Sustainable investing Archives - High Meadows Institute, Inc.

Chris Pinney In Climate, Sustainable investing

Increasing Financial Sector Investment and Support for Climate Resilience and Adaptation

As climate change accelerates, the need for greater financial sector investment and support for climate resilience and adaptation (A&R) is becoming increasingly urgent. While climate finance has traditionally focused on mitigation, primarily through reducing greenhouse gas emissions, recent developments underscore the critical importance of adaptation in securing social, economic, and environmental stability. Why Climate Resilience and Adaptation Matter Climate adaptation investments aim to reduce the economic and social impacts of climate change, including more frequent extreme weather events, population displacement, and infrastructure damage. According to the World Meteorological Organization, extreme weather events have increased fivefold since the 1970s, underscoring the…

Allison Kostka In ESG, Sustainable investing

Notes from RI USA 2022

From navigating new SEC regulations to setting net zero targets to managing an increasing divisive political discourse around ESG, 2022 has brought many new challenges to the field of sustainable investing and catalyzed new debates on where it is heading. On December 6 and 7, sustainable finance and ESG investment professionals from across North America gathered in New York City for Responsible Investor’s 14th annual RI USA conference to discuss developments and best practices for hot-button issues from human rights and biodiversity to net zero and the role of Big Tech. Some of the questions raised in the panels included:…

Steve Lydenberg In Sustainable investing

Some Thoughts on the Future of Responsible Investment

For almost 50 years now, I have been active in the world of responsible investment (otherwise known as sustainable investment, ESG integration, and impact investment, among other things). Its growth, especially since 2010, has surprised me. Assets under management in this once obscure discipline are estimated at as much as $37.8 trillion by year-end 2021.[i] Around the world, the field is exploding with new products, a deluge of data and heightened recognition from regulators. I am particularly surprised at these developments given that since its earliest years, its practitioners have faced a barrage of criticism. The three prongs of these…

Allison Kostka In Review, Sustainable investing

Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory:
A Review

When modern portfolio theory arrived on the scene in the 1950s, it was considered revolutionary. It changed the way that investors perceive risk, return and portfolio management and permanently altered the investing world and financial markets.

Allison Kostka In Review, Sustainable investing

21st Century Investing:
A Review

“It’s time for a new way to think about investing, one that can contend with the complex challenges we face in the 21st century,” authors William Burckart and Steven Lydenberg write in the introduction to their new book, 21st Century Investing: Redirecting Financial Strategies to Drive Systems Change.

William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg In Sustainable investing

21st Century Investing:
Managing Systemic Risks and Rewards

What are the biggest threats to an investor’s portfolio these days? Climate change impacts all investors across all asset classes. Income inequality threatens to polarize politics, paralyze governments, destabilize democracies, and lead to nationalistic populism, trade wars and even geopolitical conflicts.

Jon Lukomnik and James P. Hawley In Sustainable investing

Is There a Biologic Basis to Short-termism? If So, What Can We Do About It?

Everyone has an opinion about short-termism. It has been blamed for underinvestment in infrastructure, basic science, human capital, and research and development.

Jon Lukomnik and James P. Hawley In Sustainable investing

Considering “Conditions of Life” in Finance:
Extended Risk / Extended Intermediation

Finance is, or normatively should be, a service function. For example, asset management provides investors with a desirable risk/return profile for their investments and allocates capital (intermediation) where it is needed by society and the real economy.

Jon Lukomnik and James P. Hawley In Sustainable investing

Rethinking What Drives Materiality

Viewed with historical distance and perspective, the connections between norms, law, regulation and corporate behavior are quite apparent. What is considered socially (market) acceptable changes over time and location, sometimes slowly and sometimes quite rapidly.