It’s a fair bet that few people would include “US Congress” in the same sentence as “accomplishment” and “good news” these days. Adding the word “sustainability” would probably cause even Google to come up empty. So it’s worth noting last week’s reauthorization of the SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program. In fiscal 2010, this program [...]
I appreciated the opportunity to bring our panel on SEC Climate Change Disclosure Guidelines to a New York audience last week. When we first presented the topic at the Boston Security Analysts Society last December, several people recommended repeating the session in New York. It took some time to arrange, but the engaged audience made [...]
The SEC’s Guidelines on Climate Change disclosure that took effect in February, 2010 were an important first step in prompting public companies to assess the potential impacts – positive as well as negative – of climate change on their business and future prospects. Transparency and honest disclosure of material information to investors are, after all, [...]
SEC requirements for disclosure of material climate change impacts became effective in the early part of 2010 upon the publication of clarifying guidance by the agency. Virtually all public companies will now be reporting based on their assessments of how climate change will affect their business and many questions remain as to what constitutes best [...]
On October 24th, Needham residents and town community gathered at Olin College for a community conversation on energy and the environment. Anthony Brooks, veteran NPR reporter and co-host of WBUR’s Radio Boston, opened the session by leading a discussion with Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources Commissioner Mark Sylvia and Green Needham Chair Michael Greis on [...]
This past Thursday, October 20th, Anthony Brooks and Meghna Chakrabarti talked with Green Needham Chair Michael Greis and Massachusetts Energy Undersecretary Barbara Kates-Garnick about the green economy, the 2020 clean energy plan, energy efficiency & “green living” at the local level and the upcoming Needham Summit on Energy and the Environment. With the backdrop of [...]
Two authors, with very different styles, approaches and opinions, write books about oil and our energy future. Reading them together, it is easy to imagine a provocative and enlightening panel with the two authors. But the real takeaway are the points on which they both come to very similar conclusions. Kenneth Deffeyes, the author of [...]
We designed the September 27th BSAS lunch session on ESG Integration to highlight a development that is further along than many in the investment community realize – the progress ESG is making towards incorporation in the mainstream. Putting it in the familiar terms of the technology adoption lifecycle model, our panelists’ presentations made a case [...]
A recently published white paper from RCM provides evidence of outperformance generated through best-in-class ESG investing. Because it examined a sizable number of stocks (more than 900 spread across three geographic portfolios) over a period encompassing a wide range of market conditions (December 2005 to September 2010), it raises the conversation about ESG investing to [...]
Efforts to address energy and climate challenges are now reflexively branded as “job killers” by one part of the political spectrum. Amazingly, this happens even when the proposals are defined in terms of their positive economic impact, as in the development of new companies and industries. Perhaps we should consider the true job killing impact [...]
