Can A more Fair and Equitable Free Market Help Companies That do Good?
Fact Company Exist
By Martin Whittaker
October 13, 2015
The time has come to go beyond asking how corporate social responsibility can boost profitability or enhance market performance, and address how business can be used as a force for good in the world.
Is there a higher purpose for business beyond simply making money and providing employment? Surely the answer has to be yes.
Federal Register
The Daily Journal of the US Government
October 26, 2015
The Department of Labor (DOL) has withdrawn its 2008 guidance which had restricted fiduciaries’ abilities to integrate environmental, social and governance themes into Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) investments.
In doing so, the DOL made clear that “Fiduciaries need not treat commercially reasonable investments as inherently suspect or in need of special scrutiny merely because they take into consideration environmental, social or other factors.”
Climate Change Slams Global Economy in a New Study from Stanford and Berkeley
Bloomberg
October 21, 2015
A novel analysis of temperature records shows that economies perform worse in high heat. Looking at 166 countries from 1960 to 2020, the researches identified an optimal average annual temperature that coincides with peak productivity: 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Countries such as U.S., China and Japan, may be increasingly vulnerable to losses as the temperature rises.
Impact Investing Returns as Good as S&P 500: Wharton
Think Advisor
By Danielle Andrus
October 7, 2015
A report by the Social Impact Initiative at Wharton shows impact fund managers can pursue their fund’s social, environmental missions without sacrificing returns. Indeed, on a gross basis, funds that sought market-rate returns kept pace with the S&P 500.
