We created this newsletter to share with you the most important articles our team was reading each month. Across 2020, the push for improved ESG management has never felt more important. We hope you read, enjoy, and feel the same push for progress that our team does each day. – Ryan Miller
On ESG and Impact:
The Robert F. Kennedy Compass Investor Program has released a set of four investor actions that it argues are necessary to fight economic and racial justice (RFK Human Rights)
Climate change-driven extreme heat will have a devastating overlap with global income inequality (Bloomberg), just as decades of racist housing policy in the U.S. have left poorer residents and residents of color suffering from temperatures 5 to 20 degrees hotter than those in wealthier parts of their cities (New York Times)
The ESG rise and ESG collapse of fast fashion retailer Boohoo shows the challenge of using ESG ratings for sustainable indices (Financial Times), while a coal utility scores higher than a renewable developer and lands on an ESG index (Responsible Investor)
KKR’s prioritization of employee ownership has resulted in the distribution of more than $500 million in stock to portfolio companies’ employees (Impact Alpha)
Two Sigma is the latest private market entrant into impact investing, with a fund focused on workforce development (Bloomberg)
A new academic study argues that ESG funds may not have outperformed their non-ESG counterparts during the pandemic; ESG advocates aren’t surprised, arguing that ESG integration creates long-term value, not short-term downside protection (Institutional Investor)
Conversely, a new ESG study from the European Corporate Governance Institute shows that investor engagement on ESG topics does reduce downside risk (Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance)
On Private Markets:
With the aim of ensuring that patient outcomes continue to take precedence, suggestions for health care investors include a four-part ethical framework (Forbes)
Google’s $6 billion in sustainability bonds evidence the continued increase in the technology sector’s use of sustainable finance (Bloomberg)
Cerberus’s management of the Steward hospital chain follows a familiar refrain: debt-loading, asset sales, expense cutting, and negative impacts on patients (Bloomberg)
On Business:
Echoing Martin Luther King Jr., MIT professor Zeynep Ton argues that achieving equality in the U.S. starts with higher quality jobs (Harvard Business Review)
Focusing stakeholder capitalism on a win-win narrative may be detracting from its power (Responsible Investor)