Tech antitrust optimism to kick off April

April 1, 2022

(Politico) TECH ANTITRUST LAWS BY AUGUST? — Speaking virtually to a conference in Brussels, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), the top GOP member of House Judiciary’s antitrust panel said he expects three antitrust reforms — legislation to increase merger filing fees, bar tech giants from preferencing their own products and force Apple and Google to open…

Amazon Spent $4.3 Million On Anti-Union Consultants Last Year

March 31, 2022

(Huff Post) Faced with a wave of worker activism in its warehouses last year, Amazon paid anti-union consultants roughly $4.3 million in an effort to beat back union organizing campaigns, according to new filings with the U.S. Department of Labor. The disclosures from Amazon offer a glimpse into how far the online retailer is willing…

For all the ESG talk, just 7% of startups have an actual net zero plan

March 31, 2022

(Sifted) There’s more and more ESG talk in tech and VC land. Environmental, social and governance factors have gone from being a concern of specialist investors to a key part of mainstream investment strategy. But, for all the talk, how are VC firms’ portfolio companies actually doing? Well — much better on the S and…

The Silenced No More Act just became law in Washington state

March 30, 2022

(Protocol) The law, which will apply to Washington employers including Microsoft and Amazon, will take effect on June 9 of this year. The Washington version of the bill had been pushed forward by former Apple engineer Cher Scarlett and former Google employee Chelsey Glasson. Both Scarlett and Glasson testified in support of the bill, discussing…

7 years, 1% increase: Black representation in tech barely improving

March 29, 2022

(CIO Dive) In recent years, top-flight tech companies devoted resources and laid out plans to address diversity and cultural challenges within their organizations. Despite efforts, the data show improvement has been minimal in terms of the racial composition of the IT workforce. “We haven’t seen the increase because there hasn’t been a real commitment to addressing…

Despite ‘Net Zero’ Rhetoric, World’s Biggest Banks Continued to Pour Billions into Fossil Fuel Expansion in 2021

March 29, 2022

(Rainforest Action Network) The 13th annual Banking on Climate Chaos report, the most comprehensive global analysis on fossil fuel banking to date, underscores the stark disparity between public climate commitments being made by the world’s largest banks, versus the reality of their largely business-as-usual financing to the fossil fuel industry. The report documents that in…

The White House wants to know whether crypto is bad or good for the planet

March 28, 2022

(Protocol) The White House would like to get to the bottom of this whole “is cryptocurrency going to destroy the climate or not” thing. The Office of Science and Technology Policy announced it’s putting together a report that assesses whether digital assets “impede or advance efforts to tackle climate change” and makes moves toward a…

The climate divide: How Facebook’s algorithm amplifies climate disinformation

March 28, 2022

(Global Witness) In April of last year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted during congressional testimony that climate disinformation is ‘a big issue’ on the platform. In an effort to combat this, Facebook created its ‘climate science centre’; an information hub designed to ‘connect people with science-based information on climate change’. Facebook also expanded their flagging…

Can Blockchain Networks Fix Carbon Offsets?

March 27, 2022

(Coindesk) Projects like Toucan, Regen and Moss say on-chain carbon credits will increase transparency and improve accessibility to the carbon credit market. Another project, KlimaDAO, aims to bump up the price of carbon credits by tapping into a corner of crypto where memes are gospel, Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is king and everyone is…

How ESG Is Shaping Private Equity: What Is On The Horizon?

March 22, 2022

(Mondaq) Fundraising in private equity in recent years was shaped by myriad forces, including ESG considerations. In this Q&A with Claudia Arango, we explore private equity fundraising trends in Latin America after 2020. Claudia is the Managing Partner of Exagon Impact Capital, with a career of more than 20 years in private equity and a…