Purpose-driven marketing and ESG stakeholder relationships have seen escalating through the pandemic — with increased challenges and opportunities. In 2022, we saw brands double-down on purpose-driven initiatives as they worked to drive consumer loyalty, retain top talent and create exponential impact — all amidst a rise in consumer skepticism and politically motivated attacks on ESG.
January 1st was the start date of five new women helming Fortune 500 companies, bringing the total number of female CEOs to 53. Which means, for the first time—after years of being stuck at the 8% mark—over 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. Let\’s take a moment to recognize how far we\’ve come by celebrating some of the history-making women who brought us over the 10% line.
Pittsburgh’s goal: a zero-carbon budget. An ambitious plan adopted in 2018 with objectives like 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, a fossil-free fleet and zero-waste. There are several ways a city can slice its budget. One is incremental budgeting, wherein the previous year’s budget provides the baseline for the next. Priority-based budgeting maps every dollar a city spends to a specific program.
On January 9, Hypatia Capital Management LLC announced the launch of a new exchange traded fund, the Hypatia Women CEO ETF (NYSE: WCEO), which invests in large women-led companies. \”We believe investors are increasingly interested in the research that highlights the performance of female leadership” said Patricia Lizarraga, founder and managing partner.
Institutional investors across the globe are taking stock of natural capital — the value extracted from soil, air, water, climate and all the living things and ecosystem services that make the economy possible. Examples include advancing sustainable hydroponics, beef alternatives, biodegradable consumer products and degraded land restoration.
In MSCI’s ESG and Climate Trends to Watch for 2023 we discuss the key topics investors face, from climate change, the environment and the road to net-zero, through to regulatory requirements, supply chain innovations, biodiversity and new technologies, as well as issues affecting everyday life.
Major disasters like hurricanes and wildfires can wipe out buildings and crops, causing losses for the banks that make loans against these assets. On January 17th the Federal Reserve released new climate risk analysis details it’s asking six major U.S. banks to conduct, to assess just how vulnerable big banks are to this kind of upheaval.
Big global banks are eyeing some of the world’s most fragile countries for a new experiment in financial engineering: debt relief in exchange for environmental protections. As much as $2 trillion of developing country debt may be eligible. Ecuador is said to be working on a $800 million transaction and Sri Lanka is considering a $1 billion deal.
The field of ESG ratings is in a phase of rapid growth—it is estimated that there are 150 different ESG data providers in the market, and these figures are expected to grow. The estimated scale of ESG-related assets under management (AUM) is predicted to reach US$53 trillion by 2025, equivalent to a third of all global investments.
According to the 2022 Trends Report, from 2020 through the first half of 2022, 154 institutional investors and 70 investment managers collectively controlling nearly $3.0 trillion in assets at the start of 2022 filed or co-filed shareholder resolutions on environmental, social or governance (ESG) issues. Investors also focused on disclosure and management of corporate political spending and lobbying.
