March 2025 Newsletter
News & Commentaries by Ron Robins
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New March Podcasts:
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What The ESG Backlash Reveals—and What Comes Next. “Dropping the term ‘ESG’ doesn’t change the underlying pressures. Regulation may be in flux—the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rolled back climate disclosure efforts, and even in the EU, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is now subject to political pushback. But the material risks haven’t disappeared. Investors are still asking pointed questions about transition exposure and long-term viability. Consumers remain attentive, particularly in sectors like food, fashion, and mobility. And climate events—from floods to wildfires—are only accelerating. The pressures are still there. They’ve just become harder to talk about.”
[COMMENTARY] This thoughtful article is written by Dr Ioannis Ioannou, one of the foremost and earliest proponents of ESG and sustainability. He writes that regardless of terms used the need for companies to integrate ESG and sustainability into their activities continues to grow.
What The ESG Backlash Reveals—and What Comes Next, by London Business School, March 25, 2025, Forbes, USA.
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How DEI Shareholder Proposals Are Faring in 2025. “Total anti-DEI proposals submitted for the 2025 proxy season have surpassed pro-DEI proposals.”
[COMMENTARY] Though anti-DEI proposals have increased substantially, many large companies continue supporting DEI. They include Coco-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Delta Airlines and many, many more.
How DEI Shareholder Proposals Are Faring in 2025, by David A. Bell and Wendy Grasso, March 22, 2025, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, USA.
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Companies with high greenhouse gas emissions more likely to manipulate finances. “The research, published in Journal of Applied Accounting Research, examined the financial risks associated with climate change regulations, such as the European Green Deal and the EU Emissions Trading System. It found that as companies face increased costs in transitioning to low-carbon operations, they may engage in earnings manipulation to present a stronger financial position.”
[COMMENTARY] This finding is unsurprising. Leaders of high greenhouse gas emitting companies are usually unfriendly to climate regulations. Hence, perhaps more likely to oppose them in various ways — including manipulating finances to give a better impression of how their companies are performing.
Companies with high greenhouse gas emissions more likely to manipulate finances, by University of Portsmouth, March 18, Phys.org, USA.
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Global Institutional Investor Survey 2024 Report. “Priorities for 2025 include executive pay, shareholder rights, climate transition and human capital management.”
[COMMENTARY] The findings in this report will interest many investors.
Global Institutional Investor Survey 2024 Report, by Kilian Moote and Kiran Vasantham, March 17, 2025, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, USA.
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Investing in Nature: How Natural Capital Delivers Strong, Stable Returns. “Natural capital—which includes farmlands, timberlands, and other environmental investments—has the ability to not only produce strong, risk-reward profiles for a portfolio, but also the ability to do good. And with many natural capital investments finally getting the attention of Wall Street, their values are on the rise.”
[COMMENTARY] Natural capital investments for ethical and sustainable investors are coming into view. It probably won’t be long before they are recognized as a valuable part of a diversified portfolio for such investors.
Investing in Nature: How Natural Capital Delivers Strong, Stable Returns, by Aaron Levitt, March 17, 2025. Dividend.com, USA.
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RFI Foundation: What banks are (and are not) disclosing in their transition plans. “Many financial institutions will this year make their first transition plan disclosures in line with the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Despite recent efforts to limit the applicability of CSRD so as to streamline reporting requirements, many companies will start to file sustainability reports in line with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards covering their activities during 2024.”
[COMMENTARY] It will be interesting to see the responses by US banks and companies operating in the EU to the CSRD! They have to navigate the requirements of CSRD reporting with the anti-ESG environment by prominent US regulators.
RFI Foundation: What banks are (and are not) disclosing in their transition plans, by Blake Goud, March 5, 2025, SRI Connect, UK.
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Stock market reaction to COVID-19 outbreak: evidence from ESG firms in emerging economies. “Our main findings reveal that the efficient market hypothesis does not hold, ESG ratings are the main drivers of abnormal returns.”
By Mai T. Said and Mona A. Elbannan, March 2025, Journal of Asset Management DOI:10.1057/s41260-025-00394-3.
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Considerations Around Fossil Fuel Divestment for Endowments and Foundations. “A divest-and-exclude approach toward carbon-intensive companies and industries may be overly focused on mitigating perceived risk in the shorter term and could remove return opportunities in actively managed investment strategies over the longer term.”
[COMMENTARY] Some studies show that returns can be enhanced by investing in and engaging with companies at the beginning of their decarbonization-sustainability-ESG efforts!
Considerations Around Fossil Fuel Divestment for Endowments and Foundations, by Fidelity Investments, February 27, 2025, Institutional Investor, USA.
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Reports Says Too Many ESG Funds Are Greenwashing And Misleading. “Its 2025 ESG and Sustainable Barometer report analyses over 9,500 investment strategies managed by more than 460 asset managers. It evaluates key ESG and Sustainability related trends in the European and UK fund markets.”
[COMMENTARY] I am unsurprised by the results of this study on green European and UK funds. It would be good if some equivalent detailed study could be undertaken with green North American funds.
Reports Says Too Many ESG Funds Are Greenwashing And Misleading, by Heather Farmbrough, February 28, 2025, Forbes, USA.
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Half of Execs Report Higher Sales, Lower Costs from Sustainability Initiatives: Survey. “The survey found that two thirds of executives reported that sustainability is “very important” to their companies’ commercial success, up slightly from last year, with executives highlighting a wide range of value creation drivers. The top benefits reported included enhanced brand and reputation, cited by 74% of respondents, followed by stronger stakeholder and community relations at 70%.”
[COMMENTARY] The results from surveys like this demonstrate why companies will continue and enhance their ESG and sustainability efforts despite all the anti-ESG propaganda!
Half of Execs Report Higher Sales, Lower Costs from Sustainability Initiatives: Survey, by Mark Segal, March 11, 2025, ESGToday, USA.
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Prepare for Changes to the Shareholder Engagement Process. “On February 11, 2025, the staff of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued updated and new guidance regarding the eligibility of shareholders to file Schedule 13G instead of Schedule 13D beneficial ownership reports. The guidance notes that a shareholder’s ability to report on Schedule 13G depends on whether it holds the securities with a purpose or effect of “changing or influencing” control of the issuer.”
[COMMENTARY] This is a pertinent commentary on the recent US SEC changes to shareholder engagement.
Prepare for Changes to the Shareholder Engagement Process, by Brian V. Breheny, Raquel Fox, and Marc S. Gerber, March 11, 2025, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, USA.
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The ‘green label effect‘ for green bonds is real. “Retail investors rely heavily on green labels, but checking environmental claims is out of reach for most.”
[COMMENTARY] If you are a retail bond investor, do you agree that a green label on the bond influences your decision on whether to invest in that bond?
The ‘green label effect‘ for green bonds is real, by Vasundhara Saravade, March 7, 2025, Corporate Knights, Canada.
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Featured Book
Note: Ron Robins is an Amazon Associate. He thus earns fees from qualifying book or merchandise purchases referred from this website.
The Social Justice Investor: Advance Your Values While Building Wealth, Whether a Few Dollars or Millions. “Money is a lever with which you can change the world. The Social Justice Investor is a treasure chest of valuable insights for readers who want to finance a more just society.” –Joanne Gan, head of Impact Investing & ESG, Treasury, PayPal”
For more information, visit The Social Justice Investor: Advance Your Values While Building Wealth, Whether a Few Dollars or Millions, by
