Sustainable Investment in China Newsletter Index
December 19, 2011
Understanding ESG Engagement in China
Investors face a number of challenges engaging with companies on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues in China, particularly those listed in the mainland’s A-share market. Though difficult, engagement is crucial for investors to help companies mitigate risks and improve their sustainability performance. It is important for investors to understand these challenges and develop appropriate strategies to engage effectively with companies.
In This Issue
- In Depth: Companies and Investors on ESG Engagement in China
- Insight From the UN PRI: Trends in Investor Disclosure Practices
- News to Know
- On the Horizon
- View the entire email publication
September 22, 2011
Understanding ESG Challenges in China
Companies in China face unique environmental, social, and governance (ESG) challenges because of the country's specific investment climate. It is crucial for investors to understand these challenges and how companies can address them, since many companies are neither mitigating nor effectively responding to them. And investors can—and should—help.
In This Issue
May 27, 2011
What Conflict Minerals Mean to Investors
Growing regulatory, stakeholder, and media pressure around conflict minerals—defined as tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold—is pushing companies to increase their efforts to remove these minerals from their supply chains. Chinese companies listed in the United States and in the supply chains of U.S.-listed companies are no exception. With serious potential implications—such as supply constraints, buyer pressure, and brand risks—it’s critical that investors understand this issue so they can identify potential at-risk companies and help them address this issue in their supply chains.
In This Issue
March 31, 2011
Driving Sustainable Investing Through China’s Philanthropic Sector
In Western countries, foundations have played an important role in the development of sustainable investing practices. Foundations, especially in the United States and Europe, are transitioning from a negative-screening approach—one by which foundations identify business activities that are not eligible to receive funds such as those related to gambling, alcohol, or pollution—to a positive-screening approach that focuses on investing in companies that have goals and a mission aligned with those of the foundation.
In This Issue
December 8, 2010
Investor Activism in China
It is now commonly accepted that investor activism on companies’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance is in both investors’ own interests and in companies’ interests. The recent BP spill off the Gulf Coast of the United States, for example, served to heighten the important role investors should play in ensuring that companies are aware of, and managing, environmental, health, and safety risks. Even now, investors are still recovering from losses resulting from not being as active as they could have been.
