SustainabilityHQ.com Weekly Highlights

Fred Krupp is head of the two-million-member Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a leading global not-for-profit that creates “transformational solutions” to address environmental problems by linking economics, law, science and innovative private-sector partnerships. Since the mid-1980s he has been a very vocal thought leader, activist, and champion for change on various climate change issues, striving to use the power of the marketplace to protect the global environment.

These are terms we hear all year ‘round and especially in the spring of the year as corporate managers describe for us what they often feel as the inevitable growing flow of third party ESG / Sustainability data sets, ratings, rankings, surveys, forms and various types information for review come pouring into their offices. It’s spring – survey time! Large-cap companies may receive 200 and more such queries during a year.

The CEO of one of the nation’s leading food and agriculture companies has important messages for us: “To move the planet forward, farmers must lead the charge. But they cannot do it alone. Coordinated action on sustainability across the food supply chains is the only way to achieve lasting progress.” He tells us how and why in his commentary in a Top Story.

The Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes are some of the most important and widely-used benchmarks for global investors – the suppliers of capital to the corporate sector. The “DJSI” benchmarks include the well-known “World” and “North America” indexes.

We can view this as very encouraging news: Ceres released a report – "Turning Point" -- that shows almost two-thirds of 600 companies examined intend to reduce GHG emission; half have water management policies; and just under half of the companies are formally committed to "workers' rights". The current research effort is the third assessment of corporate progress against key expectations of the framework, "The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability," and is a follow up to Ceres' "Gaining Ground: Corporate Progress" report in 2014.

Lately, we’ve been participating in conferences where CEOs and other senior managers have been on the lectern describing their companies’ sustainability journeys – the why, how, challenges and positive outcomes.

Back in 1991, the tense “Cold War” environment of the post-WWII era was coming to an end. President George H.W. Bush, a veteran fighter pilot in WWII and “Cold War Warrior,” addressed the U.S. Congress (January 19th) to deliver his State of the Union address. “We stand at a defining hour,” he declared. “What is at stake is more than one small country (referring to Iraq at that moment); it is a big idea – a New World Order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind…peace, security, freedom, and the rule of law. Such is a world worthy of our struggle and worthy of our children’s future.”

So often we hear that “investors don’t ask” or “no one inside seems to care” or “our finance folks don’t believe in” when we talk with corporate connections about corporate sustainability at their firm. And, inside the company, skepticism can typically be found in the finance offices. We have some good news “findings” for you today from the ING folks to add to the growing number of research studies demonstrating the sustainability business case.

This week’s top story choice for you is quite fascinating. How can a country provide a quality way of life for its citizens and also strive to be more sustainable over the long-term? Researchers at two universities collaborated to see what countries are doing / and need to do / to provide quality of life for their citizens and to be sustainable (at the same time) to protect the planet. The researchers explain where we are and where we need to go to achieve both (in balance).

We are just past one month into the year 2018 and there have already been significant advances that directly affect the lives of professionals and organizations in the fields of corporate sustainability and sustainable investing – the two vital halves of the capital markets – and in related fields.

We’ve been bringing you the news and commentaries related to many of these advances in this, our weekly newsletter focused on many aspects of sustainability. We’ve been preparing in-depth management briefs as well for professionals and delivering these through our new web-based platform, “G&A Institute’s To the Point!”™

Here’s a quick look at some of these briefs – the in-depth background is available for you in the links provided here.