ESG AUM, Gender-smart Investing, Indices Rebalancing and Transparency
Here are 5 things you might have missed this week:
US Sustainable Investing Assets Now Account for $17.1 Trillion—or 1 in 3 Dollars—of Total US AUM-
The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US SIF) released the 13th edition of the biennial Report on US Sustainable and Impact Investing Trends.
The report provides data on the US asset management firms and institutional asset owners using sustainable investment strategies and examines the ESG issues they consider in managing their portfolios.
The Trends report counts two main strategies as sustainable investing: ESG incorporation—applying various environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in investment analysis and portfolio selection—and filing shareholder resolutions on ESG issues.
The top three specific issues for money managers and their institutional investor clients are climate change/carbon emissions, sustainable natural resources/agriculture and board issues.
Private Equity and Value Creation: A Fund Manager’s Guide to Gender-smart Investing-
A new guide from the International Finance Corp. (IFC) and U.K. development finance institution CDC Group.
The guide provides fund managers with a road map to strengthen gender diversity within their firms, and incorporate a gender focus into investment operations.
It combines learnings from CDC and IFC’s experience with over 160 fund managers and draws on best practices with a series of case studies from stakeholders across the industry.
“Gender-smart investing is not only about counting women and men, rather, it is about how gaps between women and men influence business performance and thus the performance of investment funds."
Social Bond Issuance Surges to Unprecedented Levels-
S&P Global Ratings projects COVID-related relief efforts could push issues to exceed $500 billion this year.
The total sustainable debt market, which includes bonds issued to address climate and environmental goals, could hit a record $500 billion, up from $341 billion last year.
To fund programs to address the problem, governments, supranationals, and corporations, among others, have accelerated issuance of sustainable instruments--including social bonds, where issuance jumped nearly four times so far this year to US$71.9 billion from the 2019 level.
Poorer people, minorities, and women are suffering disproportionately from growing health, housing, income, and education gaps under measures to contain COVID-19 that could set them back for years to come.
Results of the Annual Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) Rebalancing and Reconstitution-
MSCI launches public tool to help corporates and industry stakeholders understand its ESG Ratings model.
Overall, 3,429 companies were assessed globally, with a record 1,386 completing the CSA questionnaire.
This year saw the strongest level of corporate participation in the SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) – up 18.9% from 2019, with 238 companies participating for the first time.
The annual review covers the family of all Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) indexes including DJSI World, DJSI Asia Pacific, DJSI Europe, DJSI Emerging Markets, DJSI North America, among others.
Source: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/csa/csa-resources/djsi-csa-annual-review
ESG Industry Materiality Map for Increased Transparency-
MSCI launches public tool to help corporates and industry stakeholders understand its ESG Ratings model.
The new MSCI ESG Industry Materiality Map explores ESG risks by industry and demonstrates how various ESG Risk exposures factor into companies’ ESG Ratings.
The Map reflects the latest ESG Ratings model enhancements and follows the launch of three additional public search tools over the last 12 months to provide transparency into fund, index, and company ESG performance.
Source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201116005728/en/MSCI-launches-public-tool-to-help-corporates-and-industry-stakeholders-understand-its-ESG-Ratings-model & https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings/materiality-map
Two more things:
A 15-minute video on How The U.S. Fell Behind China In The Fight Against Climate Change: CNBC's take on how China has played an increasingly large role in the international fight against climate change.
Find the video here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zt-SMlaaM8
Related to our second highlight: 10 Points why gender is material to investments in the recovery. Criterion Institute has identified 10 economic patterns related to gender that are material to investors as they make COVID-19 response and recovery investments.
"It is well established that gender patterns have an impact on economic health and growth. Less well understood is how changes in these patterns translate into investment opportunity and risk."
Find the report here- https://criterioninstitute.org/resources/10-points-why-gender-is-material-to-investments-in-the-recovery
Do share your comments or the content you think our community should not miss!