Sustainable Investment

Jennifer Miller, Chief Business Sustainability Officer, reflects on how customer, colleague and community connections build stronger companies.

In “Short-Termism is Harming the US Economy,” Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett argue that executives who target quarterly, short-term results often do so at the sacrifice of long-term strategy and results. This, in turn, harms the sustainable success of companies and the economy as a whole. As part of CECP’s Strategic Investor Initiative, a coalition of long-term oriented companies and institutional investors, the call to action is clear: It is time for short-termism to end. There is an alternative. Rather than race to attract fickle traders, executives should instead aim to woo “patient capital” by adopting long-termism.

In a first in the US, a company has entered into a syndicated sustainability-linked revolving loan. CMS Energy and its subsidiary, Consumers Energy, have entered into $1.4 billion revolving credit facilities from Barclays, the sole Sustainability Structuring Agent on the loan. This means that CMS can reduce its interest rate on the new credit by meeting targets related to environmental responsibility, CMS says. Sustainability-linked loans are products that allow issuers to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability, according to Barclays.

In markets around the world, BNY Mellon is working to support clients in ways that have a positive impact on the environment and society, including by facilitating the issuance of green bonds. These securities are an innovative tool for driving capital to sustainable investment; in 2017, global green bond issuance totaled a record $155.5 billion, and volume could reach $250 billion to $300 billion in 2018, according to research from the Climate Bonds Initiative.

GRI believes that in order to achieve real progress, there's a need to align capital investment with sustainable business. We asked prominent investors why they think sustainability matters – watch this video to find out what they had to say.

BSR's new report, Win-Win-Win: The Sustainable Supply Chain Finance Opportunity, shows how supply chain and trade finance mechanisms can be leveraged to create tangible cash incentives for suppliers, drive sustainable behaviors, and transform global supply chains. This report is funded by Humanity United.

The 2017 proxy season offered some indelible headlines on climate-related shareholder action: majority votes at ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum and PPL Corporation; the first-ever votes in favor of climate shareholder proposals by major investors BlackRock and Vanguard; and the much-anticipated release of initial 2-degree scenario analyses from North American oil and gas and electric power companies. This year’s narrative is more subtle, but potentially more powerful.

A new coalition backed by the National Association of Manufacturers aims to 'undermine critical shareholder rights that investors have long supported and relied on to help them effectively and efficiently protect the long-term value of their investments,' Ceres CEO and President Mindy said in a statement.

This week my @AveryDennison colleagues and I attended the @Walmart annual Sustainability Milestone meeting at Sam M. Walton auditorium in Bentonville Arkansas.

Recognizing the importance of engaging stakeholders and sharing company information in a regular, transparent way, on April 19 the CEOs of Wells Fargo and PG&E Corporation shared their company’s long-term plans to an audience of more than 100 major institutional investors at the first CEO Investor Forum (CIF) held on the West Coast by CECP’s Strategic Investor Initiative (SII).