October 2025 Newsletter
News & Commentaries by Ron Robins
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New October Podcast:
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The Most Ethical Companies in America [2025 Survey]. “More than 3,000 people across the country weighed in on which brands in their state they feel actually share their values.”
[COMMENTARY] Most ethical and sustainable company ranking lists have sophisticated methodologies behind them. Not here. It’s simply a request for opinions from consumers and tallying them up to see who leads. I wonder why four of the top five companies are food companies?! The top five companies are Hershey Company, The Campbell’s Company, Burt’s Bees, Ocean Spray, and CVS Health.
The Most Ethical Companies in America [2025 Survey], by MarketBeat Staff, October 27, 2025, MarketBeat, USA.
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EU Parliament Rejects Rollback in Sustainability Reporting. “The ‘omnibus’ directive was introduced in February 2025 and, if approved, would have exempted 80% of companies that were originally set to be covered by the scope of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), mandating the publication of regular reports regarding companies’ ESG risks in accordance with European Sustainability Reporting Standards.”
[COMMENTARY] It’ll be interesting to see if President Trump or his administration rails against this, as many US companies operating in Europe will need to comply with the new EU regulations.
EU Parliament Rejects Rollback in Sustainability Reporting, by David Katz, Elina Tetelbaum, Loren Braswell, Wachtell Lipton, October 25, 2025, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, USA.
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What Sustainable Investors Got Wrong — And Why It Is Still the Future of Finance. “What we have found over the years is that so-called sustainable investing, when executed in the context of rigorous, long-term financial thinking, works. What worries us is that people increasingly believe it does not, not because it has failed, but because it has been too-often misguided.”
[COMMENTARY] This is a good article on issues related to sustainable investing. It also makes a great case for sustainable investing.
What Sustainable Investors Got Wrong — And Why It Is Still the Future of Finance, by Rob Brown and Aniket Shah, October 20, 2025, Institutional Investor, USA.
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More than just good ethics: new research links corporate diversity to better investment decisions. “When we talk about diversity in business, it’s usually in moral or social terms – fairness, inclusion and representation. But our new research suggests diversity also pays off in a very practical way: helping companies make better financial and investment decisions.”
[COMMENTARY] Despite the US government’s put-down of DEI and diversity initiatives, it’s seen in some studies to show it has great value for many companies.
More than just good ethics: new research links corporate diversity to better investment decisions, by Kim Honey, October 19, 2025, The Conversation, Australia.
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Shareholder Activism: Ten Trends for 2026. “Shareholder activism is at record levels and is no longer limited to the “proxy season.” Dozens of U.S. activist situations are underway for 2026 annual meetings, well before the windows for nominations open at most targeted companies.”
[COMMENTARIES] What I thought was particularly peculiar about these top shareholder activism trends is that there is no mention of ESG or sustainability proxies. Surely, there has to be some.
Shareholder Activism: Ten Trends for 2026, by David A. Katz, Elina Tetelbaum, and Loren Braswell, October 16, 2025, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, USA.
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Top 10: Renewable Energy Manufacturers. “Widespread adoption of solar and wind technologies continues to expand renewable generation capacity, which in turn supports global decarbonisation and plays a large part in sustainability strategies of some of the world’s largest companies.”
[COMMENTARY] Despite the US government’s renewable energy smashdown, renewable energy continues to thrive — even in the USA. In fact, some of the world’s leading renewable energy companies are still USA-based.
Top 10: Renewable Energy Manufacturers, by Charlie King, October 16, 2025, Sustainability Magazine, USA.
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Why ESG Scores Are Moving the $4 Trillion Municipal Bond Market. “New Wharton research shows that investors pay more for bonds with ESG scores. For issuers that stay silent, the cost is higher borrowing.”
[COMMENTARY] Again, another story of how investors are still highly valuing ESG and sustainability factors in their investments.
Why ESG Scores Are Moving the $4 Trillion Municipal Bond Market, by Seb Murray, October 14, 2025, Knowledge at Wharton, USA.
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Investors Still Prioritizing ESG. “The fanfare and hoopla surrounding environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing seen several years ago has largely waned, but that doesn’t mean ESG and sustainable investing principles are no longer prioritized by advisors and investors.”
[COMMENTARY] Many surveys of investors continue to show high support for ESG and sustainable investing — even in the USA!
Investors Still Prioritizing ESG, by Todd Shriber, October 13, 2025, VettaFi, USA.
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SEC Chairman Suggests Path to Eliminating Most Shareholder Proposals. “The SEC may be open to eliminating the ability of shareholders to submit precatory shareholder proposals to companies incorporated in Delaware…. {However), there is no reason to believe the SEC would not take the same position for companies incorporated in other states.”
[COMMENTARY] Such a ruling would likely hurt, particularly, proposals related to ESG, sustainability, and climate change.
SEC Chairman Suggests Path to Eliminating Most Shareholder Proposals, Cooley Alert, October 10, 2025, Cooley LLP, USA.
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Green Stocks Are Beating World’s Biggest Trades, Even Gold. “The S&P Global Clean Energy Transition Index has surged close to 50% since US President Donald Trump’s April tariff announcements caused havoc across markets. That compares with the roughly 35% gain delivered by both the S&P 500 Index and gold over the same period.”
[COMMENTARY] Many studies report that renewable energy production is cheaper and faster to build than gas, oil or coal energy production. Hence, global new renewable energy production exceeds all other forms of energy in the pipeline. Thus, green stocks utilizing renewable energy production sources are gaining favour among investors globally.
Green Stocks Are Beating World’s Biggest Trades, Even Gold by Ishika Mookerjee, October 8, 2025, Bloomberg on Yahoo Finance, USA.
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After Spain’s blackout, critics blamed renewable energy. It’s part of a bigger attack. “The idea that solar and wind are inherently risky and unreliable is a common talking point for critics of renewable energy, often repeated by groups with ties to the fossil fuel industry. It’s false. When renewable energy is paired with large batteries or other forms of grid management, it’s proven to be reliable.”
[COMMENTARY] The key to addressing renewable energy power overload issues appears to be pairing wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources with batteries to absorb excess production.
After Spain’s blackout, critics blamed renewable energy. It’s part of a bigger attack, by Julia Simon, October 8, 2025, NPR, USA.
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2025 Advisor RI Insights Study (Canada). “RI adoption among advisors declined to 64% in 2025, down from 73% in 2023. Committed RI users remain steady, allocating 13% of AUM to RI on average, consistent with prior years. Three quarters of advisors anticipate RI growth, though expectations have tempered compared to 2023.”
[COMMENTARY] It might be that the anti-ESG publicity is having a minor negative effect on the growth of responsible investing, particularly in North America.
2025 Advisor RI Insights Study (Canada), by Responsible Investment Association (RIA), October 7, 2025, 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 Little Book of Impact Investing: Aligning Profit and Purpose to Change the World (Little Books. Big Profits). “Priya Parrish’s The Little Book of Impact Investing is a terrific guide to investing in for-profit, positive impact companies. Drawing from her long experience, Parrish shares actionable advice to help others succeed in this dynamic segment of the global impact investing field.”―DEBRA SCHWARTZ, Managing Director of Impact Investments, MacArthur Foundation
For more information, visit The Little Book of Impact Investing: Aligning Profit and Purpose to Change the World (Little Books. Big Profits) on Amazon. Wiley; 1st edition (October 15, 2024).
