Sustainable, Impact and ESG News and Investment Digest (week ending 29 March 2020)
A weekly round-up of developments in sustainable, impact and ESG news and investing.
In this week's digest:
- Are top brands unwittingly using forced Uighur labour?
- Is Covid19 a stress test for future events?
- Agreeing protocols for fund names could help ESG cause
- UK builds "electric" petrol station
- IFC launches range of transparent social bonds
Are top brands unwittingly using forced Uighur labour?
A disturbing report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) suggests major international brands such Apple, BMW, Gap, Nike, Samsung and Volkswagen could unwittingly be using forced Uighur labour.
The ASPI report identified 27 pan-Chinese factories where detainees from camps have had been relocated.
The company calls for companies to implement full supply chain audits to ensure there is no chain-tainting.
DW
Covid19 stress test for future events?
Global risk modelers are using current responses to the Covid19 pandemic as a bellwether for how we may handle future climate events.
Social issues often interweave with actual events to compound the effects on economies and markets.
Emilie Mazzacurati, the founder of Moody’s Four Twenty Seven Inc climate analysis firm said
“We need to be able to think and stretch our imagination beyond what we have seen historically—in this case things that were unthinkable a few weeks ago, such as airlines shutting down and not driving, are now in place.”
Bloomberg
Agreeing protocols for fund names could help ESG cause
Unless varnish and paint products; fund names often do not do what they say on the packet. The US SEC is currently reviewing fund naming conventions to ensure fund names are not misleading.
This could help in defining what an ESG or sustainable fund really is. Currently there is a plethora of "ESG" funds on offer with no clear or standard definition of what this means.
Investment News
UK builds first "electric" petrol station
Essex in the UK will be the site of the country's first "electric power station".
The station will be able to charge 24 cars simultaneously and will be built on a site at Great Notley, near Braintree, Essex, by Gridserve. The intention is that the solar-power driven forecourt will be a test case for the viable charging of electric vehicles on a scaleable basis.
It will open summer 2020 and is the first of more than 100 additional experimental sites to be built in England.
BBC
IFC launches range of transparent social bonds
IFC is issuing a range of ongoing social bonds to support select projects that address social issues for targeted populations including women entrepreneurs, lower income communities and emerging market projects; backed by IFC's AAA rating.
You Tube