Cutting health care’s carbon footprint

September 17, 2022

(Axios) Health systems are increasingly responding to the threat of climate change with commitments to cut back their own carbon footprint. Why it matters: Health care is a massive global industry, and shrinking its carbon footprint could go a long way toward reducing carbon emissions. Read more here

EU’s green rulebook loses a bit more credibility as NGOs quit

September 15, 2022

(Business Times) A group of non-governmental organisations that had been involved in writing the EU’s green taxonomy has walked out in protest. They accuse the EU bodies steering the taxonomy of politicising the process instead of basing decisions on science, according to a statement on Wednesday (Sep 14). As a result, 5 nonprofits have announced…

The one ESG issue that Americans agree isn’t politically polarizing

September 15, 2022

(CNBC) A potential rail strike that was on the verge of upending the U.S. economy may have caught your attention in the headlines this week. It was averted on Thursday, but underlying the battle between rail carriers and labor unions over wages and quality of life policies for workers is an issue over which the American…

Facebook Parent Meta Platforms Cuts Responsible Innovation Team

September 8, 2022

(Wall Street Journal) Meta Platforms Inc. has disbanded its Responsible Innovation team, which was once a prominent piece of its effort to address concerns about the potential downsides of its products. The team had included roughly two dozen engineers, ethicists and others who collaborated with internal product teams and outside privacy specialists, academics and users…

How Companies Can Be Proactive — Not Reactive — on Social Issues

September 2, 2022

(Harvard Business Review) Companies are increasingly feeling pressure to respond to social movements on inequality, but far too many tend to respond reactively — making a donation or social media statement — instead of taking proactive measures to build equity and inclusion in their own organizations. The author offers four proactive actions to take: 1)…

$350 million for WeWork co-founder shows how broken and biased venture capital is

August 26, 2022

(NPR) A reported $350 million investment into a new, yet-to-be-launched real estate venture founded by a controversial businessman has drawn criticism from women entrepreneurs. The investment, which was made and publicly shared by venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz, is in Flow, the new company of WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann. Given Neumann’s questionable business dealings and his abrupt exit from WeWork amid…

How a top US business lobby promised climate action – but worked to block efforts

August 19, 2022

(The Guardian) Business Roundtable aims to weaken efforts that would enable investors to hold companies accountable for their climate promise. Three years ago today, in a statement that would be described as “historic”, “monumental” and “revolutionary”, America’s most powerful and politically connected corporations promised to “protect the environment by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses”.…

States that are hostile toward abortion face backlash from corporations. What about startups?

August 15, 2022

(Fast Company) In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on June 24, a long list of companies announced that they will cover travel costs or expand healthcare benefits for employees who may be affected by the ruling. Insurance company Embroker, meanwhile, recently asked over 500 venture capitalist-backed startup founders…

Facebook’s Message Encryption Was Built to Fail

August 10, 2022

(Wired) The details are chilling. Police raiding a home, a teenager and her mother arrested, fetal remains exhumed from a rural burial plot. When police dragged off a 17-year-old Nebraska girl and charged her and her mother with self-administering a miscarriage, they were armed with damning documents they could only access through the incompetence and…

Manchin’s clean energy deal is a game-changer for ESG

August 6, 2022

(Quartz) Over the course of two days in July, West Virginia emerged as the perfect proxy for America’s messy reckoning with climate change. First, it moved to punish banks for divesting from old economy coal and fossil fuels; next, its senior US senator had an abrupt change of heart and supported a serious step up…