Insight Roundup - March
OWL ESG, Inc.
Transforming how ESG data is gathered, analyzed, researched, and applied.
It’s Time to Stop Politicizing “ESG”
The worst nuclear disaster in history, the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant meltdown, occurred because Soviet officials were certain the conditions that caused the explosion were impossible even though the exact same thing (something called Xenon poisoning) had taken place in 1983 at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania, a plant with the same RBMK reactor design as Chernobyl. The disaster happened during a safety test, ironically, where the staff conducting the test was woefully untrained. Soviet officials were so positive that a nuclear meltdown could not have occurred that evacuation did not begin until a full day and a half after the explosion.
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Consumers Reduce, Reuse & Recycle; EPR Programs Get Producers Involved
You are no doubt familiar with the choice between carrots and sticks (remember, these are metaphors, except for horses). In other words, when trying to bring about or prevent a particular behavior we can choose between rewards or penalties. Both approaches can work, although usually imperfectly, even when the potential reward or punishment is substantial (as both psychologists and parents will attest).?
Is there a third way? How about, “let’s all chip in, share the cost and the responsibility, and work together to make things better.” That may sound like a fairytale but when looking for ways to reduce certain industries’ environmental impacts, it’s nonfiction, and it’s happening now. We’re talking about Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs—a sadly dull name for an important idea. Perhaps because the name lacks pizzazz there is a lack of awareness about EPR. We think it’s time to change that.
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领英推荐
Net Zero Alliances in the Financial Sector
Alliances and initiatives can be powerful. Consider NATO, arguably the strongest, most important political alliance in the world. Global health initiatives are successfully combating diseases from AIDS to malaria to tuberculosis around the world. In the fight against climate change, a wide range of alliances and initiatives have been formed. In this article, we focus on alliances and initiatives in the financial industry that seek to reduce carbon emissions using their clout as stewards of investors’ capital and providers of other critical financial services.
Read the full article HERE.
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Word Choices about Sustainability and More
This title of a recent article in Reuters caught our eye: “Majority of global asset managers still not investing responsibly, ShareAction says.” The first line of the article goes on to say, “Global asset managers controlling trillions of dollars are failing to invest in a way that will protect climate, biodiversity, and people, despite efforts by the industry to promote its sustainable finance credentials,” according to the corporate responsibility group ShareAction.
Why did this catch our eye? This may take you back to your high school English class when the teacher had you dissect a paragraph, sentence by sentence, phrase by phrase. But in all honesty, a couple of things about the choice of words here made us stop and think — actually, three things…no, make that four:
Note that we do not fully agree with ShareAction’s point of view as described in this (very brief) article. But we do think the way Reuters’ phrased certain things is interesting, and we hope to provoke some thought by commenting this. With that said, let’s dive in.
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