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Feb 20 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
New York Climate “Superfund” Law Challenged by Attorneys General
Last December, New York passed a polluter pays “superfund” type law targeting fossil fuels companies. Under the law, fossil fuels companies face strict liability for GHG emissions and would pay into a $75 billion climate resilience fund. This fund would...
Feb 20 2025 #climate, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #investors, #social
NBIM: ESG/Sustainability-Related Divestment Doesn’t Really Work
I’ve long questioned the belief that divestment is an effective strategy for incentivizing company change. If one investor sells a company’s stock, someone on the other end buys it at market value. Granted, if the investor is big enough or...
Feb 20 2025 #climate, #compliance, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #investors, #social
New This Week on PracticalESG.com
This week’s notable additions to PracticalESG.com are below. Blog of the Week: Legal Departments See Big Changes Related to Sustainability Staffing Hot Topics for the Week: “Voting Matters 2024: Are Asset Managers Using Their Proxy Votes For Action On Environmental...
Feb 19 2025 #assurance, #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors
PCAOB: Environmental/Climate Subject Matter Specialists Create Audit Risks
In the US, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) released a new document Spotlight: Considerations for Audit Firms Using the Work of Specialists. As the scope of accounting and financial disclosures has evolved, the need for specialized knowledge has...
Feb 19 2025 #climate, #compliance, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
Shifts in Corporate Sustainability Functions (Part 2)
Last week, I blogged about how sustainability staffing has transformed according to the recent Trellis/Weinreb Group report The State of the Sustainability Profession 2024. Today, let’s look at some of the changes in corporate culture impacting ESG/sustainability. We’ll start with...
Feb 19 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors
UK Judge Halts Shell Project Approval Over Scope 3
Back in June of 2024, a decision from the UK Supreme Court held that oil and gas developers must include scope 3 emissions in their Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA). Now Shell is feeling the consequences of the ruling as the...
Feb 18 2025 #climate, #compliance, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #investors, #social
New SEC Guidance Impacts Shareholder Input to Double Materiality Assessments
Marc Rotter at Ropes & Gray recently issued a client note about an update to SEC’s “guidance on circumstances in which investors engaging with issuers on ESG and other matters can file a short-form Schedule 13G [for certain investors with...
Feb 18 2025 #climate, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
Rethinking Sustainability ROI
Last week, Lawrence wrote about the new (or old, depending on your perspective) emphasis on the sustainability business case. Over the past month, we’ve seen seismic shifts in the ESG world, largely driven by political developments in the US and...
Feb 18 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
Let’s Talk About Communicating
Near the end of last week’s GreebBiz 25 conference, the Trellis Briefing included four themes Richard Martin thought summed up the conference. These are in addition to the theme of business realities I wrote about last week. One theme he...
Feb 13 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Legal Departments See Big Changes Related to Sustainability Staffing
The new Trellis/Weinreb Group report The State of the Sustainability Profession 2024 has some very good insights about what is happening with corporate sustainability programs, leadership and staffing. Here are a few tidbits from the report: At least as of...
Feb 13 2025 #climate, #compliance, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
The New Future of Sustainability Is … Its Past
It’s Back to the Future for sustainability, but without the DeLorean or hoverboard skateboard. When sustainability first became a real thing in the 1990s, those of us in the space came from environmental backgrounds, working to elevate sustainability as financially...
Feb 13 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
New This Week on PracticalESG.com
This week’s notable additions to PracticalESG.com are below. Blog of the Week: We had a big surge in blog readership this past week but the most popular was The Wheels on the (Omni)Bus Go Round and Round. Hot Topics for...
Feb 12 2025 #assurance, #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Acting SEC Chair Announces Action on Climate Disclosure Rule
Acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda yesterday released a statement about action he is taking on the Climate Disclosure Rule, which was stayed pending the outcome of litigation in the Eighth Circuit: “The Commission’s briefs previously submitted in the cases consolidated...
Feb 12 2025 #compliance, #diversity, #equity, #esg, #investors, #social
Addressing DEI Risks From Recent Federal Government Actions
Speaking of federal goings-on… Over on TheCorporateCounsel.net, Dave Lynn blogged about what’s happening with DEI in the federal government and what that could mean for public companies. He has wise words for those embroiled in the uncertainty of what it...
Feb 12 2025 #compliance, #environment, #esg
Will Federal Environmental Deregulation Be a Boon for Environmental Professionals?
Continuing the theme of federal changes … the new administration is aggressively pushing a “business friendly” deregulation agenda at the federal level – and EPA is one of the top targets. While that started with climate matters, once the ball...
Feb 11 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg
California Disclosure Laws Win Big at Trial Level
Back in November, we wrote about the legal challenge to California Climate-related disclosure laws SB 253 and SB 261. At that time, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) won a preliminary victory against the California Chamber of Commerce and other...
Feb 11 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
ISSB Poised to Become Global Disclosure Standard
The ISSB’s IFRS standards for climate-related disclosures continue to grow in popularity as more jurisdictions transpose them into law. At the same time, divergent schemes in the US and EU are faltering. Both the US and the EU created bespoke...
Feb 11 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #investors
It Happened – AI Emissions Spawn Shareholder Activism
This should not be too much of a surprise. According to Responsible Investor: “Former Amazon employees have filed a shareholder proposal asking the e-commerce giant to issue a report explaining how it will meet its greenhouse gas emissions commitments ‘given...
Feb 6 2025 #assurance, #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
The Wheels on the (Omni)Bus Go Round and Round
And away we go… Responsible Investor reported that at least some of the more dire predictions about the EU Omnibus, CSRD and CS3D could become reality: “… two sources have told RI that the Omnibus proposal scheduled to be delivered...
Feb 6 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors
Will the UK Nix the Green Taxonomy?
It’s been a difficult life for the UK’s Green Taxonomy. First introduced in 2020, the Taxonomy has been subject to numerous delays as the UK government struggles to nail down exactly how the regulation should function. Complicating matters are the...
Feb 6 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
New This Week on PracticalESG.com
This week’s notable additions to PracticalESG.com are below. New Q&As: Using non-GAAP Measures in ESG Reports GHG Emissions “Restatements” Under CSRD and SEC Blog of the Week: Anti-ESG Becomes More Dangerous as Texas AG Threatens Asset Managers Over ESG New...
Feb 5 2025 #climate, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #human-rights, #social, #supply-chain
Record C-Suite Turnover Is a Problem for Corporate Sustainability
Credibility with and support from corner offices for corporate sustainability programs has been a hard fought battle, but it may be short lived… Financial Times reports that C-suite tenure is shrinking fast: “Chief executives of publicly traded US companies are...
Feb 5 2025 #climate, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
Are You Putting Too Much Pressure on Yourself?
While we are on the subject of burnout and turnover… burnout and waning professional enthusiasm in ESG/sustainability is rampant these days. I have conversations with people in various roles about this at least biweekly. It feels like things are spiraling...
Feb 5 2025 #compliance, #environment, #esg
Back to Basics: “Stronger Focus on Traditional EHS Metrics From Regulators”
An article from Ecolumix CEO Doug Parker provides food for thought as the new administration gets going here in the US. Fundamentally, companies may want to re-prioritize old fashioned environmental compliance management – pushed aside in favor of sustainability, climate...
Feb 4 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Investors Are Examining Offset Use in Portfolio Companies – Are You Ready?
Earlier this month, we published our Carbon Offset Due Diligence Checklist (available to PracticalESG.com members) – which turned out to be pretty good timing. Responsible Investor wrote last week that “continuing concerns about the environmental integrity of many credits issued...
Feb 4 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
Did DeepSeek Just Deep Six Decarbonization Hopes?
One thing about new innovations is that they almost always come with unintended consequences. You’ve seen news about the latest AI system DeepSeek that has rattled the entire AI industry. Most of that disruption is based on the massive cost...
Feb 4 2025 #climate, #compliance, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
New Podcast: Reputational Risk for ESG/Sustainability Professionals
ESG/sustainability practitioners lean heavily on the concept of reputational risk when discussing the value of programs and expenses. But we typically don’t really understand enough about corporate reputation, reputational risk and predicting financial impacts “adverse events.” Our newest podcast features...
Jan 30 2025 #climate, #compliance, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #investors, #social
Anti-ESG Becomes More Dangerous as Texas AG Threatens Asset Managers Over ESG
[Ed. note: Zach is back, kind of. He’s been behind the scenes here at PracticalESG.com for the past couple months while helping launch our new blog TheAICounsel.net. He’ll be back to blogging on ESG and sustainability matters, but not as...
Jan 30 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
CCS – Let’s Call it What It Really Is
ESG/sustainability professionals are mired in jargon/terminology that frequently gets in our way. I’ve blogged quite a bit on the matter and today I’m doing it again. This time, I hope everyone will join me and get real about how we...
Jan 30 2025 #climate, #compliance, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
New This Week on PracticalESG.com
This week’s notable additions to PracticalESG.com are below. Blog of the Week: Leaked EU Competitiveness Compass Is Vague on CSRD, CS3D New Member Resource: Coming soon – Guidebook: Practical Methodology for Sustainability ROI Using Company-Specific Business Fundamentals Hot Topics for...
Jan 29 2025 #assurance, #climate, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
Procter & Gamble Faces Class Action for Charmin Greenwashing
Preventing greenwashing may require companies to provide very detailed information about their operating practices if a new class action lawsuit against Procter & Gamble is successful. According to Packaging Insights, “Hagens Berman, a class-action law firm headquartered in Seattle, US,...
Jan 29 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors
What in a Name? Quite a Bit in the UK and EU
PA future provides an interesting update on investment fund actions related to sustainability-related naming under the UK Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR): “Some 115 funds dropped ESG-related terms from their names in 2024 as the industry grappled to comply with the...
Jan 28 2025 #assurance, #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
Leaked EU Competitiveness Compass Is Vague on CSRD, CS3D
If you’ve been reading reports about the EU’s position on simplifying regulations – specifically the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D), you might think that the Omnibus proposal specifically calls out those Directives and...
Jan 28 2025 #climate, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #human-rights, #social, #supply-chain
Looking for Federal Government Reports on ESG, Climate and DEI? We’ve Got ‘Em
When the new President was sworn into office, many federal websites were radically changed almost immediately – erasing years of reports and studies on ESG, climate and DEI topics. While some might consider these political in nature, they contain valuable...
Jan 28 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #investors, #supply-chain
Fossil Fuel Assets May Not Be Totally Stranded
Part of the conversations around climate risk for fossil fuel companies is that when the transition economy really gets rolling, those companies will be left with major stranded assets – plants, property, mineral rights and equipment that won’t generate revenue...
Jan 23 2025 #assurance, #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
Latest on CSRD and the Omnibus
A couple weeks ago, we wrote that the movement in the EU to soften CSRD reporting obligations through the Omnibus simplification package was gathering steam. Two days ago, according to the official summary of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council...
Jan 23 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
Sustainability Isn’t Dead
I chose to wait a couple days after the new administration’s Day One actions to write this. The dust needed to settle a bit, along with initial reactions of panic and fear by ESG/sustainability professionals. Although I tend not to...
Jan 23 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social, #supply-chain
New This Week on PracticalESG.com
This week’s notable additions to PracticalESG.com are below. Blog of the Week: Another ESG Materiality Risk: Keeping Two Sets of Books New Member Resource: Coming soon – Guidebook: Practical Methodology for Sustainability ROI Using Company-Specific Business Fundamentals Hot Topics for...
Jan 22 2025 #assurance, #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #investors
EFRAG Report: EMAS Is Still Relevant, Helpful for ESRS Reporting
If you’ve only been in the environmental/sustainability space a few years, the abbreviation EMAS might be new to you. But EMAS, the EU’s Eco-Management and Audit Scheme was promulgated in 2009. It is an environmental management system framework that includes...
Jan 22 2025 #climate, #compliance, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #human-rights, #investors, #social
Another ESG Materiality Risk: Keeping Two Sets of Books
I write frequently about risks of calling out ESG/sustainability matters as financially material. Such a decision really needs to be thoughtful with consideration of unintended consequences. The risks escalate when a company reports ESG/sustainability as material in its financial disclosures...
Jan 22 2025 #climate, #environment, #esg
Is JBS Backtracking on Climate Commitments? Not Really.
Reuters reported last week that meatpacker JBS said their net-zero emissions pledge was “never a promise” – and the company took heat for it. Is the company backtracking on promises? Let’s take a look beyond media reports and headlines, starting...
Jan 21 2025 #assurance, #compliance, #esg, #human-rights, #social, #supply-chain
BBC Investigation: Shein Suppliers Exceed Legal Working Hours
It was inevitable after Shein’s performance before the UK Parliament’s Business and Trade Committee earlier this month. The BBC conducted an investigation into working conditions at some of Shein’s suppliers: “The BBC spent several days here: we visited 10 factories,...
Jan 21 2025 #climate, #compliance, #environment, #esg, #supply-chain
US Government Suppliers Won’t Have to Disclose Climate Risks Under FAR
If you are a supplier to the US Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA) or NASA, you just got a break: “DoD, GSA, and NASA are withdrawing the proposed rule to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) titled:...
Jan 21 2025 #climate, #compliance, #diversity, #environment, #equity, #esg, #investors
ESG Investing: A Divide Between Courts, State Laws and Reality?
Last week’s ruling by US District Court Judge Reed O’Connor sure stirred things up in the ESG world. Not only because of the court’s ruling, but also because of the logic and (mis)interpretation of the facts by the Judge. Matt...
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Featured Q&A Members Only
GHG Emissions “Restatements” Under CSRD and SEC
Assume a company considers GHG emissions or another ESG matter as material and they treat it as such in their SEC 10-K/20-F. Primarily this is reflected in the MD&A and Risk Factors Disclosures, but it may also include financials related to emissions trading (especially for companies that have significant trading transactions).
If the company publishes a sustainability-related “restatement” (for GHG data from previous years) under the new CSRD regime in the EU, would that impact SEC filings? Is any type of restatement triggered for SEC?
Here is a link to an example of a discussion about an emissions “restatement” in CSRD reporting: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/maximuel_lets-talk-about-emission-restatements-novo-activity-7292888302393708544-3zsM
02/5/2025, Question #26673
Non-GAAP Measure in ESG Report?
Would Reg G apply to a non-GAAP measure included in a public company’s ESG Report posted on its website? Assume that’s the case but wanted to get thoughts given it is not so common.
02/4/2025, Question #26618
Withdrawal of Shareholder Proposals on Human Rights
Ia anyone aware of a market survey or other practical guidance on what would be appropriate to offer when trying to negotiate shareholder to withdraw a proposal? Specifically for human rights or ESG related reporting matters. The only somewhat helpful information I could find was ICCRs summary for their Corporate Change – proxy season recap summary each proxy season, but wondering if there are other similar or more comprehensive indications somewhere online.
01/13/2025, Question #26148