SustainabilityHQ.com Highlights, March 8, 2012

Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility Reporting
G&A Institute is the Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) sole data partner for the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland. As the data partner we monitor, analyze and database information on all Sustainability reports issued in these territories. Recent Sustainability  news articles:

Will sustainability reporting ever grow up?
(March 6, 2012)
Source: GreenBiz
A new report from Ernst & Young, released today, paints a less-than-rosy picture of the state of corporate sustainability reporting. It's not that companies aren't doing it, or doing it well. It's just that they're doing it with...

ESG / Sustainability

New ILSR Report: Walmart's Greenwash
(Wednesday - March 07, 2012) Associated Profiles : MSCI Group (NYSE: MDX)
Source: PR Newswire - In a report released today, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance documents how Walmart's heavily promoted sustainability initiatives are falling short. The report, "Walmart's Greenwash", examines all aspects of the major...

Activists take Apple workers'-rights campaign to Facebook
(Wednesday - March 07, 2012) Associated Profiles : Verité
Source: CNN - On Wednesday, Apple is expected to unveil the newest version of its iPad with all of the breathless hype that typically attends the consumer-tech juggernaut's public events.

UN goals on safe drinking water reaches target early (News)
(Tuesday - March 06, 2012) Associated Profiles : United Nations International Labour Organization
Source: EurActiv- The international target to halve the number of people who do not have access to safe drinking  water  has been met, five years before the 2015 deadline, the UN announced on today (6 March).

Nobel-winning economist says wealth gap is bad for growth
(Tuesday - March 06, 2012)
Source: College Times - HACKENSACK, N.J. — Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, offered a sobering outlook this week on Europe's debt crisis, predicting the euro in its current form was unlikely to survive. In a speech Wednesday at Ramapo

In climate wars, radicalization of researchers brings risks
(Monday - March 05, 2012) Associated Profiles : Union of Concerned Scientists
Source: Washington Post - Everybody talks about the weather, Mark Twain famously wrote, but nobody does anything about it. Many climate researchers are no longer following Twain's adage, noted Michael McPhaden, president of the American Geophysical Union....

Sovereign Wealth Funds

Pension Fund Seeks Better Yields
(Tuesday - March 06, 2012) Associated Profiles : National Social Security Fund (SPF)
Source: CRI.com - The National Council for Social Security Fund, which runs the national pension fund, has selected 13 private equity funds to help invest 19.5 billion yuan (US$3.09 billion) for better returns.

Larger pension plans outperform their smaller counterparts
(Saturday - March 03, 2012) Associated Profiles : Canadian Pension Plan (SPF)
Source: Investment Executive- Two professors at The Rotman International Centre for Pension Management have been awarded the Canadian Investment Research Award from the Toronto CFA Society and Hillsdale Investment Management for research ...

Paper: Norway Sovereign Fund Offers Best Insights to Investors on SRI
(Thursday - March 01, 2012) Associated Profiles : Norwegian Government Pension Fund – Global (Statens pensjonsfond – Utland) , Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Norway
Source: CIO- Institutional investors should look to the example of sovereign wealth funds, which have among the best practices with socially responsible investing (SRI), according to a newly released paper by a professor at the University of...

Sovereign wealth funds off to slow M&A start in 2012
(Thursday - March 01, 2012) Associated Profiles : China Investment Corporation
Source: Reuters - Sovereign wealth funds are shying away from making large mergers and acquisitions, at least in public, with announced activity volumes tumbling to less than a tenth of last year, Thomson Reuters data shows.

Asset Managers

Sustainability is 'The New Normal' (Allen)
(Wednesday - March 07, 2012) Associated Profiles : State Street Global Advisors (SSgA)
Source: Mobile Press Register- Business leaders around the world are touting sustainability as the new normal for business and industry. The New Normal business environment will create a different competitive context - radically changed from conditions ...

IR Global Rankings Releases its Annual Magazine
(Tuesday - March 06, 2012) Associated Profiles : UBS
Source: PR NewsWire - NEW YORK -- IR Global Rankings ("IRGR"), the most comprehensive technical ranking system for investor relations websites, corporate governance practices and financial ...

The 40 Highest-Earning Hedge Fund Managers
(Friday - March 02, 2012)
Source: Forbes - For most hedge fund managers, 2011 was a year to forget. The average hedge fund fell by 5% even as the U.S. stock market eked out a tiny gain. Big shot investors like billionaire John Paulson were humbled and lost massive amounts...

Commentary

ESG issues and investment - who cares'
(Thursday - March 01, 2012) Associated Profiles : State Street Global Advisors (SSgA)
Source: Money Management.com - Oil spills, sweatshops in China, dodgy remuneration structures - AMP Capital's ESG research team explores the 'so what' question around environment, social and governance issues.

US Pension Funds

Florida Public Worker Pension Funding Change Tossed by Judge
(Wednesday - March 07, 2012) Associated Profiles : Florida Retirement System Pension Plan
Source: Bloomberg - Florida can’t proceed with Republican Governor Rick Scott’s changes to the state’s public employee pension system as part of an effort to save $1 billion a year, a judge ruled. Leon County Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford in...

New GAO Report Validates Financial Health and Sustainability of Public Pensions
(Tuesday - March 06, 2012)
Source: MarketWatch/BusinessWire - The National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) released the following statement from Hank Kim, Esq., Executive Director and Counsel: "NCPERS is gratified -- but hardly surprised -- that the...

This is just a sample of some of the articles from this weeks SustainabilityHQ Highlights.  You can view the full Highlights by using the following links.  Sustainability | ESG, Highlights for the Week of  March 08, 2012