ESG and sustainable investing have taken center stage in asset management. Climate and now Oceans are leaders in this elevation with a proliferation of products, firms, and frameworks increasingly on investors’ radar screens. The oceans are becoming broadly investable, with market-based opportunities across all sectors of the Blue Economy. (Sept. 2021)
B Lab has announced the Certified B Corporations (B Corps) that have achieved the distinction of Best for the World 2021 companies. It recognizes the B Corps globally whose B Impact Assessment scores ranked in the top five percent, and across one or more of the five impact areas – community, customers, environment, governance, and workers.
The new Report showcases key milestones achieved through company engagements globally. In 2020, we had 300 engagement meetings: 73 focused on climate change; 115 focused on human capital development; 60 focused on sustainability; and 88 focused on corporate governance. Helping us all to navigate the transition to a more sustainable economy.
The Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, of which US SIF is a founding member, has released its biennial Global Sustainable Investment Review 2020, revealing an industry that has grown to US $35.3 trillion, up 15 percent since 2018. It now comprises 36 percent of all professionally managed assets in the US, the EU, Australia/NZ, Canada, and Japan.
The Koehler Group is investing in the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) with the aim of actively fostering the development of sustainable innovations and technologies. The ECBF is the first growth investment fund to be dedicated exclusively to projects in the field of the bioeconomy in Europe, including the accompanying circular economy.
Meet the Circularity21 Emerging Leaders, a group of students and early-career professionals looking to drive the transition to a circular economy. When it comes to advancing CE, innovators are working around the world with these three principles in mind – design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use and regenerate natural systems.
The plastic waste problem gets plenty of attention, and for good reason: If we continue mismanaging this material as usual, there could be 7.7 gigatons of the stuff cluttering landfills, waterways and oceans, or being incinerated by 2040. Just as stunning: Plastic isn\’t the fastest growing waste stream the world needs to deal with – that ‘honor’ actually goes to various forms of electronics waste (e-waste).
Our current way of living will change fundamentally in the future. Exactly how that happens is a societal decision. The materials we use to create our new world will depend on technology and science. Leading us to a hyper-efficient, innovation-driven circular economy that is equipped to address the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and inequality, while bringing countless benefits.
A circular economy moves beyond our take-make-waste industrial model and works toward designing products to eliminate waste and pollution and to regenerate natural systems. It’s a tall order for our complex global economy and demands a fundamental change within and across industries and stakeholders. The Circularity Gap Report from Amsterdam-based, Circle Economy is a useful and informative guide.
Aligning human consumption with nature’s activities, the circular economy keeps resources in use and cycling around as long as possible, reducing the strain on the Earth’s finite cradle of resources and impacts on the environment. Recycling, reduction, and reuse are elements of a circular economy. It keeps responsibility for products and their impacts with the companies that produce them.
