All Things Sustainable

Pictured is Pamela Sutton-Wallace and her two daughters. In this episode, we bring you an exclusive interview with Pamela Sutton-Wallace, a healthcare executive at a New York City hospital that is one of the largest in the U.S. She took on the role just weeks before the pandemic turned the city into a coronavirus hotspot.   Sutton-Wallace shares her decades of personal and professional experience...

In this special episode of the ESG Insider podcast, we explore how corporate America is responding to COVID-19 with new policies for employees caring for children and elderly relatives. S&P Global partnered with AARP to research how leave policies are evolving in the U.S. private sector as part of S&P Global's #ChangePays initiative, which produces research about the benefits of increasing women p...

Duke Energy Corp. President, CEO and board Chair Lynn Good sat down for an exclusive interview just hours after the electric utility company held its first ESG investor day on Oct. 9. Lynn talked to ESG Insider, an S&P Global podcast about environmental, social and governance issues, about Duke's evolving climate strategy. She also explained how the company is handling social issues ranging from r...

Illinois and California have passed new corporate racial diversity laws to prod publicly traded companies to embrace racial diversity on their boards. In this episode of ESG Insider, an S&P Global podcast about environmental, social and governance issues, two of the lawmakers behind the bills explain why the move was needed and could have ramifications beyond their state borders. "Companies are re...

The coronavirus has slammed the retail sector and caused many companies to go out of business. But the pandemic has been a catalyst for growth at Walmart Inc., one of the world's largest retailers. The company's e-commerce sales jumped 97% in the second quarter as consumers hibernated at home and relied increasingly on online shopping. That growth also means an expanding carbon footprint. In this...

Companies that lobby against climate-friendly laws and policies are putting the overall goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change at risk and have a "weak recognition of the challenges ahead," Jan Erik Saugestad, CEO of Norway's largest private investment firm Storebrand Asset Management AS, said in an exclusive interview. In the latest episode of ESG Insider, an S&P Global podcast about envi...

The U.S. Department of Labor received thousands of comments on a newly proposed rule that says sustainable investments still need to put financial performance first to have a place in corporate retirement plans. Some say the proposal would put needed guardrails in place around an increasingly popular investment product, but others argue that the rule will hamper ESG options in pension funds. We ta...

ESG Insider interviewed sustainability leaders at some of Europe's largest financial institutions: BBVA in Spain, BNP Paribas in France and Barclays in the U.K. This is the third in a three-part miniseries that features interviews with some of the biggest lenders around the world about how they're adapting their ESG strategies amid COVID-19. In Europe, climate change remains in sharp focus for ban...

"This isn't just a pie-in-the-sky commitment or announcement. This is something that we spent a lot of time researching and analyzing and studying," DTE Gas Co. President and COO Matt Paul said of the company's plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.   Paul made the comment in an exclusive interview with ESG Insider, an S&P Global podcast about environmental, social and governance issues.   DT...

"Sustainability was always around people, planet and profit. I just think for the longest time we've forgotten about the people," said Mikkel Larsen, chief sustainability officer at Singapore-based  DBS Group Holdings Ltd. , in an interview for the latest episode of "ESG Insider," an S&P Global podcast. In the coronavirus pandemic, Larsen said, "We've been reminded that you can't have one without...

Climate change took "a bit of a backseat" during the first several weeks of the coronavirus pandemic as "governments and businesses frankly were really just focused on survival,"  JPMorgan Chase  Head of Sustainability Marisa Buchanan said in an exclusive interview in the latest episode of "ESG Insider," an S&P Global podcast. "As economies begin to rebuild [and] businesses have greater ability to...

More than 370 credit rating actions taken by S&P Global Ratings since March have been driven by environmental, social and governance factors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, S&P Global Ratings' Americas Team Leader for Sustainable Finance Michael Ferguson said in an exclusive interview for the latest episode of "ESG Insider," an S&P Global podcast. Companies in nearly every sector have been h...

Investors are moving to hold companies such as  Amazon more accountable on workforce management during the COVID-19 crisis, Fiona Reynolds, the CEO of PRI, or the Principles for Responsible Investment, said in an exclusive interview for the latest episode of ESG Insider , an S&P Global podcast. To prevent the spread of the coronavirus, many governments have ordered social distancing and for people...

Wall Street's top regulator is moving to fundamentally reshape the proxy process, one of the key avenues shareholders use to engage with companies on environmental, social and governance issues. In the latest episode of ESG Insider, a podcast hosted by S&P Global, we talk to stakeholders about what the proxy rule changes the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is weighing could mean for compan...

"Baby steps are equivalent to nothing in this day and age." This is what Mindy Lubber told ESG Insider, an S&P Global podcast about the environmental, social and governance issues shaping company strategies and investor decisions. Lubber is CEO of sustainability nonprofit Ceres, and she was talking about how slowly many companies are reacting to climate change and disclosing their environmental ri...

In this episode of ESG Insider, S&P Global Market Intelligence reporter Gautam Naik takes listeners inside the campaign to end forced labor in Uzbekistan's cotton fields. He visited Uzbek cotton fields during the 2019 harvest, sat down with human rights activists and interviewed government ministers trying to change the system. A decade ago, Uzbekistan forced more than one million doctors, teacher...

Private equity investors are paying increasing attention to environmental, social and governance factors and in response many firms are implementing strategies to ensure portfolio companies are screened against ESG factors. This focus is likely to intensify and could even become a requirement for a fund over time, representatives from some of the world's most prominent private equity firms say in...

Social audits are used by consumer goods companies to identify potential human rights abuses, labor violations, and other ESG risks in their supply chains. But critics argue that social audits fall short of their stated objectives. In this episode of ESG Insider, we explore the social audit process and talk to experts about flaws in the system. (Photo: AP)

Child labor has been a longstanding scourge in the $100-billion cocoa industry for more than two decades. Despite efforts by U.S. Congressmen, African governments, the world's biggest chocolate companies and various non-profit groups, it has been a tough nut to crack. In this episode, we look at program that actually seems to be having an effect. It uses a network of smartphones to identify child...

A proposed new European Union green classification system would help investors and companies identify and make environmentally friendly decisions and may evolve over time to include rules for social and governance-related investments, experts explain on the latest episode of ESG Insider, an S&P Global podcast. The taxonomy, which the European Commission released for comment in June, "sits at the h...

The environmental, social and governance movement could weaken the performance of companies that have already done a lot of good for society, Commissioner Hester Peirce of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in an exclusive interview for the latest episode of ESG Insider, an S&P Global podcast. Peirce said she worries some managers use companies as their "personal piggy bank" in the n...

"The environment in which the debate is happening, it's not like it was 10 years ago. We're in the midst of a 'Me Too' movement, we're in the midst of a very, very public discussion about equal pay." This is what Rep. Rosa DeLauro told S&P Global Market Intelligence about why she recently reintroduced the Paycheck Fairness Act and why she thinks it has momentum as it heads to the Senate. It has ha...

The interviews: U.S. EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler, Citigroup Global Head of HR Sara Wechter, Arjuna Capital Managing Partner Natasha Lamb, Center for Political Accountability President Bruce Freed, ACCF VP of Policy Tim Doyle, As You Sow President Danielle Fugere.   The backstory: Shareholders filed proposals on nearly 400 environmental, social and sustainability issues at U.S. companies through mid-F...

The interviews: Rakhi Kumar, State Street Global Advisors' head of ESG investments; Libby Bernick, Trucost managing director; Mindy Lubber, CEO and president of Ceres. The backstory: Progress on corporate disclosures. A looming talent shortage. Climate change mitigation. These are among the top trends that sustainability experts predict will shape the ESG landscape in 2019. In the inaugural episod...