FFI’S Annua Reprot on 200 largest fossil fuel companies focuses on investors, shows carbon emissions remain over 460% of world carbon budget | Fossil Free Indexes (FFI)

Stranded Assets Risks: Should Investors Heed Bob Litterman’s Warning? | The Huffington Post

August 9th, 2016

Bob Litterman knows a thing or two about risk. After all, the Black-Litterman model, which was designed to measure and manage financial risk, is named after him. These days, the risk he’s most concerned about is climate change. Climate risk is a non-diversifiable risk most investors have not fully grasped and policy makers have not priced. It is crucial, Litterman believes, that risk be priced.

Regulation And Demographics: Two Factors Behind The Rise Of Sustainable Investing | Financial Advisor

August 10th, 2016

Two primary drivers of this trend toward more sustainable investing are the changing demographic landscape and increased regulatory focus. Sustainable investing is no longer only a topic of a heated debate – we’re seeing new policy initiatives and regulatory changes underway. 

Sustainable Finance News and Commentary | Bloomberg Brief

• Total SA spent almost $9 billion since 2000 on clean and alternative energy investments, putting it in the lead spot among oil majors, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis of public equity and debt purchases. Facebook Inc.'s director of sustainability says the company aims to power all its data centers with 100 percent clean energy; ESG indexes are on the rise as disclosures increase; SolarCity growth slows; Activist investors run fewer campaigns in 2016 

ESG in Emerging Markets and Beyond: Where Is the Alpha? | CFA Institute

• Somehow ESG has yet to emerge as a fundamental driver of value. If the CFA Institute 2015 member survey on ESG is any guide, downside protection and investor mindset — not alpha — have been the key motivators of interest in ESG. It isn’t a surprise that the world’s biggest active funds have relatively poor ESG rankings. While this could very well change, given the current lack of interest in ESG factors, any shift would likely result from end investor demand rather than a systematic investing approach.

Impact Investing: Not Kidding Around Anymore | Institutional Investor

• Impact investing has largely been driven by wealthy individuals and foundations. It’s time for institutions to step up.

Tony Cortese's presentation at First American's 2016 Peer Discussion after NACUBO | First American Education Finance 

July 18th, 2016

Pressure to Spend More on Poor Students | Inside Higher Ed

August 04th, 2016

A new report suggests wealthy institutions should spend more from their endowments to help low-income students, but many campus critics say it's not so simple.

Harvard Management, Trailing Ivy League Neighbors, Makes Abrupt Changes | Value Walk

August 4th, 2016

The Harvard Management Company, like the markets in which the endowment invests, has experienced cyclical performance behavior. While the 12% returns that their asset managers have generated over the past 20 years is significantly above average, lately there has been trouble.

Sustainable Finance, News, and Commentary | Bloomberg Brief

August 4th, 2016

High demand for water to cool technology data centers has some investors concerned, especially in places where natural water resources are becoming ever more precious, like California, where many leading technology companies are based. ING Bank is allocating green bond proceeds faster than expected; NTPC Ltd. prices India's first green masala bond; New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer on proxy access; Business Roundtable updates its governance principles to reflect more shareholder engagement.

Passive investing has made a rapid rise over the past couple of years. When it comes to sustainable investing, however, index-based funds are still relative newcomers. 

How do you persuade stubborn skeptics that ESG risks are not just about eating vegan and wearing sandals?

Fund managers start to heed investors' ESG calls | E Financial News

The best salespeople know that listening to their customers is a sure-fire way of getting them to buy. This has hit home with fund managers, with half of those surveyed saying they had opted to listen to their clients and take ESG issues into account when building portfolios. 

Asset owners assemble to foster ESG growth | Global Custodian

August 01, 2016

Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund teams up with CalPERS, PGGM and others to promote Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) investing.

90+ Companies and Investors Call On Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Governors To Double Down On Their Efforts To Cut Carbon Emissions | Ceres

August 02, 2016

More than 70 companies and 20 institutional investors are urging Northeast and Mid-Atlantic governors to strengthen their efforts to reduce carbon emissions from the regions’ electric power sector. The call comes as the governors of nine states meet to decide on the extension of the cap-and-trade initiative known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI. An extension decision could be made as early as this summer.

How Funders Are Using the Power of Their Investments to Impact Climate Change | Inside Philanthropy

August 4th, 2016

Typically, foundation grantmaking pales in comparison to what’s needed to hit global climate targets. This is a crucial moment for funders to use the power of their investments—and more are doing just that. Here’s a roundup of what funders have been up to.

Veris Wealth Partners, one of the nation's leading independent wealth advisors for sustainable and impact investors, just announced the availability of a new white paper, Investing In Climate Solutions: Creating Sustainable Economies. The 14-page analysis focuses on initiatives such as renewable energy, green buildings, smart cities, carbon pricing, and ecosystem resiliency. It looks at the growth in both private and public investing strategies, including the more than 250 equity and fixed-income mutual funds, ETFs, and Separately Managed Accounts (SMA) targeted toward environmental sustainability. The report also highlights a variety of climate-related strategies in direct or long-term investments.

For a glimpse of what New York’s just-announced clean energy standard could mean to the state’s economy, look West.New York’s plan to get 50 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030, announced Monday by Gov. Cuomo, matches the renewable standard set by California in 2015. It will make New York a major leader for clean energy (only tiny Vermont and Hawaii have higher standards than New York and California), setting an example for other states.

FlexShares launches ESG global and US equity ETFs | ETF Strategy

July 28th, 2016

The new FlexShares ethical ETFs screen stocks on a narrow range of key ESG metrics including carbon emissions reduction, the role of women in the company, and policies against child labour. The FlexShares STOXX US ESG Impact Index Fund (NASDAQ: ESG) and FlexShares STOXX Global ESG Impact Index Fund (NASDAQ: ESGG) aim to provide enhanced risk-adjusted returns by reducing portfolio exposure to specific stocks with operational risks associated with poor ESG scores.

Treasurer Wants Company Climate Risk Disclosures Required | VT Digger

July 28th, 2016

State Treasurer Beth Pearce has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to support reporting requirements for publicly traded companies to include disclosing risks to the climate.Pearce made the request July 20 in a letter asking the SEC to conduct further study on risks that climate change poses to business and to build on current disclosure practices.