Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

As the Ohio House of Representatives prepares to vote on HB 114, major businesses and investors representing more than 30,000 employees, call on lawmakers to vote against the bill, a proposal that they say would dismantle the states renewable energy and energy efficiency standards and create prolonged uncertainty for the business and investor community.

GRI and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have signed an Exchange of Letters to deepen the organizations’ collaboration on responsible investment, including work related to the Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative. The collaboration will allow the organizations to reach key players in the investment chain to raise awareness on how sustainability reporting can pave the way to a green economy.

The competitive landscape is changing. The regulatory environment is evolving. Confidence in the direction of the economy appears to be growing. Business leaders are cautiously optimistic about talk of pro-growth policies that may be advanced by the new administration in Washington. Yet each week seems to be defined by the dissent and demonstrations of citizens in communities all across our country who fear for our future.

Disaster recovery remains a driving force for Asia, which experiences more natural disasters than any other region in the world. Floods, earthquakes and cyclones continue to wreak havoc—killing people, wiping out homes and livelihoods, and leaving economies in distress. However, there may be a solution that will help mitigate loss going forward—making small investments in the power grid today by embracing emerging smart grid and microgrid solutions will save these ever-expanding cities’ resources while critically improving disaster resilience and recovery of life in times of human tragedy.

POWERGRID International has selected CPS Energy’s Demand Response Management System (DRMS) as its 2017 Demand Response/Energy Efficiency Project of the Year. The project will unify demand response (DR) and distributed energy resource (DER) programs totaling 165 megawatts (MW) in capacity on a single application.

It is well documented that CSR practices are both an emerging and rapidly expanding set of standards for 21st century corporations. As $30 to $40 trillion shifts hands from the current generation to the upcoming millennials over the next few decades, there are markedly different standards that companies must uphold to gain traction in the evolving investor and consumer market.

The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Climate Action Plan, including withdrawing support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, “is completely misguided and ignores the irreversible clean energy economy that is already underway, creating good-paying jobs and economic vitality in communities across the country,” Ceres President Mindy Lubber said in a statement today. Lubber served as the EPA Administrator for the New England Region in 2000.

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU) has been named a 2017 World’s Most Ethical Company® by the Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices.

Prudential Financial, Inc., L+M Development Partners, and The Goldman Sachs Group, in partnership with Citi Community Capital, joined Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to celebrate the grand opening of the historic Hahne & Company building in downtown Newark. The restored building features an arts and cultural center operated by Rutgers University-Newark and around 75,000 square feet of new retail space on Broad Street, including Newark’s first Whole Foods. The project was accomplished with support from local co-developers Hanini Group and Crawford Street Partners.

The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) announced the appointment of Mark Grier as its new Board Chair. Grier serves as Vice Chairman at Prudential Financial Inc. Grier’s appointment marks a milestone in the advancement of the GIIN, which will benefit from Prudential’s more than 40 years of institutional impact investing experience.