In monitoring the growing abundance of news stories and commentary about “supply chain,” “globalization” or “trade” topics and issues, our editors often see the focus is on apparel, clothing, textiles, fashion, etc. Companies in the developed economies widely source apparel footwear and related items in the developing and under-developed nations – and what happens there can quickly make news that travels around the globe.
March 7, 2018 /3BL Media/ - As the opening of RobecoSAM's Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) draws nearer we wanted to remind you about our upcoming workshop on April 6th at Baruch College/CUNY in New York City. The workshop will be a very intimate discussion with 30 or fewer people with an opportunity to engage with representatives from RobecoSAM, G&A Institute, and your peers.
We are just past one month into the year 2018 and there have already been significant advances that directly affect the lives of professionals and organizations in the fields of corporate sustainability and sustainable investing – the two vital halves of the capital markets – and in related fields.
Does Wall Street finally care about sustainability? A noted sustainability author (Andrew Winston) muses about this in the pages of the influential journal for the C-suite – the Harvard Business Review. Yes, we think – more and more asset owners and managers are getting aboard the train...but there is work to do. And what about corporate boards and CEOs...”
Volume & Velocity Those may well be the key characteristics of developments in corporate sustainability and in sustainable investing in the year 2018.
Linda-Eling Lee, Global Head of Research for MSCI’s ESG Research Group and her colleague Matt Moscardi (Head of Research Financial Sector, ESG) this week described what they are projecting in the traditional early-in-the-year setting out of key ESG trends to watch by the influential MSCI ESG team:
Huffington Post writer Lauren DeMates has her “Top 10” list up for the 2017 forces that shaped (in her opinion) sustainability. Guiding her choice: “…many of 2017’s activities were prompted by the unprecedented attack on science and environmental protection by the Trump administration. However, efforts to counteract the anti-environmental agenda and work towards a more sustainable society have been unprecedented as well...”
And in that context, she identifies the following:
A significant new player is now entering the mix of the growing number of organizations providing institutional investors with ESG rankings and data. At G&A Institute, we've been tracking the growth of these organizations (such as MSCI, Sustainalytics, RobecoSAM, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, and others) and work with our clients to help managements understand, optimize and utilize these important intelligence points coming from the rapidly-growing number of investors considering ESG.
Once again, the authoritative Harvard Business Review weighs in on corporate sustainability with a commentary piece on the top trends of 2017 – with “big leaps both forward and backward” in the year just concluded. And there was some predictability, writes author Andrew Winston in his commentary, as he says he predicted: “…the context for sustainable business in 2017 may center on the competition between two stories, the election of Donald Trump and significant action on climate change…”
"Sustainability is front and center in the apparel sector" -- so writes Tara Donaldson in the November 5th feature story in the Sourcing Journal in covering the Textile Sustainability Conference in October. Seven major trends were discussed at the meeting of industry execs.
Wondering about carbon emissions "contributed" by the global airline industry? One of the industry's leading publishers, Air Transport Action Group, cites the following:
