State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), one of the world’s largest investment managers, announced the focus areas for its asset stewardship program for 2022, with climate change and diversity issues at the top of its priority list. In a letter to portfolio company CEOs, SSGA President and CEO Cyrus Taraporevala details outlined the investment manager’s expectations for boards on these issues, along with the firm’s expected engagement approach for the upcoming year. 

Global news and business information provider Dow Jones announced today the launch of its sustainability data, including sustainability scores and sentiment on thousands of publicly traded companies, aimed at enabling investors and asset managers to understand company ESG performance and impact, and make sustainable investment decisions.Components of the new data set include ESG scores and sentiment for over 6,000 companies rated across 26 sustainability categories, along with industry, category and country scoring. The scoring model is aligned with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards, and uses a uniquely news-driven methodology, combining company-disclosed data with news from thousands of global sources.

If you’re a startup founder who has raised venture capital (VC) funding or is looking to do so, you know that global VC funding hit USD 454 billion in the first three quarters of 2021, up from USD 332 billion in 2020 over the same period.What’s interesting is that early-stage funding grew at 104% year-over-year in 2021 to peak at USD 49 billion. VC firms are therefore a critical force in shaping the future of people, planet, and society as they continue to invest in the leading companies and disruptive technologies of the future.

In order for the impact investing industry to reach its potential, the market requires a system for measuring and managing impact results, a methodology for rigorously analyzing and comparing standardized impact data, and a willingness amongst investors to share impact performance data and contribute to the widespread uptake of the analytics they produce. 

ESG ratings have become widely used in both active management and ESG indexes, with a growing focus on climate change. This has led to increasing debate about two intertwined questions: First, why are ESG ratings of companies so different across providers? And second, how do ESG ratings reflect climate risk?