Industry bodies

Includes sustainable investing information

The second, and hopefully final, round of negotiations for a strong Global Plastics Treaty will take place this August in Geneva. Investors must continue supporting a strong treaty, as it would reduce risks in the plastic value chain.

A successful treaty should feature legally binding commitments to cut down plastic production, impose restrictions on harmful chemicals, tackle microplastic pollution, enhance waste management and establish financial mechanisms to ensure a fair transition. Companies across the value chain have a responsibility to uphold transparency, accountability, and align their efforts with the goals of a strong treaty.

The world needs to transition to a low carbon economy in order to mitigate the risks posed by climate change. As companies look to adapt to this transition, their investors must also critically assess related risks and opportunities. 

To equip investors with the knowledge and tools needed to evaluate transition risks and climate strategies, we developed The Investor’s Guide to Assessing Corporate Climate Transition Plans. In it we outline the key elements of a credible climate transition plan and provide step-by-step guidance on how to assess and compare companies’ transition readiness. 

Readers of this guide will learn: 

• The investment risks posed by the low carbon transition.
• Why investors need to look beyond corporate commitments and evaluate companies’ climate transition and decarbonization plans.  
• The key elements of a climate transition plan.  
• How to assess the credibility of climate transition plans and how data can help.

MSCI ESG: Advancing Nature-Related Financial Risk Evaluations with WWF (Virtual Event | 29 Apr)

Date
April 29, 2025
 
Time
4:00 p.m. BST London
 
Location
Virtual Platform

As the financial implications of biodiversity loss become clearer, investors are seeking better ways to assess nature-related risks across their portfolios. 
 
Join us for a live session with WWF, where we will explore how these risks are being evaluated - and how you can integrate new data and metrics into your decision-making. 
 
MSCI is partnering with WWF to advance evaluations of sector- and company-specific dependencies on nature and how these translate into financial risk. By combining WWF’s Biodiversity Risk Filter with MSCI GeoSpatial Asset Intelligence, you will gain access to detailed, location-specific data on environmental impacts and risks. 
 
In this session, you will learn how nature-related risks can materialize and which metrics investors are using to identify exposure and resilience across portfolios. 

With less than three months to go until the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) Guidelines on funds’ names using ESG- or sustainability-related terms takes effect on May 21, 2025, fund rebranding is well underway.

The latest data reveals notable trends in fund-naming conventions for Article 8 and 9 funds, as defined under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

Since ESMA’s Guidelines were published in May 2024, the number of funds with sustainability-related names has declined approximately 20%. Such funds are subject to EU Paris-aligned Benchmarks (PAB) exclusions and required to “meaningfully invest in sustainable investments (SI).”

This activity has been primarily driven by the renaming of Article 8 products, indicating that ESMA’s clarification of “meaningfully investing in SI” as being at least 50% of a fund’s assets is challenging for some Article 8 strategies, as highlighted in our recent analysis (opens in a new tab). Environmental- and ESG-related fund names, which are subject to PAB criteria but not the 50% SI threshold, declined by 10% and 12%, respectively. In contrast, transition-related fund names, which are subject to EU Climate Transition Benchmarks exclusions that allow fossil-fuel based investments, grew by 4%.

In brief

• With urban areas expected to account for 70% of the world’s population and 80% of global GDP by 2050,1 towns and cities will need to remain resilient to the impacts of climate change, from both a social and economic standpoint.
• To adapt to increased climate risk, investment spending on urban infrastructure, real estate and transport needs to increase significantly, and the particular climate exposures and vulnerabilities of cities need to be better understood to ensure investments are targeted more effectively.
• Private sector investors have a compelling opportunity to reap the benefits of moving early in a space that offers a range of emerging solutions and the potential for long-term, often inflation-linked returns.
• Asset managers with expertise in understanding the adaptive opportunities within urban infrastructure can provide access to attractive potential returns, while helping clients to manage climate risks within their portfolios.

"Healthcare in the United States is at a critical inflection point. It has the highest spend in the world (and rising), yet >70% of Americans feel failed by their health system[1] and about half of providers report burnout[2].

Across healthcare, providers want to be high-performing with personalized, efficient and value-oriented care, but information blind spots and administrative burdens make it incredibly difficult.

At Generation, we think that better visibility, coordination and automation can fundamentally address these challenges and unlock better patient outcomes.

Our recent investment in Innovaccer is a testament to this vision, as we believe its comprehensive suite of AI-powered solutions helps establish a new normal."

The introduction of the ASRS means that mandatory climate related financial disclosures are now a reality for nearly every company in Australia.

The mandatory climate disclosure reporting has been put in place to improve transparency, accountability and encourage sustainable business operations – driving the net zero transformation. 

A lot of the focus to date has been on the reporting burden and minimum pathways to compliance (with good reason, there is A LOT to do (read more here).

Overview

"In this collaborative paper with Nest (National Employment Savings Trust) and Oxford Sustainable Finance Group, we set out to:

• Provide an overview of available datasets and models for investors and discuss their limitations.
• Share insights from our joint effort to integrate forward-looking physical risk data into the Nest UBS collaboration on climate investing.
• Discuss our respective efforts to expand analysis of physical risk across our investment universe, and how stewardship and engagement can address some of the challenges posed by poor quality data.
• Call on market participants to remind them of their roles in helping investors accurately assess physical climate risks to confidently integrate them in portfolios.

Impax AM: Addressing the hidden water footprint of data

Innovative technologies can help data centre operators reduce their water-related dependencies, creating opportunities for investors amid rising demand for a finite resource

Executive summary

• "Rising adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is indirectly driving soaring water consumption by data centres
• Local water scarcity could present material risks to operators, but a lack of transparency limits investors’ understanding of the issue
• Investors can look to identify opportunities in the technological solutions that can help the industry manage its water intensity
• We also believe that investors can help the industry confront these risks by encouraging more comprehensive water-related disclosures and advocating for water efficiency measures"

AI and datacenters are driving a surge in US electricity demand, creating new investment opportunities in the energy sector.

Key points

• AI and datacenters are driving a revival in US electricity demand growth.
• US datacenter energy use grew substantially between 2018 and 2023.
• The Department of Energy projects significant growth in datacenter power demand by 2028.
• AI enthusiasm is accelerating datacenter capital expenditures.

Key points

• President Trump has rapidly changed a number of US and global policies that significantly impact ESG.
• While it is too early to assess the full impact of these changes, it is a good time to consider the implications. New information continues to come to light, which means things can change quickly and require continuous monitoring, however, this paper outlines our current thinking. In addition, the outcomes and impact on Australia may also hinge on the upcoming Australian federal election outcome.
• In our view, rather than degrading the importance of ESG issues, the debate will likely lead to stronger focus on the financial materiality of ESG, which can vary from issue to issue; resulting in continued strong engagement on ESG topics that truly matter. In turn, this could have a voluminous impact on the demand for ESG and engagement in an issues rich environment
• On climate change, Trump’s move to leave the Paris Agreement is reminiscent of the first time he made such an exit, in 2017, which was subsequently reversed by Biden in 2021.
• In Australia, the US and across Europe, superannuation and pension funds, the largest holders of investment capital globally with over US$55.7 trillion  in total assets, are largely committed to ESG values and approaches, and many to climate change goals.
• 2025 is shaping up to be a record year for Ausbil’s ESG Team in terms of issues and engagement.

Carbon Tracker: Crude Intentions III

One step forward, one step back in executive remuneration policies in oil and gas

"With hydrocarbons demand expected to peak this decade, oil and gas companies should prioritise strategies that maximise shareholder value over expanding output. To ensure success, executive compensation plans must align with this ‘value over volume’ approach.

Our analysis examines executive remuneration at 30 of the world's largest oil and gas companies, focusing on 2023 compensation plans—the most recent year with a complete dataset. We also compare these plans with those from 2022 and, where disclosed, 2024. 

Key questions addressed:

1.     Metrics Utilised: Which metrics drive executive decision-making? 

2.     Growth Incentives: Which companies were most reliant on volume-growth metrics? 

3.     Disclosure: How transparent are companies? 

4.     Timeline Mismatch: Do incentive plans align with strategy? 

5.     Recent changes: What changed from 2022 to 2023? 

6.     Stakeholder Engagement: What should stakeholders ask? 

Alongside the cross-sectional analysis, we've incorporated an analysis of executive remuneration plans from 2021-2023 for each of the 30 companies in our universe."

In recent months, the U.S. federal government has been actively dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs across federal agencies and businesses with government contracts. This shift, driven by executive orders aimed at “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs” and “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” has significant implications for both public and private sectors.

As the private sector is urged to follow suit, it raises important questions about the future of DEI initiatives.

Regnan shares why management of strategic human capital remains essential to maximising business performance and highlights how companies can effectively navigate these changes.

Delivering a cleaner, healthier world

Contains sections on:

• Sustainability at Reckitt
• More sustainable brands
• Healthier planet
• Fairer society

Increased use of digital content, faster connectivity rates, the Internet of Things and now demand from AI are all driving demand for data centres. Data centres are where most of our digital information ultimately is stored and where, increasingly, much of the computational power takes place to carry out computing tasks.  They represent a key component of the infrastructure we inadvertently rely on when using our phones and computers.

We have researched how we can invest behind businesses which can make these data centres more efficient in terms of energy use and associated emissions many times in the past two decades. The easiest way for businesses to improve the energy efficiency and reduce the carbon intensity of their computing needs is by moving their servers off premises into a larger, more efficiently run data centre and optimising server utilisation through the use of virtual servers which ensure the system is more efficient.

Newton's themes continue to evolve:

• Micro theme groups: Internet of Things, Smart Everything, Tectonic Shifts, Picture of Health & Natural Capital
• Macro themes: Big Government, Evolving Trade, Financialisation, Great Power Competition and Human Capital

Christopher Gardner, professor at Stanford University, and Richard Mattes, professor at Purdue University, join Newton Specialist Research Team to set the table on ultra-processed foods (UPFs), digging into health implications, regulatory challenges, and the role of UPFs in the Western diet.

Over the past few quarters, investors in the renewables power generation sector have pushed down valuations, questioning growth and return opportunities following a confluence of headwinds. However, while the stock market remains sceptical, we have seen private equity firms, utilities and renewables companies themselves conclude that valuations are now too attractive to ignore. We believe that this highlights the attractive buying opportunities that can currently be found in the renewable power space.

The US power sector is on the cusp of a profound transformation, driven by surging demand for electricity. This seismic shift is creating multi-decade opportunities for investors, particularly those with a focus on grid modernisation, digitisation, and decarbonisation.

Article addresses:

• Accelerating power demand
• What's driving this surge?
• Building the future: Challenges and opportunities
• A structural growth opportunity
• Meeting demand growth
• Investing in a dynamic and expanding investment opportunity

The quarterly regulation update outlines the key developments in sustainability regulation globally. The primary focus is on sustainability policy milestones as well as consultations that will result in rules shaping the investment industry in the future.

• We believe the quality of people behind a business has the greatest bearing on its long-term success or failure. 
• We have found through time that one of the surest ways to lose client money, is by handing it to people who do not have as their prime focus, the long-term performance of their company and minority shareholders who are along for the ride. 

This article gives examples of:

• Portfolio holdings across a range of ownership models, all with exceptional cultures
• What makes us change our minds on stewardship and
• Where we’ve made mistakes

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners

Broad overall growth throughout the Group

Both Ready-to-cook and Ready-to-eat, Scandi Standards' largest segments, grew significantly during the year, which led to good growth. Earnings increased due to strong underlying growth and demand for chicken and a diversified customer base with higher profitability.

Scandi Standard Baltics

Scandi Standard's acquisition in Lithuania strengthens the overall operations and accelerates the achievement of the financial targets and meeting future customer demand. Increased control in the value chain allows Scandi Standard to achieve cost efficiency, combined with the company's high standards in quality, animal welfare, sustainability, food safety, and antibiotic usage.

Sustainability-linked financing

Scandi Standard signed a sustainability-linked loan to refinance existing bank financing and support long-term growth. The financing creates financial flexibility that allows the company to realise the organic potential set out in the financial targets and to simultaneously participate as a consolidated operator in existing and new markets.

New climate targets and the CDP A-list

The Science Based Targets initiative approved Scandi Standards' new short-and long-term climate targets, which now include emissions according to the Forest, Land, and Agriculture (FLAG) standard. The company's climate work also received external recognition through a place on the investor rating CDP's A-list for climate."

Our Integrated Report on economic and ESG performance serves as a comprehensive disclosure of financial and non-financial information. While it is relevant to all our stakeholders, its primary focus is on shareholders, investors, and ESG analysts.

The report's content is chosen according to Givaudan's corporate strategy and materiality assessment. It includes information that is required by current reporting obligations or commitments, and is considered material or decision-relevant to the company and its stakeholders.

For the first time, the Report includes a Sustainability Statements section, prepared in accordance with the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). With the introduction of the Sustainability Statements (pages 341-440), Shell has retired its voluntary Sustainability Report after 27 years.

The Henkel Sustainability Report covers the key ecological and social developments in fiscal 2024. The contents of this report reflect the Henkel-relevant and material challenges of sustainable development.

"Our Sustainability at Smiths report provides a holistic view of how we are performing and creating value for our customers, our colleagues and our communities. We report against our Sustainability at Smiths ESG framework to complement our financial reporting and to help structure and share our performance across a range of non-financial ESG metrics of interest to many of our stakeholders."

KEY POINTS

• Changing political backdrop; 2024 Billion people at elections;
• Climate risk continues to emerge;
• SDGs missed 3,048 signatories, representing $89trn; 88 countries; largest global survey (pg 9) Third annual survey 

FINDINGS

• A positive global message - despite the changing politics, signatories have continued to develop their policies, practices and processes dealing with climate and human rights.
• A focus on fiduciary duty - the C-Suite's leading motivation for action on sustainability is value creation. 
• Asset owners are ramping up action - assessment of investment managers is becoming more granular and increasingly integrated into contractual arrangements. Escalation, collaboration and climate commitments are all activities where AOs lead the way.
• Innovation among private markets LPs and GPs is widespread – from investing in the energy transition to working with portfolio companies, LPs and GPs are developing different innovative approaches to approaches to sustainability.
• The C-Suite at our signatory’s consider climate change the #1 issue. It is put into practices through climate policies, capital allocation and stewardship practices.

AREAS FOR WORK

There are a couple of areas which get the ‘More effort required’ grade - these include putting the UN Global Principle’s into action, introducing formal practices around managing climate related risk, supporting the Paris Agreement, disclosure of rationales for proxy voting and utilising climate metrics.
 

A methodology to assess the sustainability policies of financial institutions

Oxfam Novib has commissioned this report on behalf of the Fair Finance International network of civil society organisations.

It presents a methodology that is used to assess and rank financial institutions’ finance and investment policies regarding their principles on sustainable development and responsible business conduct.

The methodology is developed by Profundo together with the civil society organisations collaborating in Fair Finance International and is based on international standards and initiatives.

This report identifies industrial salmon farming’s biggest financial backers and exposes the deeply troubling role global financiers are playing in creating a food production system – salmon farming – that is harming people’s food security, health and livelihoods, as well as extracting a huge toll on the environment....

• Our analysis shows that between January 2015-November 2024, international financiers channelled tens of billions of dollars into leading salmon farmingcompanies in the form of investments or credit.
• The top 5 creditors were: Nordea (US$4.5 billion), DNB (US$ 4.3 billion), Danske Bank (US$2.6 billion), Rabobank (US$1.8 billion) and ABN Amro (US$1.3 billion).
• The top 5 investors as of November 2024 were: Government Pension Fund Norway (US$1.7 billion), BlackRock (US$0.8 billion), Storebrand (US$0.6 billion), Vanguard (US$0.6 billion) and Nordea (US$0.5 billion)
• Three companies, Mowi, SalMar and Bakkafrost, were the biggest recipients of both investment and credit.

SII/FSI seeks a research provider to conduct research and produce a report outlining key sector-specific drivers of anthropogenic methane emissions and investor-relevant mitigation pathways.

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Download full RFP from here.

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This report will provide a high-level, investor-relevant analysis outlining the opportunities and challenges to methane mitigation in key contributing sectors, including:

• oil and gas
• coal mining (open-cut and underground)
• agriculture
• waste/landfills

[... and address ...] policy and regulatory frameworks; and identifying avenues for investor action.

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Proposal guidelines:  

In your proposal, please include the following information:

• Proposed research methodology  
• The proposed scope of the research
• Proposed relevant publications to be used as literature review
• Proposed report structure
• Proposed timetable for execution of the project, including intended interaction with the Institute and report reviews. Please indicate the earliest project complication.
• Proposed fees and costs  
• Short biographies or skills profile of the proposed team members

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Proposed timelines:

• This RFP is issued on 26.03.2025
• Any questions or feedback regarding the brief should be submitted by 04.04.2025
• Answers to any questions will be provided by 11.04.2025
• Proposal should be submitted to the Institute by 18.04.2025 together with availability for a 1 hour call to discuss the proposals in the week of 21.04.2025
• Target for notifying the successful tenderer by 02.05.2025

Policy frameworks to support the decarbonization of the transportation sector are driving growth in renewable fuels markets, increasing demand for U.S. soybeans as a sustainable input to production. As the renewable fuels market continues to develop and grow, led by California, new opportunities for U.S. farmland investors are emerging.

In this paper, we examine policies that incentivize renewable fuel production in the U.S. and focus on the recent rise in renewable diesel production, which has grown from 533 million gallons in 2020 to a projected 3.2 billion in 2024. We analyze soybean oil’s use as a renewable diesel feedstock and the additional demand that has created for soybeans and the agricultural land they are grown on.

This report draws on seven in-depth interviews with senior executives and experts. It seeks to understand how the food industry can use AI to help meet the increasing global demand for nutritious, affordable produce, ensure resilient supplies, and minimize its effects on the environment.

S&P Global - Associate Director, Energy Transition Consulting (Multiple locations | close unknown)

JobPost: SSgA - Sustainability Reporting & Climate Policy Officer (London | Close 30 Apr)

JobPost: Goldman Sachs Alternatives - Sustainability & Impact, ESG Product Design, Senior Analyst (London |  Close unknown)

Jobpost: Merck - Associate Director, Sustainability Strategy & Engagement (US | close 7 Apr)

Senior Specialist Stewardship, Nature

Policy Specialist, Canada (12 Month Fixed Term Contract)

Specialist, Progression & Innovation

Associate, Sustainable Financial System

Digital Marketing Associate

Senior Policy Specialist, Africa

Senior Specialist, Sustainability Initiatives 18 Month Fixed Term Contract, (with possible extension)

Associate, Sustainability Initiatives (18 Month Fixed Term Contract)

Head of Human Rights, Social & Governance Issues

Project Manager, Events & Initiatives (12 Month Fixed Term Contract)

JobPost: Goldman Sachs - Asset & Wealth Management, Private Credit, Global Head of ESG, Vice President (NYC | Close unknown)

Senior Learning & Development Partner - People & Culture Team - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Senior Internal Communications & Engagement Business Partner - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Specialist, CRM Administrator - Solutions & Technology - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Growth Marketing Manager - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Specialist, Stewardship Climate Action 100+ (12 Month Fixed Term Contract) - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

JobPost: PRI - Senior Specialist, Sovereign Engagement (Canada) 2 Year Fixed Term Contract
 

Employment Type Contract Please note, where PRI has an office there is an expectation to work a minimum of 2 days per week 
 
Location  Hybrid · Canada    Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal
 
Seniority Senior
Closing: 8:00pm, 6th Apr 2025 CDT

JobPost: Business Analyst, Technology & Infrastructure - PRI (London | Closing: 8:00pm, 2nd Mar 2025 GMT)

JobPosts: 3 @ PRI (1 x Brazil, 2 x London)

Associate, Signatory Operations (Bilingual) - Brazil - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Senior Press Officer, Communications - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

People Administrator, People & Culture Team - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

People Partner (Projects & Initiatives) - People & Culture Team - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

UKSIF – Membership Manager

UKSIF – Media Relations Manager

UKSIF – Committee Members

Senior Analyst, Policy (18 Month Fixed Term Contract) - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Specialist, Sustainability Initiatives (18 Month Fixed Term Contract) - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Senior Policy Analyst, Japan - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Associate, Responsible Investment Engagement & Innovation (12 Month Fixed Term Contract) - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

JobPost: TrustPilot - Group ESG Strategy & Reporting Manager (London | close unknown)

JobPost: Zurich Insurance - Climate Change & Sustainability Risk Consultant (remote | close 19 Feb)

Stewardship Intern (4 Month Contract) - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Policy Specialist LATAM (Mexico) - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

JobPost: Chanel - ESG Due Diligence & Governance Manager (Paris | Close Unknown)

JobPost: Lloyds Banking Group - Head of Reporting & Controls - ESG (London | Close 7 Feb)