I am apparently very fond of standing on the third rail, and not because of any particular affinity for public transit. Many of the big ideas in ESG and impact investing are based on almost universally-accepted principles for sustainable business, from access to nutrition and healthcare to clean waterways and shrinking carbon footprints. I attempted in this month’s CityWire pro buyer magazine to look into what happens when some of those universal principles cross into grey areas where stakeholders do not agree, in some cases at all. South African apartheid divestiture was a signature moment in socially responsible investing and one that reaped profound social returns. My question was what are managers doing with the BDS (Boycott, Divestiture, Sanctions) movement in the Israeli occupied territories since BDS is drawing from the South African apartheid playbook but is far more polarizing? What is attributed as good or bad is very different depending on the perspective of the stakeholder. Are managers even looking at BDS, and if so how does it integrate with a sustainable investment process designed to appeal to as broad a universe of investors as possible? You can find the article here or in the Library.
Inevitable
Can’t say this is surprising. From a policy point of view Scott Pruitt is antithetical to everything for which a good environmental steward stands. But, cabinet appointments are the province of the President with the advice and consent of Congress. We are getting the environmental policies for which the people voted. That is how it works. Pruitt took governance to new lows though, befitting regimes we (used to) laugh at in less developed parts of the world.
Nothing is won here though except a glimmer of hope that, even if we vehemently disagree with their policies, civil servants act with honor and honesty in service of their country. However, environmental vigilance is still critical on the part of all stakeholders even with Pruitt’s departure from the EPA. He is gone but the people who put him in that position, and will replace him, are still in power.
Embattled EPA Chief Scott Pruitt resigns (Washington Post)
Scott Pruitt, Trump’s EPA Chief, Resigns Under Cloud of Ethics Scandals (NY Times)
Embattled Scott Pruitt Resigns as EPA Administrator (Wall St. Journal)