Corporate Responsibility

The investment community -- especially fiduciaries -- continues to have a flow of more "green" products being made available from a growing number of issuers and their intermediaries; these include "green bonds." Charting this trend, a team of Barclays managers and researchers issued a report as part of the "Barclays Impact Series." Their findings: ESG investing can have a positive effect on portfolios for institutional and individual investors. There are small-but-steady performance benefits and no evidence of a negative impact for such investing.

Sodexo, world leader in Quality of Life services, and the American Red Cross in New Hampshire and Vermont have entered into a partnership to provide disaster clients of the Red Cross in that region with meals during times of disaster response.

Let’s get real – individual investors have no sway in the public markets. The place where individual investors can have the most impact – by far – is in providing direct growth capital to private companies and social enterprises.

Given the new political landscape, what lies ahead for sustainable investing? How does our industry continue to move forward?

Giving back: it’s an action that can be carried out in countless ways. For some, giving back means volunteering in their community. For others, it means donating money or goods to those who need it most. For Civic 50 sector leaders Toyota Financial Services and UnitedHealth Group, employees give back by exercising their corporate know-how and investing their time and talent in communities to provide the biggest impact.

“Going Green” has become standard practice in a high percentage of hotels and other hospitality facilities. It’s the right thing to do. But it can also create the positive public relations and opinion of your brand that you are looking for. It’s a win-win.

Reducing our climate impact is not only the right thing to do for the planet, it’s quite simply good business. I witness this every day across HPE’s global operations, where initiatives like renewable energy purchasing, building optimization and data center consolidation, all help our business run smarter, at less cost, and attract the favor of customers, investors, and employees.

For the second year in a row, National Geographic aired a global live broadcast of the Breakthrough Prize ceremony, an annual awards show that aims to give scientists and mathematicians the same celebrity treatment as actors and musicians. Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman hosted the December 4 ceremony, which also included appearances by Jeremy Irons, astronaut Scott Kelly, Sienna Miller, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vin Diesel, Kevin Durant, Dev Patel, Alex Rodriguez, and Will.i.am, as well as a musical performance by Alicia Keys. The event, which distributed $25 million in awards supporting the work of top scientists and students, will re-air as a one-hour special on the FOX network on Sunday, December 18 at 7PM.

MGM National Harbor announces that it has met and exceeded all of its commitments to Prince George’s County, Md. under the Community Benefits Agreement.

Green infrastructure incorporates natural systems into engineered systems to provide clean water, conserve ecosystem values and functions, and offer a wide array of ancillary benefits to people and wildlife.