Weekly Highlights August 28, 2014

Governance & Accountability Institute Research Reports

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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. For a list of recently issued Sustainability reports please follow the links below:

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G&A’s Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility Reporting
Understanding the complexities (the risks and opportunities) of the ESG operating environment; in the new normal of the capital markets, who is monitoring your company, what are they saying, how are they characterizing your enterprise, and what are the outcomes of this monitoring, ranking, rating and opinion-shaping?  Learn more About G&A’s Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility Reporting

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Corporate ESG Performance Factors & SustainabilityHQ

Corporate ESG Performance Factors are important to financial analysts, asset owners and managers, and many stakeholders.  The ESG framework or approach considers environmental issues and impacts, the company’s positioning and actions on social/societal issues, and important aspects of corporate governance.

ESG key performance indicators are considered by investors as proxies for effective governance and management. Increasing numbers of of independent research and financial analysis firms monitor and measure these and advisie investors.  The Sustainability HQ™ platform is an important profiling and monitoring resource for the G&A team, and for our clients and subscribers.

ESG market players and corporate reputation influencers are profiled and monitored by G&A Institute. In these Highlights we provide some results of our continuous global scanning for ESG, sustainability and corporate responsibility news. The Associated Profiles indicated are in our platforms.  For more information, please email us at info@sustainabilityhq.com
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Navigating the way to sustainability…
Contents © 2009 – 2014 | All Rights Reserved
Copyrights for other providers are noted where appropriate. Please credit the source if quoted.
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Don’t Confuse Sustainability with Corporate Social Responsibility
(Monday – August 18, 2014)
Source: Washington Post – No challenge derails managers from the goal of sustainability more than understanding what it means for an organization to really be sustainable. Some people think sustainability is all about environmental issues. Others see it…

Sustainability in Focus

Show me the money: how sustainability creates revenue at Bloomberg
(Friday – August 22, 2014)
Source: The Guardian – Commercial drive – the ‘oxygen of business’ – helps sustainability flow toward ‘quantitative, consumable and actionable’ new products and services, writes Christoph Lueneburger…

How sustainability leaders hold steady over the long haul
(Friday – August 22, 2014)
Source: GreenBiz – Pioneering a sustainability initiative is a lot like buying a boat. Sooner or later, the realities of maintenance overshadow whatever aspirations first inspired the investment. After the brainstorming sessions, public...

5 ways to successfully promote sustainable employee behavior
(Thursday – August 21, 2014)
Source: GreenBiz – Only 30% of employees are engaged, costing $450 to $550 billion every year in lost productivity. Yet research shows that companies with strong sustainability and social responsibility programs have much higher engagement rates.

An insider’s view: why more companies should tie bonuses to sustainability
(Wednesday – August 20, 2014)
Source: The Guardian – I didn’t get my full stock bonus last year. It wasn’t because I didn’t meet my revenue or profit goals; I exceeded them. Instead, it was because my carbon emissions reduction efforts fell short, partly due to the integration of…

Sustainability: Reconfiguring the Relationship between Humanity, Energy and the Natural World
(Wednesday – August 20, 2014)
Source: BreakingEnergy.com – A new ‘Zeitgeist’ is increasingly taking hold in growing pockets of society, politics and the business world. All indications point to one direction – towards the concept of ‘sustainability’ dominating human behavior and thinking…

Report highlights CPGs’ sustainability achievements
(Tuesday – August 19, 2014)
Source: Packaging World – The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) has released a report that spotlights progress and achievements by food, beverage, and consumer products companies as they work to reduce their environmental footprints and implement…

ESG Issues & Players

Libya’s largest oil depot begins exports
(Thursday – August 21, 2014)
Source: SF Gate – CAIRO— Libya’s largest export terminal begun loading a tanker Wednesday destined for Italy, its first shipment after a yearlong blockade over disputes between the central government, rebels and protesters, the country’s oil…

Why social impact investing is going mainstream
(Thursday – August 21, 2014)
Source: PBS NewsHour – During the Vietnam War, two Methodist ministers started an investment fund that purposely excluded weapons manufacturers…

Meet the companies that are trying to profit from global warming
(Tuesday – August 19, 2014)
Source: Vox – Global warming isn’t necessarily bad news for everyone. For some companies and countries, it may be even be a huge boon.

As Climate Changes, ‘Underwater Mortgage’ May Take on New Meaning
(Monday – August 18, 2014)
Source: Bloomberg – Looking to buy a house? That’s great, unless you’re in your 20s and 30s and regularly read climate reports. They tend to project dramatic changes to the climate over the next 50 years, and given that current life expectancy is…

Opinion: Why America and Americans are Exceptional?
(Tuesday – August 19, 2014)
Source: India New England – In the September of 2013, President Barack Obama claimed while addressing the United Nations that America and Americans are exceptional because of certain, special traits. Russian President Vladimir Putin and other World leaders…

Asset Managers, US Pension Funds, Sovereign Wealth Funds

Five top-performing global funds that have justified their fees
(Friday – August 22, 2014) Associated Profiles : MSCI Group (NYSE: MDX)
Source:  FE Trustnet – The fund’s MSCI AC World benchmark has gained 71.1 per cent over the … Rhodes prioritizes dividend growth above all else, believing finding companies with sustainable policies is…

Could a Carbon Tax Cut Down on Corporate Inversions?
(Friday – August 22, 2014)
Source: TriplePundit – Marc Hafstead of the nonpartisan think tank Resources for the Future, along with Lawrence Goulder of Stanford University, have come up with an idea that could potentially address two important problems in one broad policy action…

Libya: Goldman Sachs sued over loss
(Thursday – August 21, 2014) Associated Profiles : Libyan Investment Authority
Source:  Independent Online – Goldman Sachs had filed a summary judgment application â a request to decide a claim without going to trial â in the case brought by the Libyan Investment Authority(LIA) in January…

California pensions, consumers get $800 million from Bank of America case
(Friday – August 22, 2014) Associated Profiles : California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)
Source:  Merced Sun-Star – The number is (877) 488-7814. The state’s pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, will split $300 million to cover losses they suffered purchasing the securities marketed by BofA….

Watching the Watchers

Headquarters: Zurich, Switzerland
Established: 1998

ESG/Sustainability Focus: Yes: a focus on a combination of agricultural, health, environmental, and sustainability issues. 

KEY PARTNERS
Biovision works with numerous partners, including African Insect Science for Food and Health, the Lilly MDR-TB Partnership, and TWAS. Funders include Liechtenstein Development Service and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Signatory of Time to Act!

OVERVIEW/MISSION
Biovision states its mission as: “Biovision Foundation combats hunger and poverty at their roots, and is committed to the dissemination and application of ecological methods that sustainably improve living conditions in Africa whilst also conserving the environment. Biovision renders “help for self-help” and promotes ecological thought and action in both North and South.”

BACKGROUND 
Biovision focuses on East African countries: Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda.

News Sweeps
Civil Society Groups Provide Inputs on SDGs, Post-2015
(Friday – August 08, 2014) Associated Profiles : Biovision
– uncsd.iisd.org – at the expense of a transformative post-2015 sustainable development agenda. îBiovision and the Millennium Institute, on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Cluster of the NGO…

JKUAT clicks way to first indigenous poultry databank [Business Daily (Kenya)]
(Wednesday – August 06, 2014) Associated Profiles : Biovision
– TMCnet.com – Some of the apps so far created are Cow, BioVision, iKilimo, and Natural Farmer, some of which have got international acclaim. Young Kenyans are embracing agriculture, partly due to technology that…

Kenya releases new crop of tech-savvy extension officers
(Thursday – July 03, 2014) Associated Profiles : Biovision
– Business Daily Africa – Some of the tools so far created are iCow, infonet BioVision, Natural Farmer Info Service and Kilimo. Some of these apps have got international recognition while giving farmers a fall-back…

These feeds are provided for Accountability-Central in partnership with 3BL Media.  3BL Media distributes press releases, blogs, videos, podcasts, reports, newsletters and more to the growing audience of stakeholders interested in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability.  Visit 3BLMedia.com for more. Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf takes the Ice Bucket C… August 28, 2014 Elite Triathletes Take Over the City of Champions August 28, 2014 September is Senior Vaccination Month at CVS/pharm… August 28, 2014 Taco Bell Foundation for Teens Unveils Times Squar… August 28, 2014 For more news and content from 3BL Media, click here.

Governance & Accountability Instiute is the “Sustainability Headquarters™” for clients in the corporate, investment, public and social sectors. Based in New York, G&A is a for-profit consulting organization providing a range of value-added strategies, services and resources related to ESG & sustainability to clients in the corporate and capital markets communities. The G&A services portfolio includes:
ESG Counseling, Strategies & Benchmarking | Competitive Benchmarking | Sustainability Coaching, Team Building & Training | Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility Reporting | ESG & CR Issues Monitoring & Research | Stakeholder Identification, Monitoring & Engagement | Awards & Recognitions Program | External Assurance

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For more information, contact us at:
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