MARKETPLACE

Social Funds | Responsible Investing

New Index Will Track Pure-Play Environmental Companies

By Robert Kropp. The Global Environment 60 Index will be available to investors through an exchange-traded fund offered by Claymore Investments.

SRI Funds Post Losses, But Hold Their Own in Relative Performance

By Robert Kropp. While not immune from the battering endured by investors of all stripes, many SRI funds have outperformed mainstream funds on a relative basis this year.

Survey Finds That Corporate Responsibility Professionals Greet an Obama Administration with Optimism

By Robert Kropp. Conference attendees believe that better corporate responsibility could have lessened severity of fiscal crisis, and expect increased regulation of CR issues.

Report Finds That Most Corporations Fail to Address Risks That Threaten Long-Term Profitability

By Robert Kropp. EIRIS report on responsible business practices finds insufficient ESG risk management and inadequate disclosure and advocates PRI involvement for responsible investors.

Report on UK Fund Managers Finds Room for Improvement on ESG Issues

By Robert Kropp. FairPensions surveys thirty of the largest asset managers and finds relatively strong performance in governance but insufficient attention to climate change and social issues.

WBCSD | Climate + Energy

China And U.S. Cooperate On Renewable Energy

The Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has signed a memorandum of understanding with the American National Renewable Energy Laboratory for collaboration on the technology of photovoltaic electricity generation.

EU renewables industry optimistic about 2020 outlook

Despite gloomy economic forecasts, manufacturers of solar panels, wind turbines and other non-fossil fuel technologies say they are ready to deliver more than the bloc's target of sourcing 20% of energy needs from renewables by 2020.

China to subsidise straw-for-energy projects

China will provide subsidies to companies that use straw to generate energy through advanced technologies, state media on Wednesday reported the Finance Ministry as saying.

U.S., Indonesia link up on forest carbon credits

California and two other U.S. states signed a pact late on Tuesday with Indonesia's Aceh province that could see forest carbon credits from Aceh accepted into U.S. emissions trading schemes.

UK auctions 4 million EUAs at €16.15/T

The British government said it sold 4 million 2008 European Union carbon emissions permits on Wednesday at 16.15 euros a tonne in the country's first auction of the allowances to emit greenhouse gases.

WBCSD | Corporate Responsibility

Keeping good company in tough times

It's not easy being green or transparent, or an overall good corporate citizen when the global economy appears to be slowing. Management and shareholders scrutinize every dollar a corporation spends; all too often, so-called socially responsible efforts things like reducing the company's carbon footprint or building businesses in developing nations get slashed. But the companies that sit atop our 2008 Accountability Rating don't see sustainability as optional.

Aluminum Association Sets Industry-Wide Recycling Goal

By 2015, the Aluminum Association wants to be recovering 75 percent of aluminum containers made in the United States. The industry is currently collecting and recycling about 54 percent.

New Index Will Track Pure-Play Environmental Companies

Efforts by investors to support investment strategies that help build a more sustainable global economy gained support by the creation of the Global Environment 60 Index, whose constituents are pure-play global companies that derive 50% or more of their business from products or services related to environmental themes.

Betting on a Green New Deal

With Europe and the United States staring recession in the face, a growing chorus is calling for heavy public investment in clean, green energy to revive economic growth while fighting climate change.

Cap carbon to spur economy -U.S. business leaders

U.S. business leaders including the troubled Big Three automakers offered a prescription on Tuesday for economic recovery and job creation: cap the carbon emissions that spur global warming.

Next Billion | Bottom of the Pyramid

Net Impact: The New Appeal of Metrics and Evaluation

Guest blogger Kelly McCarthy is a Communications Manager and Research Analyst for the New Ventures Project at the World Resources Institute. Her current work focuses on developing impact metrics for the enterprise development community.

By Kelly McCarthy 

There was a lot of buzz about "impact" last weekend at the  Net Impact Conference. However, this year it wasn't just talk about creating impact, but most importantly how we consider, measure and prove it.  Perhaps the word was being used too liberally lately thus loosing a bit of its meaning. 

However, as I listened to many organizations whose work intends to generate positive environmental and social impact, it became apparent that a shift is occurring.  Rather than talking simply about impact in anecdotes and what was better than before, foundations, funds, design-for-impact, not-for-profit (and not-for-loss) organizations alike were talking about a "social capital market,as. Jason Saul, CEO of Mission Measurement, summed it up during one of the panels. 

Following are a few thoughts that came to mind from the perspective of metrics and evaluation, while attending some of the sessions at the conference.

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