The 300 Club has taken the current pandemic as a moment for reflection on the state of the industry. During this crisis, we have all been made acutely aware of the fact that companies should not just be primarily profit generating machines but purposeful providers of solutions to the needs and wants of real people. The consequence of fulfilling those purposes are long term sustainable returns to investors.
This new report sees the United Nations build on these Principles, mapping the current state of ocean finance and the transition required at the start of the UN Decades of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and Ecosystem Restoration. The report reveals the current trends in lending, underwriting and investment activities which impact the ocean, the frameworks and financial instruments that are successfully addressing ocean sustainability, and highlights new opportunities and gaps in the market. It looks across five key ocean sectors, chosen for their established connection with private finance.
Puts forward six key enablers which could be advanced by all systemic shapers to accelerate the sustainable development of the seafood industry - from unlocking sustainable finance and ratifying international conventions, to moving beyond data disclosure, rewarding progress, and incorporating wider food system dimensions into both policy and sustainability-related services.
From houses to highways, investing in Real Assets – comprising of Listed and Non-listed Real Estate and Listed Infrastructure – is about much more than attractive and predictable cashflows. The building and operation of Real Estate and Infrastructure forms the backbone of the economies, societies and communities in which people will live and work, now and in the future.
The case for UK legislation on human rights and environmental due diligenceBusiness is a central part of our society and vital to the lives of children. UK businesses and supply chains operate around the globe. They connect us to children labouring to produce cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire, to children of factory workers in Bangladesh producing our clothes as well as to children around the world using apps and products developed by British Tech companies.Our new report, Preventing corporate abuse and realising child rights highlights how businesses can have wide-ranging negative impacts on children and how these can be prevented or mitigated. All these impacts can have serious, long-lasting, often irreversible, consequences on the lives of children.
In the just-released publication ‘Fashioning justice’ Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) shows that non-enforceable initiatives and voluntary commitments by garment brands have failed to protect workers’ human rights and deliver justice. CCC therefore puts forward concrete proposals for binding rules aimed at ensuring responsible business conduct. The recommendations are supported with an overview of the policy context and of the current realities in the garment industry.
Making corporate governance fit for a purpose-driven investment systemAt a time when there are many urgent new questions for corporate boards to answer, four out of five FTSE 350 companies opted to hold their 2020 AGMs ‘behind closed doors’, with no external participants allowed to attend and ask questions to the board, other than by email.
There is no solution to the growing climate and nature crisis the world faces without a solution to deforestation. Currently, two thirds of tropical deforestation is driven by agricultural expansion to produce commodities such as soy, palm oil, timber, and beef.
Biodiversity is of increasing focus in 2021 as the world recognises that without significant steps towards change, it is losing animal and plant species at an alarming rate. However, are investors taking action to manage biodiversity risks and are they able to make investments supporting nature and wildlife? How confident are they in this area?
An irresponsible bandwagon or a paradigm shift? ESG investing has certainly been a polarising topic. Typically, opinions fall into one of two categories, you either love it or you hate it. Unless of course you are one of the many apprehensive and curious investors who is yet to make up their mind and form a strategy.