CalPERS Senior Portfolio Manager and Director of Global Governance, Anne Simpson, discusses how environmental, social, and governance behaviors impact corporate performance and highlights recent Board policy statements concerning three forms of capital: financial, physical and human. Read the transcript on the CalPERS site. (more…)
A series of strong shareholder votes have sent a clear message that natural gas companies must do much more to address fugitive methane leakage and management. Shareholder proposals asking Houston-based Spectra Energy $SE, Tulsa-based Oneok $OKE, and Fort Worth-based Range Resources $RRC to issue reports on how they are managing high-climate-change-impact methane emissions have received favorable […]
Climate Change Portfolio Exposure Boston Common Asset Management has a proposal that will appear on the proxy of PNC Financial Services ($PNC) requesting that it report to shareowners on the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from its lending portfolio and its exposure to climate change risk in its lending, investing, and financing activities. Watch for your proxy. The […]
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Shop Amazon’s Cyber Monday Week This article by the award-winning Naomi Klein from The Nation is well worth the read. She takes on one of the most important subjects of the day. Here’s a brief clip: In The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, I explore how the right has systematically used crises—real and trumped up—to push through […]
Below is video showing candidates from the 2011 Miss USA contest answering the question, “Should evolution be taught in schools?” Their answers are a great example of the normalization of the idea that evolution is “one side” of a story, with religion being the other side, and that we should just choose between these based […]
Only 11 of 88 major insurers surveyed recently have formal policies in place to deal with growing climate change risks, according to a major new report issued today by Ceres. The report was to have been delivered at a conference of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) that was cancelled due to Hurricane Irene. […]
Scientists have for the first time shown a link between intensifying climate events and tectonic plate movement in findings that could provide a valuable (more…)
Shareowners recognize that with more than 100 members the Chamber’s board is effectively ungovernable, leaving the door wide open for management. There are board committees on different issues, such as the environment, but committees do not govern, they recommend… A company’s obligation to its shareowners also goes beyond disclosure. Companies also have an obligation to […]
Yesterday, Michelle Leder had an interesting post, Climate change, baked goods and Sara Lee … at footnoted.com. ESG disclosures concerning global climate change are increasing in 10-k and 10-Q filings. Leder cites Molson Coors disclosure in its recent 10-Q: While warmer weather has historically been associated with increased sales of beer, changing weather patterns could […]
CalPERS. A report from consultant Wilshire Associates found that activist involvement by CalPERS increased returns at many of the 142 “Focus List” companies. Prior to the pension’s involvement, the companies’ returns averaged 83.3% below their various benchmarks; afterward they yielded returns 12.7% above the benchmarks. Although the cumulative 12.7% is not as high as past results, their corporate governance program […]
I’m off reading the SEC Concept Release on the U.S. Proxy System, aka proxy plumbing, so no time to cover news. Be sure to download Mark Latham’s helpful Table of Contents with page numbers in doc or pdf format. Broc Romanek has all the coverage of the Dodd-Frank bill that I need… although it will be a while […]
The SEC issued new interpretive guidance that clarify companies must weigh the impact of climate-change laws and regulations when assessing what information to disclose to investors in terms of climate-related ‘material’ effects on business operations, whether from new emissions management policies, the physical impacts of changing weather or business opportunities associated with the growing clean […]