"Resolute!" - The root of the word comes down to us from the ancient Latin, meaning (over many centuries) to decide on and stay with a course of action. We're seeing that these days in the "resolve" of the US corporate community, in the resolute actions of many cities and municipalities, in the actions of a growing number of US states, and among institutional investors of all types, shapes and forms.
Everyone in the investing world and the corporate suite knows of the importance of the S&P 500 Index®; it's the intellectual property of the S&P Dow Jones Indices unit of S&P Global and is the widely used benchmark by which asset managers track their performance (against the index performance).
We have made tremendous progress over the last 10 years in such areas as the embrace of corporate sustainability, corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, and related approaches by the global corporate sector...and in the continuing adoption of sustainable investment policies and approaches by a widening universe of institutional and individual investors.
Important elements of the Governance & Accountability Institute mission are to share knowledge, perspectives and information about the opportunities in corporate responsibility, including career paths to success, and to do the same for men and women interested in sharpening their focus in the financial community, with the continuing embrace of ESG approaches by investment firms of all types ("sustainable investing").
Water scarcity, resource depletion, climate change impacts... these were top-of-the-agenda items at the annual Ceres Conference convened last week in San Francisco. These of course are pressing challenges for the domestic and global business communities, for investors and various stakeholders. While there are many aspects to these issues to consider, the takeaway from the conference, writes Aaron Pickering, is that the focus on sustainability is good business (and good for business).
The "IBD" -- Investors Business Daily -- is an influential publisher followed by millions of investors, both in the print and on-line versions. The former "daily" is now published weekly and the digital content with numerous tools and resources for the serious investor is a primary focus of the publisher, always available 24/7 for subscribers. Founded in 1984 by former stockbroker William O'Neil, the publisher today offers investors a number of popular tools for market timing, fundamental and technical market analysis, and other approaches. (Such as "CAN SLIM," the found
Ah, that morning coffee -- so delicious for many of us. The products of the "coffee belt," encircling the globe just north and south of the Equator, are made from a valuable commodity -- the coffee bean. Harvesting those is a US$100 billion annual commodity, writer Jodyn Cormier tells us on the Care2 web platform, second only to the value of the oil market. And yet...she writes that the average coffee farmer gets $1,000 per season for his/her work.
The Millennial Generation -- that's men and women born in the years 1982 to 2004 (according to researchers Neil Howe and William Strauss). This generation's members are ages 17 to 35, and now said to be outnumbering the previously dominant cohort of the Baby Boomers in the workplace (BBers were born 1946-1964, some 77 million in all).
Gaining momentum in the global corporate sector, among sovereign governments and institutional investors -- the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals ("SDGs"). After reaching agreement in September 2015, the countries of the world adopted goals to end poverty, protect our planet and ensure prosperity for a greater number of the world's population through a universal agenda for action (with 169 specific targets under the wonderfully-aspirational broad goals).
Horrible headlines now coming out on the developments at the White House regarding climate change, global warming, and related issues as campaign rhetoric is fitted, however clumsily or mean-spirited, to public governance to attempt to match ill-advised campaign promises.
The reality is that there are a number of very encouraging developments, trends that hold great promise for those of us who are not climate change deniers and think that global warming is a hoax coming from China to disadvantage American companies!
