Sustainable Finance & Socially Responsible Investment

Affordable home builder and Business Call to Action (BctA) member ¡Échale! a Tu Casa has made an ambitious new pledge to provide 12,500 new low-income clients with access to sustainable housing solutions and financing in Mexico by 2022.

Matching gift programs do a lot to encourage employee loyalty, and many companies include added perks with their matching gift programs.

Uncertainty is natural in today’s turbulent global environment. But what is certain is that the need for responsible leadership by business is greater today than at any other time in recent history. As governments grapple with transition and change, responsible business leadership can, and must, lead the way. The issues that face our world won’t wait.

Mission Waco will soon be known as one of Texas’ sustainability leaders thanks to a new partnership. Green Mountain Energy Sun Club has selected the Waco-based nonprofit to receive a $234,000 donation to support a unique sustainability project dubbed Urban REAP for “Urban Renewable Energy and Agriculture Project.”

Ideally, the free market would have some mechanism by which the interests of future generations are protected. It would have some emergency brake to stop excessive consumption that might leave future generations with less than they deserve.

The Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab is the combination of a lab, makerspace, and classroom for students from all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. By combining mini-lectures with team interactions, students are encouraged to innovate, partner, and achieve beyond what exists.

For many companies, sustainability is an increasingly important part of their overall business strategy. As a result, sustainability professionals work hard to track, analyze and meaningfully report on their sustainability initiatives to find new opportunities and report on progress to goals.

But with so much data at their disposal, as well as a being closely connected with that data, some find it difficult to extract the most valuable and inspiring insights to propel their efforts forward—and get stakeholders onboard.

The good news is that there’s a solution: materiality assessments.

GRI and the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) are excited to announce the first set of GRI Standards open for review in 2017 - GRI 303: Water and GRI 403: Occupational Health and Safety. Stakeholders with expertise in these areas can apply now to participate in the development process.

When it comes to communicating impact, there are a number of ways to do it. Creating an impact calculator, sharing data in real time or using social math are just a few tactics. Yet, when it comes to helping donors understand impact, a personal story can go a long way – and the more authentic the better. Now, one nonprofit organization is showing impact on the ground with real, unedited beneficiary stories.

Holland America Line launched three new commuter “ships” Monday, Jan. 9, that will run on the Sound Transit Light Rail System in Seattle. The trains, which are wrapped to resemble Holland America Line’s newest ship, ms Koningsdam, will cruise the tracks through April 2017, when the summer cruise season to Alaska begins from the Port of Seattle.