ESG

UN Report Reviews Response to "Sustainable Finance" Agenda

June 05, 2018

The final report of UN Environment's "Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System" examines how financial institutions and regulatory bodies are responding to pressure from governments, activists, and international organizations by reforming their structures to divert "desperately needed" funding toward the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
NGO Seeks Larger State Role in Minerals Due Diligence

June 01, 2018

Human Rights Watch has called for a more robust government role across the globe in forcing companies to comply with guidance from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on how to perform "due diligence" to address potential human rights abuses in their minerals supply chains.
Massachusetts Court Permits Demand for Exxon Records

May 31, 2018

Illustrating the progression of a set of US state investigations against energy companies over global warming, Reuters reports that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that the state's Attorney General has jurisdiction to demand private records from Exxon to determine whether the company misled consumers regarding the risks of climate change.
NGO Seeks ABA Support of Corporate Transparency Law

May 21, 2018

Amol Mehra of the nongovernmental organization International Corporate Accountability Roundtable calls on the American Bar Association (ABA) to withdraw its opposition to a bill in the US Congress that would require companies to disclose their ownership to the government to facilitate law-enforcement investigations aimed at enforcing US money-laundering laws.
UK Presses Companies to Report Gender Pay Gap

May 21, 2018

The Guardian reports that the UK government has threatened action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission for companies that fail to report any sex-based disparities in their pay policies by a recent deadline, as the UK ramps up pressure on companies using corporate reporting mandates to accomplish the social goal of "creating fairer and more equal workplaces."
GRI Launches Partnership on Minerals Reporting

May 21, 2018

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Responsible Minerals Initiative have launched a project aiming to pressure companies to perform human rights due diligence in their global minerals supply chains and to engage in public reporting on their efforts to rid these supply chains of rights abuses.
GRI, CSE Partner to Push Companies on Public Reporting

May 21, 2018

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has announced a partnership with the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) to train companies listed on the CSE to engage in public reporting, using GRI "sustainability" standards, on their environmental, social, and governance impacts.
US Judge Rejects Exxon Lawsuit Against State AGs

May 18, 2018

The New York Times reports that a federal judge in New York has rejected a lawsuit by energy giant Exxon seeking to limit investigations pursued by a group of state attorneys general regarding Exxon's knowledge of its contributions to global warming on the ground that the state officials were pursuing the investigation in bad faith.
Australia Plans Corporate Reporting on Supply-Chain Labor

May 16, 2018

The Guardian reports that the Australian government has announced a plan to require over 3,000 large companies in the country to publicly report on an annual basis how they are addressing the risks of forced labor in their global supply chains, sparking criticism from rights activists calling for the establishment of an independent anti-slavery commissioner.
Greenpeace Arm Quits Forest Certification Group

May 11, 2018

Climate news website Eco-Business reports that Greenpeace International will leave the Forest Stewardship Council, a global certification body aimed at pushing businesses to avoid deforestation, because the body is failing to accomplish its aims of protecting the environment and the human rights of people who live in the forest.