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The new year is well and truly under way, the mountains around Davos have turned a snowy white, and the 2024 edition of the World Economic Forum is about to get underway. What can investors expect? As in previous years, somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 official guests will attend – many from the business community, … Read more

In 2009, a team of internationally renowned scientists introduced ‘planetary boundaries’. This framework was designed to communicate the limit to which humans could impact the Earth’s systems without disrupting its stability. The scientists were able to identify nine boundaries: climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, chemical pollution, freshwater consumption, land-use change, nitrogen … Read more

Lazard Asset Management has appointed Impax’s Evie Paterson as portfolio manager and analyst, to work on the Lazard Global Sustainable Equity strategy. Paterson began her career at Abrdn as a graduate business analyst and then a responsible investing analyst, where she stayed for over three years. She then moved to Impax, where she spent the … Read more

In this new series, ESG Clarity takes a deep dive into an investment firm’s stewardship activities, discovering their key focuses and processes, and what’s in their engagement toolkit. Here, Andrew Mason, head of active ownership at abrdn, shares how the team will be engaging on biodiversity and climate, and how they will closely track progress. … Read more

S&P Dow Jones has added to its range of sustainability-focused indexes with the launch of two more linked to the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). The S&P 500 SDG Index and the S&P Global LargeMidCap SDG Index provide diverse exposures to companies that are collectively more aligned with the United Nations’ 17 SDGs. They use … Read more

Allegations of forced labour were found in the supply chains of 46% of companies benchmarked by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre project KnowTheChain. According to KnowTheChain Apparel & Footwear Benchmark for 2022/3, which looked at 65 of the world’s largest apparel and footwear companies, the average score for protecting workers in the supply chain against … Read more

The Green Finance Institute (GFI) has published a toolkit designed to equip the UK farming community with an understanding of nature markets to help them assess whether they could provide a suitable new income stream for their business. Commissioned by DEFRA, the Farming Toolkit for Assessing Opportunities in Nature Markets is a free, independent resource … Read more

Support among asset managers for resolutions aimed at addressing environmental and social issues has crashed to a level not seen before in ShareAction’s fifth annual Voting Matters report, with only 3% of assessed resolutions passed in 2023. Of the environmental resolutions assessed, just 3% were passed last year compared to 32% in 2021, with asset … Read more

Over 50 asset managers now offer strategies categorised as ‘natural capital’, encompassing investments across agriculture, timberland, and ‘natural climate solutions’, according to a report by Bfinance. The strategies have developed in a response to growing desire as searches for ‘natural capital’ manager surpassed searches for real estate managers for Bfinance for the first year. The … Read more

Flexstone Partners, an affiliated investment manager of Natixis Investment Managers managing more than $10bn in assets, has appointed Samira Boussem as managing director and head of sustainability. Based in France, Boussem is tasked with leading Flexstone’s sustainability strategy and responsible investment approach, which will be implemented across the firm’s various bespoke investment solutions offered to … Read more