pledged to step up its carbon capture efforts, but climate‐focused investors may be keeping their champagne on ice. And although the COVID‐19 pandemic may have spurred a government veto, we take a look at why this is not necessarily a new phenomenon in the murky intersection between shareholder rights and national interests.

Japan announced that they would be recommissioning their nuclear power plants in order to meet their 2050 net zero goals. We discuss what the ESG implications of this decision are and how nuclear is viewed in the sustainable investment world. Then we discuss why Facebook is so pissed at Apple.

The CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, has issued another public letter to companies and CEOs about climate change. Last year it was about getting companies to disclose climate‐related risks in line with the TCFD's recommendations. And this year, Fink is pushing companies to set net zero emissions targets by 2050 at the latest. We discuss how both the TCFD recommendations have fared and what we th...

Britain's split from the European Union has just taken full effect and there is already trouble in the airline industry. In this episode, we discuss how airlines are dealing with foreign ownership rules in a post‐Brexit era and how one airline (Ryanair) decided it had to disenfranchise its shareholders in order to comply with the rules. Then we discussed the ruling by the Office of The Comptr...