Sustainable Finance

Martin Currie, a Legg Mason, Inc. active equity specialist, today published its third annual Stewardship Report, outlining Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices across the globe. Effective stewardship of capital lies at the heart of the firm’s client proposition. Martin Currie takes a holistic look of the publicly traded companies the firm invests in, evaluating all material information whether quantitative or qualitative.

GRI and the Swedish International Development Agency are embarking on a new joint program, which includes a partnership with the Danish Institute for Human Rights. This new phase has a specific focus on ​poverty alleviation, equality and human rights, and will stimulate responsible business towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Export Development Canada helps Canadian companies look for business opportunities abroad, and uses sustainability data to do this. Read more about the different aspects CSR reporting plays for EDC's work.

Investors don't always get the sustainability data they need from companies for effective decision-making. In the latest GRI podcast, this question was posed to Amanda Feldman from the Impact Management Project, who told us how corporate reporting should change so that even more investors could use this information. Listen to the full episode here.

One of the largest stock exchanges in the world, Deutsche Börse strives to drive progress and innovation in sustainable finance. In this interview, Deutsche Börse's Head of Group Sustainability, Kristina Jeromin, talks about the increasing investor interest in ESG data, and the role of sustainability reporting in long-term oriented investing.​

New research from Barclays has found that the Midlands is one of the most cost effective regions for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in the UK to start. The Barclays Midlands Growth Fund is targeted at these SMEs and is designed to boost jobs and economic growth. The five-year initiative will work in tandem with the UK Government’s own £250m Midlands Engine Investment Fund.

CEOs from some of the most prominent companies in the world--including Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Merck, Unilever, and UPS -- came together to share their long-term business plans to an audience of more than 275 major institutional investors at the third CEO Investor Forum (CIF) organized by the CECP’s Strategic Investor Initiative (SII).

The United Nations Global Compact, in partnership with PIMCO and ENEL, convened a two-day symposium to mobilize private finance and investment around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Union Bank of Nigeria (Union Bank) has joined Business Call to Action (BCtA) with a pledge to provide access to financial services for at least 30,000 people from low income communities in 11 states across northern Nigeria by 2020, where currently more than half the population are unbanked.