Sustainability Now

COVID‐19 vaccines have been administrated to select groups in certain countries. But we need to vaccinate a large part of the world in order to emerge from the shadow of the pandemic. In this episode we discuss how low‐income countries are being left behind in the rush to vaccinate. And then, we discuss the lackluster auction by the Trump administration for oil and gas leases in the Arctic refuge.

As 2020 comes to a skidding halt, we throw a glittery holiday lens over innovative and hopeful developments in energy and food. While 2021 may see restaurant giants trying to scoop up market share, a shifting social fabric will make things trickier. And yes, Santa's emissions make for sober reading, but offer a sliver of hope too.

Special guest, Tim McCourt from CME Group joins us this week to discuss their launch of the first ever water futures based on the Nasdaq Veles California Water Index. We discuss how the water future might affect water efficiency and water scarcity. And then we discuss the new proposal by the Nasdaq stock exchange to adopt new listing rules related to board diversity and disclosure.

We talk about an interactive chart in this episode, the link to it is here: https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/2021-esg-trends-to-watch/climate-reality-bites-paris. But the episode is not about an interactive chart. It is about how two similar oil and gas companies are facing two different revolts ‐ one internal and one external ‐ caused by the same problems: climate change and carbo...

Pfizer‐BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford‐Astra Zeneca are all looking to roll out COVID‐19 vaccines after successful phase 3 trials. Amid the hope of locked down populations, we look at the ESG risks of what’s coming next. Meanwhile, although the pandemic has created an e-commerce boom for South Korea’s logistics companies, delivery workers are bearing the burden of competition. And finally, we walk th...

We downgraded Facebook from a BBB to a B; but why? Well, it has to do with a little something called governance, and the fact that we revamped how we assess governance in our ESG ratings model. Today, we discuss the Facebook downgrade and the changes to how we assess corporate governance in our ESG ratings model.

President‐elect Joe Biden has indicated that, early in his administration, he will sign executive orders focused on combating climate change: He will rejoin the Paris Agreement, reverse the 2017 executive order by the Trump administration that called on federal agencies to dismantle their climate policies, instruct agencies to develop new methane limits for oil and gas wells, reinstate and strengt...

WAs we all stress over the US election, it is a good time to reflect on what makes an ideal leader and what makes a tyrannical one. In this episode, special guest Matt Moscardi joins us to explore how board interconnectivity (also called interlocking) has a major influence on whether a board practices proper corporate governance.

We held a (virtual) roundtable in September with companies to discuss racial diversity in the workplace. In this episode, we examine the details of the meeting. And then we discuss the antitrust suit against Google brought by the Department of Justice.

Join us for our Halloween special as we hunt down zombie directors, test a shareholder's arsenal of zombie deterrents and map out some handy escape routes in the event of a corporate zombie apocalypse.

As millions of Americans continue to be unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the insurance industry is scrambling to figure out how to deal with the loss of its customer base. We discuss what is unique about the American health care system and how insurance is changing due to COVID‐19. And then we discuss the largest social bond ever issued by the EU which will provide loans to members stat...

Due to the COVID‐19 pandemic, there has been more single-used plastic purchased in 2020 than ever before. We discuss what this and other increases in waste are doing to our ecology and economy. And then we discuss a Financial Times article that claims that asset managers are ready to push companies to disclose more racial diversity data during next year's proxy season.

On September 24, it was revealed that the biggest provider of shareholder services in Japan had miscounted investor votes at the annual meetings of nearly 1,000 listed companies. We discuss what this means for Japanese investors and why it is not just a problem for Japan. And then we talk about why the SEC recommended civil action be taken against General Electric for allegedly violating securitie...

A new organization was created in July to address the financial industry's role in biodiversity destruction. Called the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, it hopes to do what its predecessor the TCFD did for carbon disclosures. But will it be successful? And then we discussed Ant Group's IPO, the likely largest ever IPO to hit the market.

For climate week, we looked at the climate plans of four tech companies: Facebook, Alphabet, Apple, and Microsoft. And only one of them is committed to actually removing carbon from the atmosphere (which is crucial for combating climate change). And then we discussed the recent investigation that alleges five global banks have knowingly laundered USD 2 trillion for drug cartels, corrupt regimes, a...

As climate week kicks off in New York, we break down the basics of climate scenario analysis using the example of MSCI’s Climate Value at Risk model. Translating future climate impacts into direct financial consequences has been a key development in outlining the shape of climate risks for companies and their stakeholders.

There have been a record amount of natural disasters in 2020 and there are certain companies that position themselves as the solution for recovery after a disaster. We discuss how those companies look and how they get the contracts to help out a community. And then we discuss why Apple decided not to respond to a UK inquiry on its electronic waste.

A polarized election and social unrest have raised the stakes on content integrity for Facebook, Google and friends. Meanwhile the pandemic’s long‐term consequences may be a boon for gender diversity in Japan’s workforces, but a blow to cruise liners that are going nowhere slowly.

September brings a change in season as companies navigate shifting ESG risks. Bonus cuts may not be enough for Rio Tinto to win back community trust, Microsoft could be biting off more user data than it can chew and more sophisticated risk maps highlight gaps in asset location data.

We laid our cards on the table and predicted five trends that would reshape ESG investing in January 2020. But then fate played its COVID‐19 wildcard. In this episode, we take a look at how much things have changed, how much they haven't and how human capital risks may emerge in a post‐pandemic world.

First, we discuss the ruling by a California judge that Uber and Lyft must now designate its drivers as employees, striking a blow to both Uber and Lyft's business models and the gig‐economy. And then we discuss why McDonald's is trying to get 40 million USD back from its former CEO.

As the world cautiously moves back indoors, travels on planes and subways, many have been promoting the use of HVAC systems that can dilute the viral particles, like those of COVID‐19, as their answer to safety concerns. But what does this mean for the building product companies that build and sell these ventilators? And then we discuss the growth of social ESG bonds as a way to restart our econom...

A country's ESG risk is made up of many factors: Protests and civil unrest, public health crises, labor strikes, natural disasters, and environmental policy and litigation against the government. In this episode we talk about three of them ‐ environmental policy and litigations, the public health crises caused by the pandemic, and natural disasters. And then we discuss why Nike is unique in i...

When the pandemic was in full force, 12 airlines were bailed out by their respective governments. But there were stipulations to accepting these bailouts, and most of those stipulations were of the ESG category. And then we discussed the weird ways directors of companies are on the hook when the company gets sanctioned by a government administration.

Does rewarding CEOs for things like more diversity, better climate policy, and better health and safety actually work? Or are investors just giving rich people more money for not really doing much? And then we discuss how important immigration is for semiconductor (aka everything digital) development.