Coalition of AGs investigating TikTok’s impact on children

March 2, 2022

(The Hill) A bipartisan coalition of attorneys general are investigating TikTok’s impact on the well-being of children, the group announced Wednesday.  The attorneys general will investigate if the popular video sharing app violated state consumer protection laws and put the public at risk.  This follows an investigation launched by the same group of attorneys general in November…

The world is getting climate change adaptation wrong

February 28, 2022

(Quartz) The impacts of climate change are here today, are worse than scientists expected, and no government or company is doing enough to adapt to them. That’s according to a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released today (Feb. 28). In some cases, the report warns, policies and infrastructure intended to mitigate these…

Facebook, Apple and Other Tech Giants Face Rising Pressure Over Ukraine

February 27, 2022

(The Wall Street Journal) U.S. tech giants are under pressure from both Russia and the West to respond to the conflict in Ukraine, highlighting their power over global discourse but also escalating a recent trend in which their businesses are squeezed by geopolitical events. Analysts say the conflict could accelerate the fracturing of the internet,…

Stakeholder capitalism will drive venture funding

February 23, 2022

(LinkedIn) This movement became more mainstream just under ten years ago. At this time, the entry of several large players gave the socially conscious business and investment movement the tailwind it lacked. Players like Bain Capital and then TPG Capital launched impact-focused funds. Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, issued his first statement on stakeholder capitalism,…

ESG: the next mis-selling scandal?

February 20, 2022

(Financial Times) Environmental, social and governance investing has been a source of huge growth for the asset management industry in recent years. It could soon become a source of big problems. Industry insiders are starting to worry that some of the overly optimistic or misleading ESG claims that have been made in fund documents and…

Does Your Company Need a Chief ESG Officer?

February 17, 2022

(HBR) CEOs and boards of directors are under increasing pressure to address environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. To support them, companies like C.H. Robinson, Royal Caribbean, and Verizon have recently appointed chief ESG officers. To discover whether your company would benefit from having one, the authors suggest considering three questions: Do your stakeholders care…

What One Private Equity Investor Calls
‘Greenwashing,’ Another Calls ESG

February 17, 2022

(Institutional Investor) Greenwashing is often in the eye of the beholder, depending largely on one’s sustainable investing philosophy, according to PitchBook analyst Anikka Villegas. In an analyst note published Monday, Villegas wrote that the growth in environmental, social, and governance investing has come with confusion and disagreement about the definitions of terms like ESG, sustainable…

Tesla Investors Closely Following Discrimination Suit

February 17, 2022

(Morningstar) Long-term shareholders of Tesla (TSLA) are preparing to push the company on race issues after California sued the electric car maker for alleged racial discrimination and harassment. The complaint filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing earlier this month followed claims from hundreds of workers that they were the targets of…

Private equity’s dirty dozen: the 12 US firms funding dirty energy projects

February 15, 2022

(The Guardian) American private equity tycoons are profiteering from the global climate crisis by investing in fossil fuels that are driving greenhouse gas emissions, a new investigation reveals. Oil and gas pipelines, coal plants and offshore drilling sites linked to Indigenous land violations, toxic leaks and deadly air pollution are among the dirty energy projects…

Eric Schmidt creates $125mn fund for ‘hard problems’ in AI research

February 15, 2022

(Financial Times) Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt is launching a $125mn philanthropic project to fund artificial intelligence research that solves “hard problems” in the field, including issues of bias, harm and misuse, geopolitical conflict, and scientific limitations of the technology. The fund, known as AI2050, will be paid out over five years to individual…