What metrics can companies use to measure the experience of women in the workplace more consistently? We take stock of the current state of measurement by evaluating the current parties involved in reporting, and then present a suite of metrics, drawn from Wharton’s Four for Women initiative, that companies can use to collect and report.

This paper is the product of a collaboration between Dream and Impact Delta. Dream is one of Canada’s leading real estate companies, whose purpose is to deliver strong returns while delivering positive impact in the communities where it works. We advised Dream on the launch of its impact investing strategy, which is outlined here.

Growing numbers of investors believe they must understand the full financial, environmental and social impact of their decisions. What tools exist to help them? This paper, published in October 2020 and revised a year later, explores externalities in investment decision-making. While externalities are hard to measure, more progress on this question has been made than many mainstream investors realize.

Asset owners’ decisions affect people over the world, so they want to know if investment managers’ ESG efforts are serious. This post explores eight things asset owners can do to evaluate the sustainability performance their managers. We divide the checklist into two parts: things to do now, and things to form a view on over time.

In 2020 we published a white paper in which we set to explore how PE firms could change their mindset about ESG for the coming decade. These are the main ideas, and the PDF is available for download at the button below. The recent change in attitudes to environmental questions has been swift, and continues to gather force.

In 2020, renewables will account for a bigger share of U.S. electricity generation than coal, thanks to the coronavirus crisis, and coal’s lack of competitiveness vs. solar and wind. As more coal plants remain idle or are shut down, U.S. power has dipped below 400g of CO2 per kWh for the first time.

A Carbon Tracker chart to show….world is off track for mitigation targets | Progress in power generation, among other places, means 4 degrees by 2100 could be a maximum | Public complacency is still a risk - as public concern may have peaked | The case for climate reparations

Flows data suggest ESG assets are stickier | US Strategic Petroleum Reserve's replenishment plan: a boon to the oil industry | The fashion industry's giant water habit | Slowing VC activity in alternative proteins

The key to EVs: sourcing key metals directly can help with traceability | The tradeoffs of divest vs. invest | Shell's partnership with ABB: 2.5 million chargers by 2030 | Tesla's plan to source EV metals directly from mines...and it's now more profitable than GM or Ford | Google's Earth Day images of Greenland over time

...and be cut by 45% by 2030 to stay sub-1.5 degrees | IPCC Working Group II: Distinctions between 'E' and 'S' can be a false dichotomy | IPCC Working Group III: "It's now or never" | Greenwashing continues? HBR article reviews work from University of Chicago, which finds high-ESG-rated mutual funds don't outperform, and an unrelated survey finds companies in ESG portfolio have worse labor and environment compliance records | Asian debt is exposed to ESG risks

ESG factors can help explain 1 in 4 potential bond downgrades says a recent study by S&P | Positive ESG ratings do not mean carbon free | Morgan Stanley study shows that bonds with rigorous sustainability targets tend to have superior price performance a month after an offering | Green real easts starts to see a "green premium"

...is how much we have to remove to hit 1.5 degrees | The US Department of Energy repositions the department of Fossil Energy as Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, and invests in R&D for carbon capture and storage | The Ford Mustang E triples production capacity | Livewire's SPAC: Harley Davidson will own 74% of the company | EVs are for rich people, who produce 50% of global carbon emissions