(Nasdaq) I know, I know, I know. Some of you may think Crazy Uncle Marty’s anti-ESG schtick is getting a bit nauseating. However, as you should have realized by now, I cannot control myself. When I think there is a good point to be made about the subject, I will make it. And that is…

(Morningstar) The grievances are legion lately: Perceived greenwashing in the fund industry is one. This week’s salvo came from Aswath Damodaran, a well-regarded New York University finance professor, who, in a widely read blog post, denounced environmental, social, and governance investing as “a mistake that will cost companies and investors money, while making the world…

(Reuters) More than half of 530 corporate executives have little or no confidence in the reliability and maturity of their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) programs, according to a global survey from corporate governance advocacy non-profit OCEG. The report paints a dim picture of the corporate world’s perception of ESG initiatives, which vary greatly…

(Barron’s) Views differ on what information is financially material for an investment, and it is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s job to draw this line, deciding what companies must disclose, and what they don’t have to. Over the years, the requirements have changed to include risk factors, executive compensation, and other new information. The latest…

(Blue Ridge Public Radio) The daughter of Fikile Ntshangase says that last October, three armed men entered her mother’s home and shot her dead. Ntshangase had publicly questioned a local coal mine that she thought was — quite literally — undermining the small South African town where she lived, located about 360 miles east of…

(Techcrunch) Funding for Black entrepreneurs in the U.S. hit nearly $1.8 billion in the first half of 2021 — a fourfold increase from the previous year. But most venture-backed startups are “still overwhelmingly white, male, Ivy-League-educated and based in Silicon Valley,” according to a study conducted by RateMyInvestor and Diversity VC. Read more here.

(The Hollywood Reporter) The Vice Media union’s labor management committee has requested the company improve its “unconscionable” severance terms for the 17 staffers at Vice Digital and Refinery29 who were laid off in late August. In a letter sent to top executives, including Vice CEO Nancy Dubuc, this week, the committee demanded that the media…

(Responsible Investor) Investors should require companies issuing sustainability-linked bonds to have Paris-aligned targets, according to the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI). In a discussion paper exploring credible climate transition strategies, the influential non-profit identified five ‘hallmarks.’ Read more here.

(BSR) The increasingly widespread media coverage of surveillance and spyware technologies used to track ethnic and racial minorities and immigrants and surveil journalists, human rights activists, and other prominent figures has put a spotlight on the role of private equity firms, including venture capital (VC) investors, in financing human rights abuses in the United States…

(WSJ) Forget Gordon Gekko. The hottest companies launching IPOs are branding themselves as do-gooders. A new generation of companies, including startups such as Rent the Runway Inc., Chobani LLC, Warby Parker Inc. and Allbirds Inc., are on tap to go public this fall, people familiar with the matter say. They will be doing it with…