How To Read The European Union’s New Guidelines On Sustainable Investing. “Under the proposed taxonomy regulation, institutional investors marketing environmentally sustainable investment products would be required to explain whether, and how, they used the taxonomy criteria. Alternatively, investors could disclose their own preferred approach to determine that their investment is environmentally sustainable. These proposed rules…

Many Institutional Investors Confuse ESG with Socially Responsible Investing. “Institutional investors must be careful when navigating the legal issues relating to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factor integration, or they may risk running afoul of their fiduciary duties, according to a white paper from Randy Bauslaugh, a partner in the Canadian law firm McCarthy Tétrault,…

ETF vs. SMA: Which Is Better for Sustainable Investing? “SMAs are ideal for values-based investing as they allow investors to actively screen for certain product areas (e.g. oil, tobacco), or ‘bad actors’ that they deem antithetical to their values. They also allow for more specificity, e.g. designating a certain percentage of revenue from carbon emissions…

Global Sustainable Investments Rise 34 Percent to $30.7 Trillion, by Emily Chasan, April 1, 2019, Bloomberg, USA. Greenwashing purge sees sustainable funds lose share in Europe, by Siobhan Riding, April 1, 2019, FT, UK. [COMMENTARY] Both the above stories reveal data from the same Global Sustainable Investment Alliance study released April 1. However, they each have…

Sustainable and ethical standards are in vogue, but only governance is affecting ratings, Fitch finds. “The credit rating agency, however, found that less than one per cent of financial institutions have ESG factors that have actually driven a ratings change, with governance risk being the biggest issue. Governance includes such things as executive pay, audits…

Triple A Scores Became Tougher in Latest CDP [Carbon] Rankings. “For companies vying for the highly prized CDP recognition, ’triple A’ scores became much tougher to attain in 2018. While 140 companies were named to the 2018 list, only two, Firmenich and L′Oreal, received triple A scores in performance against all three areas surveyed: climate…