What an Impact-Focused Investment Approach Looks Like
Institutional investors and wealth managers increasingly want to consider impact in their investment decisions — for a wide range of reasons. This infographic looks at how impact-focused investing works and how investors can develop an impact-focused investment approach that integrates into their existing strategies, regardless of their motivations.
The Power of Impact: Untapped Potential for Asset Owners, Asset Managers and Wealth Managers
In this blog post, we explore the power of impact as a dimension in investment decision-making and how it can unlock new opportunities and deliver sustainable value for asset owners, asset managers and wealth managers.
Portfolio Screening as Due Diligence: How Investors Can Implement Responsible Business Conduct
This blog outlines how investors with access to screening options that follow the criteria of the OECD MNE Guidelines and the UNGPs can better assess investee companies’ risk of causing actual and potential adverse impacts. It shows what these research modules can look like and provides some examples outcomes on the effect of applying certain thresholds.
Biodiversity For Financial Institutions: Making the LEAP to Better Decision Making and Stewardship
Amid growing pressure to incorporate biodiversity into investment processes, we will outline how financial institutions can perform biodiversity assessments to make meaningful decision, contribute to biodiversity preservation and be accountable to regulators.
Inconsistent Definition of ‘Sustainable Investments’ Across EU Regulations Could Cause (Unintentional) Greenwashing
The absence of clear parameters to support the regulatory definition of sustainable investments has pushed market participants to make judgment calls leading to diverging investor approaches.
EU's Iterative Approach to Sustainable Finance Regulations Isn't Perfect, But It's a Good Start
The EU Action Plan for Sustainable Finance has kept the European investment market busy over the past year. In this blog post, we highlight the merits that we see in the EU regulatory package. While not perfect, the regulation is a good start.
Investors Seek Meaningful Scope 3 Emissions Targets to Evaluate Climate Transition Plans
Climate concerns continued to dominate proxy voting in the 2022 proxy season. With more clarity on sectoral commitments required to achieve the global net zero goal, shareholders’ requests have become noticeably more specific. A larger number of resolutions asked companies to adopt and report on emissions reduction targets and transition plans that reference the latest forward-looking guidance.
Post-COP15 Outlook: Evolving Investor Responsibilities in Biodiversity
Awaiting COP15’s Global Biodiversity Framework negotiation outcomes, financial market participants could face new regulatory pressure sooner than expected to integrate biodiversity assessment into their investment, decision-making processes.
Sustainable Finance Insights: Special Episode on Sustainable Finance in the Metals, Mining and Commodities Sector
In this special episode, we focus on sustainable and transition finance opportunities for issuers in the metals and mining sector and discuss considerations for banks, issuers and investors to fund improvements and mitigate environmental, social and regulatory risks.
ESG Data Market Gaps: 3 Areas of Interest for Investors Measuring Material ESG Risk
Many global investors already incorporate ESG factors into their evaluation of public companies across developed markets. We are now observing increasing interest in applying ESG considerations across a broader set of asset classes and regions.
The Role of Sustainable Aviation Fuel in Achieving Decarbonization by 2050
Meeting the aviation's industry's goal of decarbonization by 2050 will require a collective effort and more ambitious measures than those currently in place, including carbon offsetting, route optimization, fuel efficiency and fleet renewals that involve a shift to more eco-friendly aircraft. However, all of these measures still revolve around fossil fuels as a source of energy.
UK Stewardship Code 2020 - Stewardship Report
Morningstar Sustainalytics has maintained its status as a signatory of the UK Stewardship Code 2020 (the Code) per the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). Download the report to review how Sustainalytics' commitment to high stewardship standards meets the service provider principles set under the Financial Reporting Council’s revised Code.
Climate Change, Innovation, and Cybersecurity in the Defense Industry: New Opportunities for ESG Investors
While perhaps not a widely considered link between the defense industry and climate change, several Eurosatory conference sessions addressed how climate change can intensify security risks and threats.
EU Action Planning: ESMA Questions and MiFID Data begs Further SFDR Clarity for Investors
Regulators asking questions about topics central to the EU Action Plan show that more work needs to happen to make this ambitious, first-of-a-kind sustainable finance legislation workable for the market and supervisors and more useful for end investors.
Applying Business and Human Rights International Standards to Investor Due Diligence
Socially conscious ESG investors are interested in how to implement international business and human rights norms in their portfolios and understand the potential impacts of applying additional screening criteria within their strategy.
Telecom Network Outages, the ESG Risks of a Connected World
The telecom industry is exposed to several Material ESG Issues, including Data Privacy and Security, Business Ethics, Human Capital and Product Governance. Product Governance issues in the telecom industry include service quality, maintaining reliable, high-speed networks, and responding to customer billing concerns.
Impact of US Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling on US Utilities’ Carbon Exposure
The Clean Power Plan was created using a directive from the Clean Air Act that enabled the EPA to set emission limits for air pollutants based on the best available technology to reduce emissions. The EPA aimed to cap carbon emissions and curb greenhouse (GHG) emissions by changing the composition of the existing operational power generation assets by forcing the closure of coal plants through strict emission caps, resulting in a system-wide transition to renewable energy.
Cobalt ESG Risks Threaten Electric Vehicle Supply Chain
Transport electrification is at the forefront of the international climate transition agenda. Because of this, global demand for cobalt is projected to grow fourfold by 2030, which raises the question, are mineral supply chains robust enough to fuel a sustainable EV revolution?