According to the American Investment Council’s 2022 Public Pension Study, at the end of FY 2021 U.S. public pension plans held an average of 11% of their assets in private equity (PE), with 89% allocating at least some amount to the asset class. Pensions & Investments reports the average allocation to private equity within college and
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Carbon emissions receive a great deal of attention in conversations about ESG and sustainable investing, and rightfully so. Climate change—caused by CO2 (and methane) emissions that are generated directly or indirectly by human activity—is now having economic and humanitarian consequences that range from dire to catastrophic. But this focus on CO2 emissions can unintentionally downplay
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Regulators and supranational standard-setters around globally are establishing requirements on the ESG data that companies must gather and how that information is to be reported. This is not a “woke” exercise—many accounting professionals believe that even traditional financial reports should include data related to ESG risks because they can impact the value of a company’s
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Consider the following scenario: two people are striving to win the title of “Best in Category X”. One of them (we’ll call her Joanna, for no reason at all), comes from an upper-middle class family, went to good schools, received training from experts, and never had to worry about things like food, shelter, or being
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Okay, we admit it. The title of this article may qualify as click-bait. Why would we, a company with “ESG” in our name, ask whether ESG actually matters? Of course, the things the letters E, S, and G stand for matter to businesses. Climate change and the rapid loss of biodiversity clearly matter – they
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The Inflation Reduction Act passed by the United States Congress provides almost $370 billion to fight climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting green technology. That includes $60 billion for developing the nation’s renewable energy infrastructure such as solar panels and wind turbines, and provides tax incentives for nuclear power production, electric vehicles, and energy
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The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) was established in 2021 to create the first mandatory, global ESG reporting standards. For those who are not yet convinced of the need for sustainability reporting, we borrow the following from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) which states, “One of the essential functions of financial markets
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Many retail and institutional investors often have a pressing concern when investing: how does ESG affect financial performance? Environmental and social accountability has increased in the past decade. There’s growing pressure on organizations to refrain from unethical practices. According to the US SIF Foundation’s Report on US Sustainable and Impact Investing Trends, one out of
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Environmental and sustainability accountability is growing rapidly, prompting organizations to adopt comprehensive ESG policies. A KPMG survey shows a 96 percent sustainability reporting rate for G250 companies – the world’s largest 250 companies – in 2020. This number is expected to increase in the coming years. Companies aren’t the only ones incorporating ESG. According to EY,
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The terms “ESG” and “Sustainable/Sustainability” are often used interchangeably, and for the most part that’s okay (we could split hairs on this but will save that for another day). The concept of “sustainability” is, in our view, both simple and profound, and is worth examining consciously. So, let’s do that. In a broad sense, sustainability
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Many institutional investors have stringent constraints regarding particular ESG metrics that call for tailored approaches to selecting Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). When it comes to personal investors, most find generic ESG scores very helpful in comparing and selecting the right ESG ETFs. But what are ESG scores, who provides them, and which approach is the best? Keep
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