LEGAL-ESG 2023
One of the key pillars driving change and defining boundaries in the ESG space is the constant legal wrangling between shareholders, corporations, regulators, and the general public. There are a number of cases recently concluded, in progress, or just filed that will affect the ESG landscape for decades to some. This is a look at
Episode 110: LEGAL-ESG
Updates on recent ESG related legal cases with significant wins and losses changing the ESG landscape.
EPA Rules – Plastics Emissions
Striking the Balance: EPA’s Plastic Recycling Emissions Regulations and the Quest for Sustainability The EPA’s Role in Limiting Emissions Amidst the recent political chaos in the U.S., regulators have played hot potato with restrictions around greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other environmental rules. While jumping from the Clean Power Plan to the Affordable Clean Energy
Sustainability and the Travel Industry – Think Before You Go
When you plan a trip, you probably focus on how long you’ll stay in each location, what sights to see, the food you’ll eat, what clothes you should pack, and so on. You probably don’t think about how traveling contributes to climate change and otherwise harms the environment, or how it impacts communities that might have a
Taking ESG Investing Mainstream
Incorporating ESG factors into mainstream investing has grown on an absolute level, but relative adoption remains low against the entire market. While it takes time for markets to adjust, part of the reason for the delayed integration is the asymmetrical approach to investing for value and investing for values. This is changing. With reliable data
The Short Report
ESG signals can give strong indications that a stock is primed for a downturn and might be a good target for a short. With reliable data as the foundation, solid analytics map a correlation between two ESG signals, in particular, that have been remarkably predictive and would have resulted in positive returns over the course
Episode 109: Short Signals – ESG Investing Goes Mainstream
In the vast wilderness of ESG investing, Investors seek reliability. When ESG is as familiar as earnings. As fundamental as ROI. As quintessential as EBITDA. Then we will have achieved mainstream uptake.
What is an ESG Audit (and why is this necessary)?
Imagine there were no rules for corporate financial disclosures (such as IFRS or US GAAP, now known as US GAAS, a rather unfortunate acronym). Companies could make up their own ways of reporting financial information—revenues, accounts receivable, inventory, debt, etc.—using their own definitions and preferences. For investors and others who rely on financial statements, this
ESG is Evidently Supported Globally
Keeping up with what is going on in the ESG/Sustainability arena is a continuous challenge. One tool that helps us is a Google Alert that creates a digest of news and articles based on the keywords “ESG” and “sustainability.” Every day we get a listing of items that meet our search criteria. It’s quite useful—although
The Nuclear Option
Almost all energy on Planet Earth is ultimately nuclear. The sun is a giant fusion reactor, and fossil fuels release solar energy stored in the carbon of massive old growth forests from millions of years ago. Wind energy is driven by temperature changes spurred by energy from our sun, and solar energy is, of course,
Episode 108: The Nuclear Option
Exploring the pros and cons of nuclear energy with Nate and Yates.
1, 2, 3…4! What are Scope 4 Emissions?
We know that people who smoke cigarettes can greatly improve their health—now and into the future—by cutting back or quitting altogether. And, when people make a pledge to stop smoking it’s easy to track their progress by counting how many cigarettes they smoke per day, over time. Of course, while cutting back is great, it
ESG Industry Owes Financial and Wealth Advisors an Apology
Individual investors rely on their financial advisor or wealth manager to provide informed, unbiased advice, but with so many ESG investment choices that’s not always easy. We recently fell into a conversation with a seasoned Financial Advisor (FA) about how he explains ESG investing to his clients. His financial planning expertise is unquestionable and he
Sustainability and the Agriculture Industry – A Lot to Chew On
If you’re a human who eats but you don’t raise your own crops and livestock, you are affected by the agriculture industry’s self-inflicted sustainability problem. We explain. Agriculture is arguably the most important business activity in the world. Roughly 12,000 years ago humans switched from being hunter/gatherers to living in agrarian societies with reliable food supplies. That
Episode 107: The Perpetual Problem of Plastics
Acknowledging both the positive and negative impacts of plastic on humanity, Nate and Yates delve into the many aspects of the affects of plastics on ESG and our world.
The Perpetual Problem of Plastic Particle Permanence
Among the environmental aspects of ESG consideration, corporations’ plans to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions tend to get the most attention from investors. However, plastic waste disposal and recycling is arguably a more significant, and more immediate, concern. “Plastics“ specifically refers to a wide range of materials, generally derived from crude oil, which share certain
2RSquared and OWL ESG announce ESG Data Partnership
OWL ESG, the US-based ESG data solutions provider, and 2RSquared, the cloud-based SaaS platform for investment design and delivery, are proud to announce an ESG data integration partnership. With this partnership, users of 2RSquared’s technology platform ‘LAB’ will have access to OWL ESG’s sustainability insights. LAB offers research capabilities and the ability to create tradeable
Is there a Chief Trust Officer in the C-Suite?
Time for a riddle: what takes years to build, seconds to break, and a lifetime to restore? Here’s a huge hint: it’s what a company’s Chief Trust Officer works to preserve.
Episode 106: The Unlikely Intersection of Sustainability and Dividends
All investors are searching for yield, and mitigate risk with the dividend shield. But dividends that have a payment history often come from companies that aren’t quite green. We start from a place of carbon pricing, with a solution for both green and income investors alike.
The Unexpected Intersection of Sustainability and Dividends
Sustainable investing and long-term investing share significant overlap. Investors use both approaches to seek specific positive change over broad periods of time. Without financial returns, sustainable investing is futile, and blue-chip, dividend paying stocks are a critical component of many successful long-term investment strategies. These established companies tend to be more carbon-intensive for a number
