(WSJ) A group that includes Carlyle, Blackstone and EQT is working to standardize how the industry tracks progress on environmental and social goals. The group, collectively representing more than $4 trillion in assets under management, has agreed on what it expects will become the first standardized set of ESG reporting metrics for the private-equity industry.…
(Permira) Leading global general partners (GPs) and limited partners (LPs) today announced the creation of the ESG Data Convergence Project to advance an initial standardized set of ESG metrics and mechanism for comparative reporting. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) led the collaboration which includes GPs and…
(Bloomberg) Some of Europe’s biggest asset managers are starting to drop a once-ubiquitous ESG label from their company filings amid concern that regulators will no longer tolerate vague descriptions of environmental, social and governance investing. Read more here.
(PRI) Venture capital (VC) investors and the start-ups in which they invest – are latecomers to ESG and sustainable investing, which has swept the finance world in recent years. Getting companies on the right track from the earliest stage is logical, but investors paradoxically do not give this enough focus. Understanding why this is the…
(The Economist) Extreme weather events are becoming much more common. This year in China, ferocious floods forced more than 1m to relocate; fires ravaged Greece all summer, blotting out the sun; heatwaves killed almost 700 people in Canada and 600 in America. Meanwhile, Russia reported the largest fires in its history, while Texas grappled with…
(Knowledge @ Wharton) Bart Houlahan worried about how the coronavirus pandemic would affect B Lab, a nonprofit he co-founded to certify socially responsible companies that create value beyond shareholder portfolios. Thousands of companies around the world have earned the coveted “Certified B Corporation” title since B Lab began in 2007, but during the COVID-19 pandemic,…
(Inside Philanthropy) A lot can change in a decade. Back in 2009, as the world’s economy reeled from crash and recession, a coterie of billionaires gathered over dinner in New York City to talk philanthropy. Oprah was there, and so was New York’s billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg. The late David Rockefeller was in attendance, and…
(nature) Climate change is causing distress, anger and other negative emotions in children and young people worldwide, a survey of thousands of 16- to 25-year-olds has found. This ‘eco-anxiety’ has a negative impact on respondents’ daily lives, say the researchers who conducted the survey, and is partly caused by the feeling that governments aren’t doing…
(NY Times) It marks a major shift for one of the biggest backers of coal-fired plants globally. Still, China remains heavily reliant on new coal plants at home, and is the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases. In a move designed to bolster Beijing’s climate credentials, President Xi Jinping of China said Tuesday that his…