SustainabilityHQ.com Weekly Highlights

At G&A Institute we continue to look at the S&P 500® universe of companies in two groups: those companies that have published in some form a sustainability, corporate responsibility, citizenship or some related titling to publicly disclose important data and narrative on their ESG strategies, actions, performance and achievements. And, a second group, those companies that do not disclose / report on ESG factors.

What may sound at first glance to be “touchy-feely” management advice turns out to be solid guidance to corporate executives and managers strategizing about “bullet-proofing” their companies and brands for the immediate and the long-term. Dimitar Vhalov, the Director of Content for Sustainable Brands, explains in our Top Story the importance of “purpose” for companies as the enterprise is made more resilient and focused as part of “future-proofing,” especially for brand marketers.

Many businesses over the past three decades have reshaped themselves, becoming “multi-national enterprises” (MNEs in NGO-speak), thanks in great measure to the advances in information and other technologies, where everywhere is a keyboard click away for communication, and to the end of the Cold War in 1989-1990. Corporate organizations have also become “flatter,” with power and influence dispersed (more) to the far reaches of the operations or supply chain footprint.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is upon us, writes Tim Nixon, managing editor at Greenbiz. He sees the important characteristics of the revolution including greater overall transparency and much more information made available in business and other walks of life; and, disruptive technology accelerating to send ripples of change throughout society. Imagine disruption on steroids. The major players in the revolution are investors, customers and regulators.

The boards of directors of publicly-traded companies have considerable influence over the many duties and responsibilities for the corporation to attend to. Among them is oversight of risk (the two halves of risk: risk or threat and opportunity inherent therein). We put effective risk management as one of the over-arching elements of corporate sustainability and responsibility. What better way to address risk management duties at board level than to focus on the company’s ESG strategies?

Results Show Higher Trust for Firms Reporting on Their Sustainability Journeys New York, NY - March 24, 2016 -- Continuing the in-depth analysis of S&P 500 (r) companies' sustainability reporting activities, Governance & Accountability Institute teamed with the Trust Across America / Trust Around the World program to explore potential relationships of the trustworthiness of companies that do and do not report utilizing the TAA/TAW's proprietary FACTS® scoring.

For institutional investors, the key benchmark for many professionals is the S&P 500®, which is considered to be the best single gauge of large-cap U. S. equities. More than US$7 trillion in Assets Under Management are benchmarked to this index, including indexed AUM of $1.9 trillion. In all, the S&P 500 captures 80% coverage of available market cap.

The esteemed business teacher and author Peter Drucker had specific views on ethical leadership: He thought the ethics of personal responsibility stemmed from the advice of the ancient healer, Hippocrates: Primum Non Nocere – First Do No Harm. Today’s healthcare professionals live by the rule. And explains commentator William Cohen, PhD for us: Drucker thought the mirror test was a good test: look in the mirror and ask, what kind of person do I want to see this morning?

Former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway (and then special envoy for the United Nations) was invited by the UN to create and manage a “World Commission on Environment and Development (“WCED”), which over time became known as the “Brundtland Commission.” The commission gave the world a framework for moving forward on what would become known as “sustainable development.”

Many nations have created what can be defined as a “Sovereign Wealth Fund,” which hold assets in portfolio that are supposed to benefit the entire population, and usually, future generations of the country’s citizens. The first such fund was launched in 1954 by the oil-producing nation of Kuwait. Today, the largest such “SWF” is that of Norway – officially, the Norway Government Pension Investment Fund – with “wealth” now approaching US$1 trillion in Assets Under Management.