June 2020 Newsletter
News & Commentaries by Ron Robins
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Latest Podcasts:
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How To Read The Proposed New ERISA Rule And What It Gets Wrong On Sustainable Investing. “Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia explained the rationale for the new rule: ‘Private employer-sponsored retirement plans are not vehicles for furthering social goals or policy objectives that are not in the financial interest of the plan. Rather, ERISA plans should be managed with unwavering focus on a single, very important social goal: providing for the retirement security of American workers.‘”
[COMMENTARY] One can sense the US administration’s frustration with the growing importance of ESG by fund managers. How about the fact that ESG funds are outperforming their conventional counterparts? Isn’t that evidence of providing the best opportunity of providing for the retirement security of American workers.?
How To Read The Proposed New ERISA Rule And What It Gets Wrong On Sustainable Investing, by Bhakti Mirchandani, June 25, 2020, Forbes, USA.
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Regulatory changes see ESG go mainstream. “A raft of regulatory changes introduced in recent years are placing environmental social and governance (ESG) funds at the centre of the advice process, industry experts have claimed…Ryan Medlock, senior investment development and technical manager at Royal London, said: ‘There have been a raft of new regulations, mostly coming from EU level, and they leave the US and Australia playing catch up.'”
[COMMENTARY] Despite what’s happening in Europe, until there’s a change in the US administration I see little chance of any new regulatory changes favouring ESG investing coming anytime soon.
Regulatory changes see ESG go mainstream, by David Thorpe, June 24, 2020, FT Advisor, UK.
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Canada’s Greenest Employers. “This special designation recognizes the employers that lead the nation in creating a culture of environmental awareness in their organizations. These employers have developed exceptional sustainability initiatives — and are attracting people to their organizations because of their environmental leadership.”
[COMMENTARY] Green employers often correspond to best ESG performers too. So ethical and sustainable investors might want to review who’s on this list!
Canada’s Greenest Employers, June 2020, Canada.
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100 Best Corporate Citizens of 2020. “Now more than ever, corporate leadership on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is imperative. And so is transparency. As companies decarbonize, align with the Sustainable Development Goals and rebuild an equitable economy post-pandemic, they must be open about their efforts. Each year, 3BL Media evaluates the largest public U.S. companies on ESG transparency and performance.”
[COMMENTARY] One of the best of the annual ESG corporate rankings!
100 Best Corporate Citizens of 2020, June 22, 2020, 3BL Media, USA.
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Top investors publish list of companies that have failed to disclose climate data. “Last Friday, the UN and the UK launched the high profile Race to Zero campaign with the news that around 1,000 corporates around the world have pledged to deliver net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.
Today, investor-backed climate disclosure group CDP takes on the flip-side of corporate engagement with the climate crisis with the publication of a list of just over 1,000 companies that have declined to provide relevant information on their environmental impacts to investors.”
[COMMENTARY] This is an important read for all ethical and sustainable investors as it might influence them in their investment selections.
Top investors publish list of companies that have failed to disclose climate data, by James S Murray, June 9, 2020, UK.
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Has responsible investment lost its soul? “When investors have to justify decisions based on financial materiality, is it truly responsible?”
[COMMENTARY] This is a fascinating question. Do a company’s ESG activities that are financially material to it reflect your values? Would you buy a stock based on financial materiality at the cost of ignoring your values?
Has responsible investment lost its soul? By Rob Lake, June 10, 2020, UK.
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Where to Find Low-Cost ESG Funds. “Investing in sustainable funds doesn’t have to cost more than traditional funds, thanks to a raft of newer funds with lower costs.”
[COMMENTARY] There are many great charts in this article including one showing the over/under annual costs in various fund categories of ESG funds compared to their conventional counterparts.
Where to Find Low-Cost ESG Funds, by Katherine Lynch, June 6, 2020, Morningstar, USA.
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From tyranny to salvation: the credibility of common metrics for ESG reporting. “Professor Brendan O’Dwyer and Professor Chris Humphrey from the Accounting and Finance division at Alliance Manchester Business School critique the growing calls for standardised ESG metrics in company reporting.”
[COMMENTARY] Standardization of ESG metrics is important so that companies can be better compared on them. This article is a useful read for everyone in the investment industry.
From tyranny to salvation: the credibility of common metrics for ESG reporting, by Brendan O’Dwyer and Chris Humphrey, June 1, 2020, Accountancy Age, UK.
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Featured Book
Low-Carbon Investing: Defending the Climate/Emphasizing Performance, by Patrick Costello, GreenWorld Publishing 2018.
“This book is for people who understand that carbon emissions are driving the dangerous phenomenon of global warming, and who wish to do their part in mitigating this risk by lowering the carbon footprint of their investments – without sacrificing investment performance.”
