Reports

The Role of Natural Climate Solutions in Corporate Climate Commitments: A Brief for Investors is a first-of-its-kind engagement tool for investors to spur meaningful dialogue with companies on the role and use of natural climate solutions in delivering on those commitments. It provides clear guidance on how to facilitate engagements with portfolio companies and lays out expectations for climate disclosures—calling for transparency in critical steps along the way to net zero. 

In this full-length PDF version of an RI Long Read article, Duncan Austin argues that the need for net zero reveals there have been two interpretations of sustainability all along.Four decades after sustainability first emerged as a concept, we are witnessing a critical ‘net zero moment’. First gradually, and now suddenly, companies are making ‘net zero’ pledges to reduce carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. This represents a substantial and welcome upgrade of ambition regarding climate change, but poses the obvious challenge. In March 2021, a survey by Standard Chartered found that 64 percent of senior corporate executives do not believe that net zero commitments are commercially viable, contradicting the longstanding ESG narrative that ecological sustainability is a ‘win-win’ – good for profit and planet.Download the PDF to read the article.

Responsible Investment Report from First Sentier Investors

Responsible Investment Report from Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking

Low-Wage Workers Lost Hours, Jobs, and Lives. Their Employers Bent the Rules — To Pump up CEO Paychecks.

The common pursuit of impact investors—to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return5—is well-understood. However, to impact investing newcomers and veterans alike, it is not always clear what that pursuit looks like in practice. What is it that impact investors do, in crafting investment strategies and in their day-to-day work, to generate positive impact? How can asset allocators and other stakeholders know whether those claiming to be impact investors are practicing what they preach?

Plastic has become embedded in nearly every facet of daily life due to its versatility and low cost of production. However, plastic pollution is also a major and growing environmental concern, as plastics are both abundant and ubiquitous in the environment.

There is a growing realization that combining index investing and sustainability engagement is not only possible but can reinforce and mobilize significant global assets under management to enable collaborative engagement. Passive investment has the potential to influence and achieve changes in corporate practices and strategies leading to real world impact through linking engagement to transparent capital re-allocation. This paper explores the evolution of ESG engagement and passive investing, especially the role of index providers in marrying passive investing and scalable engagement.

Two years after investors representing more than $11 trillion in assets called on six of the largest fast-food companies to mitigate climate and water risks in their meat and dairy supply chains, five of those fast food chains (McDonald’s, Yum! Brands, Chipotle, Domino’s and Wendy’s) have either set, or stated they will set, science-based emission reduction targets (SBTs).