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Nov 20 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Ninth Circuit Stays California Climate Risk Reporting Law SB-261
On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit issued an order temporarily staying California’s SB-261 requiring biennial climate risk reporting by companies “doing business” in the state. Prior to the court’s ruling, companies were to publish their initial SB-261 report by January 1,...
Nov 20 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Parliament Negotiating Position Substantially Scales Back CSRD/CSDDD
After delays, failed agreements, and significant political back-and-forth, the EU Parliament finally reached a negotiating position on Omnibus. The consensus comes as an alliance between the center-right and far-right consolidated, providing enough votes to adopt the position. A recent Morrison...
Nov 20 2025 #assurance, #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
New This Week on PracticalESG.com
Notable additions to PracticalESG.com this week are below. Blog of the week: Chamber of Commerce Appeals to Supreme Court To Stop California Climate Laws – which already has an update. 5 new CSRD reports were added this week which can...
Nov 19 2025 #climate, #compliance, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
SEC Stops Acting on Shareholder Proposals (Mostly)
The U.S. deregulatory trajectory hit a new apex Monday (or nadir, if you prefer). According to a post from PracticalESG Advisory Board Member Doug Chia: “The SEC Division of Corporation Finance will be taking a hiatus from considering any requests...
Nov 19 2025 #assurance, #climate, #esg, #investors
UK Issues Sustainability Assurance Standard ISSA 5000
Last week, the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) announced the issuance of International Standard on Sustainability Assurance (UK) 5000, “General Requirements for Sustainability Assurance Engagements”, which “provides UK companies, investors and assurance providers with a consistent, internationally aligned assurance standards...
Nov 19 2025 #assurance, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #social, #supply-chain
New Study: Difficult Clients Intentionally Intimidate Auditors
Since we’re on audits/assurance engagements… The University of Florida published a study earlier this year about one way companies hoodwink (or bully, really) auditors. Overall, the study found “troubling inconsistency in how auditors respond to difficult clients during business financial...
Nov 18 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Chamber of Commerce Appeals to Supreme Court To Stop California Climate Laws
Companies must report under California’s climate disclosure laws SB 253 and SB 261, starting January 1, 2026. With reporting requirements imminent, legal challengers are throwing a “Hail Mary” to pause reporting pending the outcome of litigation. After being denied a...
Nov 18 2025 #assurance, #compliance, #esg, #supply-chain
US Tariff Moves Keep Pressure on Country of Origin Supply Chain Due Diligence
Earlier this year, I blogged about how new (changing) US tariff initiatives present challenges and opportunities for supply chain due diligence professionals. ArentFoxSchiff published an update on the customs and trade world that highlights how important supply chain due diligence...
Nov 18 2025 #assurance, #esg, #human-rights, #social, #supply-chain
Luxury Brands Develop Supplier ESG Data Collection Program
ESG News reported on a supplier data collection initiative being developed by luxury brands including CHANEL, Kering, Moncler Group, Prada Group and others. The effort “seeks to address one of the sector’s most persistent structural challenges: fragmented, inconsistent, and resource-intensive...
Nov 13 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
EUDR Facing Multiple Delay Proposals
The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is a major piece of pending supply chain legislation. It attempts to ban the sale of certain goods in the EU that contribute to deforestation. The law is set to come into force on...
Nov 13 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
Accenture: Supply Chain Sustainability Actions That Cut Costs “Matter Most”
Accenture just published their latest report Destination Net Zero 2025. The four key findings aren’t earth shattering – Corporate ambition remains strong Companies aren’t just setting goals – they are taking practical action Business performance has decoupled from emissions More...
Nov 13 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
New This Week on PracticalESG.com
Tuesday was a U.S. holiday and our offices were closed, it has been a light week on which to report but notable additions to PracticalESG.com this week are below. Blog of the week: PracticalESG Announces Membership Change 5 new CSRD reports...
Nov 12 2025 #assurance, #climate, #compliance, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
PracticalESG Announces Membership Change
Since our launch in 2021, PracticalESG.com has been a trusted resource in helping companies and their advisors filter out noise and remain focused on business realities rather than wasting time on distractions. Our complimentary blogs have come to be relied...
Nov 12 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Canada Considers Scaling Back Greenwashing Law
In June of 2024, Canada amended its Competition Act with Bill C-59. This amendment introduced major restrictions on how companies can message and market around sustainability issues. It created new significant legal risks and fines as high as $10 million...
Nov 12 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors
SFDR 2.0 Leaks, Big Changes for Article 8/9 Funds
The EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR) was an early piece of sustainable finance legislation that originally came into force in 2021. Most notably, the law attempted to create new fund categories for sustainable investments, known as Article 8 and...
Nov 11 2025
Thank You, Veterans
In observance of Veterans’ Day, our offices are closed. We are immensely grateful to our nation’s veterans and their families. Please take a moment today to recognize and thank veteran friends and relatives for their sacrifice and service. Our blogs...
Nov 6 2025 #climate, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #investors, #social
ESG Metrics in Executive Compensation: Are They Working?
WTW published an analysis of ESG metrics in executive comp – ESG metrics and executive pay: A comparative analysis of payouts. The research has a great deal of information and insights and, for any company using ESG metrics in executive...
Nov 6 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Climate Bonds Initiative: Green Bonds Grow in “Brown Sectors”
Net Zero Investor covered last month’s Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) annual conference in London. There is good news and some interesting developments. The good news: “In the first half of the year, the cumulative volume of GSS+ [green, sustainable and...
Nov 6 2025
New This Week on PracticalESG.com
Notable additions to PracticalESG.com this week are below. Blog of the week: Harshest Rhetoric Yet for CSRD? 3 new CSRD reports were added this week which can be viewed here. Hot Topics for the Week: “ESG Metrics And Executive Pay:...
Nov 5 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #human-rights, #supply-chain
US Business Coalitions Urge Washington to Kill CSDDD
Yesterday, Lawrence wrote about views on the EU CSRD from the CEOs of ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy. Here’s more – a group of five business coalitions, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, issued a joint letter to various US economic and...
Nov 5 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Capital Group Report: Global Investor Interest in ESG “Remains Robust”
The fifth edition of the Capital Group’s global study on investor interest in ESG Resilience and refinement in a changing world is now available. The study gathered “views of 1,130 global investors on the role of ESG in the investment...
Nov 5 2025 #climate, #compliance, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
Pursuit of AI ROI – A Replay of Sustainability Ancient History?
Here’s something that caught my attention: glitter. From a short article in CFO Dive: “Citadel Credit Union CFO Anand Solanki, speaking at the Money20/20 fintech conference in Las Vegas on Oct. 27, said that when estimating return on investment from...
Nov 4 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Harshest Rhetoric Yet for CSRD?
Regulations can be a funny thing. They set legal boundaries for companies, create penalties for operating outside those boundaries and spur innovation. But sometimes, not all goes as planned. EU’s CSRD has seen plenty of that already, but yesterday related...
Nov 4 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
NZAM to Loosen Signatory Requirements
The Net-Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative has been in hibernation since January. The group suspended its activities after investment giant BlackRock left the group. At the time, the group said it launched a review of its practices and was consulting...
Nov 4 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
EU Plans for 2040 Target Misses From Inadequate Forestry-based Carbon Uptake
More from the EU… Reuters reports that the EU is questioning effectiveness of nature-based carbon sequestration and developing contingencies for potential shortfalls. “The European Union is considering a brake clause to weaken its 2040 climate target in the future, if...
Oct 30 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
MIT Report on Supply Chain Sustainability: Momentum Continues Despite Regulatory Turmoil
A new study from MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics and Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals has been published, titled State of supply chain sustainability 2025. This is the sixth year of the study, based on responses from 1,200 professionals...
Oct 30 2025 #compliance, #esg, #investors
UK Proposes ESG Ratings Legislation
In August 2024, the UK government announced that it would create legislation to regulate the ESG ratings industry. Over a year later, we finally have that legislation in hand. A draft statutory instrument has now been laid before Parliament. If...
Oct 30 2025 #climate, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #supply-chain
New This Week on PracticalESG.com
Notable additions to PracticalESG.com this week are below. Blog of the week: Parliament Rejects Omnibus Political Agreement 5 new CSRD reports were added this week which can be viewed here. Hot Topics for the Week: “ExxonMobil And Other Heavy Emitters...
Oct 29 2025 #climate, #environment, #supply-chain
Analysis: Voluntary Carbon Offset Market’s “Intractable Problem”
A new analysis titled Are Carbon Offsets Fixable? was recently published in the Annual Review of Environment and Resources. According to its authors (which include Joe Romm): “A growing number of studies have found that the most widely used offset...
Oct 29 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
French Court Rules Total Energies Advertising Unlawful Greenwashing
NGO and frequent activist Plaintiffs ClientEarth won a legal victory against oil and gas major TotalEnergies. TotalEnergies claimed in advertising that it was working towards the energy transition by increasing the production of clean energy and phasing out fossil fuels....
Oct 29 2025 #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
New Human Rights Due Diligence Guidance For Investors
If you missed it last month, the Investor Initiative on Human Rights Data (II-HRD) published their “Guidance for ESG data providers on assessing company non-compliance with, and breaches of, international human rights norms.” II-HRD “convenes investors who agree on the...
Oct 28 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors
ExxonMobil Sues California Over Climate Disclosure Laws
California’s climate disclosure law, SB 253, and its climate risk disclosure law, SB 261, face new legal challenges brought by ExxonMobil. The lawsuit alleges that the laws are unconstitutional, arguing that they violate the First Amendment and the National Securities...
Oct 28 2025 #compliance, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #supply-chain
NY Jury Finds BNP Paribas Liable for Human Rights Abuses
A jury in New York ruled against French financial giant BNP Paribas, awarding $20 million to Sudanese Plaintiffs. The lawsuit alleged that BNP extended credit to the Bashir regime, even as it faced international sanctions due to human rights atrocities....
Oct 28 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
Just What We Need – A New Carbon Measurement Initiative
An impressive group of companies recently formed a new carbon measurement initiative called Carbon Measures. The website is light on substance, but it’s only been a week. There is a peek into where things are heading with the group in...
Oct 23 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Parliament Rejects Omnibus Political Agreement
Last week, I wrote about the latest developments in the EU’s Omnibus reform process. The highlight of the blog was Parliament’s recent actions to adopt a political agreement and the pending vote on a negotiating position, which would move forward...
Oct 23 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Trellis: Salesforce’s GHG “Intensity Loophole”
Trellis recently posted a piece on Salesforce’s use of greenhouse intensity reporting rather than absolute emissions in “what might be called the ‘intensity loophole.’ For years, standard-setters have grappled with how to create a framework that leaves room for fast-growing...
Oct 23 2025
New This Week on PracticalESG.com
Notable additions to PracticalESG.com this week are below. Blog of the week: Anti-ESG Brings Greenwashing Allegations Against Big Tech 7 new CSRD reports were added this week which can be viewed here. Hot Topics for the Week: “U.S. DOE Releases...
Oct 22 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Is the C-Suite View of Sustainability Aligned With the Reality?
While I’m talking about reports, Deloitte published their 2025 C-suite Sustainability Report: The next wave of business value. The results offer interesting contrasts between C-suite views compared to what other reports indicate is happening within sustainability functions themselves. “There has...
Oct 22 2025 #assurance, #climate, #environment, #esg, #investors
94% of Russell 1000 Publish Sustainability Reports, With SASB Beating GRI
The Governance & Accountability Institute published a report on the status of sustainability disclosures in the Russell 1000. The 2025 Sustainability Reporting in Focus contains many interesting insights, but these are the high level findings: “In 2024, 94% of the...
Oct 22 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
Youth Suit Against Federal Energy Policy is Dismissed
We previously wrote about a group of youth plaintiffs suing the US government over recent changes in federal energy policy. Their lawsuit challenging three executive orders promulgated earlier this year has been dismissed. The Montana court ruled that the relief...
Oct 21 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
Anti-ESG Brings Greenwashing Allegations Against Big Tech
Sixteen anti-ESG state attorneys general recently signed a letter to big tech companies Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google inquiring about their renewable energy practices. These AGs take issue with company claims of using 100% renewable energy in their operations because...
Oct 21 2025 #climate, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
New Sustainability ROI Study Offers Old and New Insights
Yet another in a wave of new studies on the ROI of sustainability was published recently by MassMutual and ImpactROI – Project ROI: Determining the Competitive and Financial Advantages of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability 2025. The report is certainly interesting...
Oct 21 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
Google Helps Companies Measure Carbon Footprint of On-line Advertising
One of the best ways companies can reduce their supply chain emissions is to provide programs and/or direct financial support to suppliers for reducing their emissions. Not many companies offer meaningful programs in this regard; Google is one company that...
Featured Events
Sep 22 2025
Podcast
: What is Sustainability Due Diligence?
Aug 12 2025
Webcast
: ESG Litigation Landscape 2025
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Featured Q&A Members Only
ESG and Changes at Investor Stewardship Teams
In connection with the splitting of the investor stewardship teams at Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street we are trying to evaluate if this will have any impact on our proxy season engagement calls and if we need to prepare anything different than prior years? For example, we used to have our Lead Director join a call with one of those investors and we are not sure if we should expect to have two calls now with each of the engagement teams of that investor.
Also, would our talking points need to be tailored to whether we are speaking with ESG focused vs. non-ESG engagement team?
11/6/2025, Question #31197
SEC expectations for sustainability KPI disclosure
As companies increasingly publicly report sustainability KPIs, I’m wondering if that is creating any obligation or expectation from the SEC to regularly disclose these in SEC filings? What if senior management regularly publicly references particular KPIs (without the actual KPI results) as what they are looking at to measure the success of the business and new initiatives? Do these statements create some obligation or expectation from the SEC to include the KPI results in 10-Ks/10-Qs?
09/25/2025, Question #30633
SEC Climate Disclosure Rule
What is the current status of the SEC climate disclosure rule?
09/15/2025, Question #30466