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Sustainability Report Restatements Begin
A couple years ago, with substantial input from John Jenkins, I blogged about the potential for sustainability/ESG matters to trigger restatements of financial reports in the US: “What if a publicly-traded company finally took a hard look at potential financial...
ESG Ratings Quality, Use and Regulatory Oversight Trend Upwards
ESG ratings have been fraught with issues since their inception. Over the past several years, some jurisdictions introduced voluntary and mandatory codes of conduct and rater regulations. This has led to some improvement in the ratings industry and financial services...
SEC To Consider New Auditor Standards
Earlier this year, I blogged about new auditor standards approved by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) – General Responsibilities of the Auditor in Conducting an Audit and A Firm’s System of Quality Control. These new standards only apply...
Scope 3 Reporting Still a Major Challenge for Most Companies
ESG may face headwinds in several areas, but the hard work of sustainability reporting continues moving forward. Deloitte’s 2024 Sustainability Action Report finds that more than 50% of companies have now established cross-functional ESG working groups – with an additional...
BlueTriton Greenwashing Suit Dismissed, Plaintiffs Refile
A recent greenwashing lawsuit against BlueTriton was dismissed in the U.S. Northern District Court of Illinois. The suit alleges that BlueTriton engaged in deceptive marketing by labeling water containing microplastics as “100% natural spring water.” However, the court found that...
Musk Tests Anti-ESG Legal Theory in X Lawsuit
It’s no secret that tech billionaire Elon Musk is no fan of ESG, famously decrying ESG as “the devil” last year. So we shouldn’t be surprised to see Elon’s social media company “X” (formerly Twitter) pull from the Anti-ESG playbook...
Facial Recognition Technology Results in Another Wrongful Arrest
A man wrongfully arrested by Detroit police due to facial recognition technology has recently settled a lawsuit with the Detroit Police Department for $300,000. In 2018, Robert Williams was falsely arrested as the perpetrator of a theft after Detroit police...
European Commission Faces Climate Lawsuit to Lower 2030 Allowances
Several NGOs have filed legal arguments in the General Court of the European Union arguing that Europe’s emissions allowances between now and 2030 are unlawful. The lawsuit argues that the European Commission failed in its duties to adequately assess and...
Survey Shows Majority of Companies Facing E&S Risks
Recently we’ve seen the appetite for ESG waning as investors back off of ESG proposals and some companies abandon or scale back ESG programs. However, choosing not to engage with ESG doesn’t make ESG risks disappear, it just reduces their...
Board Diversity: Sample Disclosures
[Editor’s note: This blog was written by Meredith Ervine Senior Editor of TheCorporateCounsel.net and is syndicated here for your convenience.] A recent post on the HLS Blog claims that most Nasdaq-listed companies had no trouble disclosing that they met Nasdaq’s...
Editor Lawrence Heim Will Return From Medical Leave
If you’ve been keeping up with our blog for the last couple of weeks you’ve probably noticed the lack of blogs from our lead editor Lawrence Heim. Unfortunately, Lawrence experienced a non-life-threatening medical emergency that has prevented him from writing...
Jack Daniels and Harley Davidson Cut DEI, but Keep Climate
Corporate DEI has been going through a rough patch. Last year the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in college admissions. This signaled to many that similar rulings might be in store for corporate DEI activities. This saw DEI programs at...
Did BlackRock Abandon ESG?
In the wake of the 2024 proxy season many commentators, myself included, have pointed to continued low support for ESG proposals from major asset managers like Vanguard, State Street, and BlackRock. In BlackRock’s case, many have viewed the past several...
Political Spending Poses New Risks for Companies
A new report from the Center for Political Accountability warns that increasing polarization in state and local politics may increase risks for companies engaged in political and lobbying actions. As more attention is focused on state governments, political spending that...
Indiana Sends Cease and Desist to BlackRock
BlackRock is back in Anti-ESG’s crosshairs. The Indiana Secretary of State issued a cease and desist letter last week to the firm alleging securities fraud. The Indiana letter is similar to one sent by the Mississippi Secretary of State back...
No Surprise Here. Drop in Black and Latino Student Enrollment After Supreme Court Ban on Affirmative Action
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has reported a decrease in Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Pacific Islander students in their freshman class this year as enrollment decreased to 16% from 31% in the previous year. MIT administrators attribute this...
NGOs Sue Finnish Government Over Climate Inaction
Six NGOs are bringing a legal challenge against the Finnish government arguing that the country has unlawfully delayed climate action. While Finland’s climate goals are aggressive, the NGOs allege that the country is not on track to meet them and...
Companies Taking Proactive Measures for CA GHG Laws
Between recent rulemaking at the SEC and California’s GHG disclosure bills, many have been asking: when will mandatory GHG disclosures come to the US? While the SEC faces an uphill legal battle to implement its Climate-related Disclosures Rule, California has...
Nuveen Exits Climate Action 100+
It hasn’t been an easy year for Climate Action 100+ (CA 100+). The group was originally formed to bring investors and financial institutions together to tackle the climate crisis through asset management. However, in recent years the organization has found...
New Zealand Hits the Gas on its Emissions Trading Scheme
While it seems investors and companies are backing off of ESG and climate commitments, some jurisdictions are moving full steam ahead. From mandatory reporting requirements in the EU and California to financial greenwashing litigation and regulation in the UK and...
New Survey Shows Shifting ESG Priorities for GCs
The role of General Counsel in ESG has evolved over the past several years. As ESG has gained prominence legal departments have found themselves in advisory and oversight roles managing the associated risks. Morrison Foester and ALM Law.com’s annual “GC’s...
Proxy Season Results Show Flattened Support for ESG Proposals
The 2024 proxy season was expected to be more of the same trends we saw in 2023. A new analysis by Morningstar confirms these predictions showing support for ESG proposals flattening, and fewer proposals getting serious consideration. In 2023, 54...
Missouri Court Shuts Down Anti-ESG Law
The Anti-ESG movement suffered a defeat as Missouri’s new ESG investing laws have been struck down in federal court. Missouri sought to regulate private investment in ESG through “notice and consent” laws. These laws would have required clients to sign...
ESG Bond Market Slows, But Quality Improves
The ESG-labeled bond market hasn’t seen much growth over the past two years with issuance rates falling after 2021 and remaining roughly stagnant through 2023. However, AllianceBernstein indicates that the strength of ESG-labeled bonds has risen substantially over the same...
New Webcast Available: ESG Investing Today: The Reality for Investors and Portfolio Companies
PracticalESG.com members can now access our recent webcast “ESG Investing Today: The Reality for Investors and Portfolio Companies.” ESG investing isn’t new, but it is in a new world right now with unprecedented regulatory, financial, macroeconomic and geopolitical dynamics. Both...
UK to Adopt Mandatory ESG Ratings Regulations
ESG ratings are controversial tools used primarily by investors to get a glimpse at a company’s ESG performance. However, with proprietary “black box” methodologies and results that often differ significantly from rater to rater, the ratings industry faces much criticism....
Materiality Assessment: Getting Value Out of Stakeholder Input (Part 2)
[Ed. note: This guest blog comes from Dinah Koehler, ScD of CSO Partner. Dinah has extensive experience in environmental and climate matters and holds a doctorate in environmental risk assessment and management from Harvard School of Public Health. This is...
What Could an ICJ Decision Mean for Climate Change?
Courts across the world are seeing more climate cases at all levels across a variety of litigation. Greenwashing cases have been brought against major corporations, a variety of tort litigation has been brought against carbon majors, and municipalities and governments...
UK Pushes Back on “Sustainable Aviation Fuel” Claims
The airline business has faced constant challenges when it comes to decarbonization and ESG. The trouble is that air travel is emissions-heavy, and there aren’t many ways to get around the impact that air travel has on climate. These technical...
Limiting Risks of Carbon Offset Controversies
Controversy surrounding voluntary carbon offsets is not news anymore. It hasn’t faded away – just the opposite; it is so commonplace, there is little value to covering it. Bloomberg summed it up last week in their ESG Investing newsletter: “Already...
MEI or DEI?
A new term has emerged in opposition to DEI and it’s already been adopted by notable figures in the tech industry. The new term – MEI – stands for merit, excellence, and intelligence. This term was coined as a groundbreaking...
Tips on Using Generative AI Most Effectively in ESG
I recently attended a session at the 36th Annual Texas Environmental Superconference on using AI for ESG and environmental matters. The session was excellent although it ended up being more about how to use generative AI more generally, and legal...
The “No-ROI” Sustainability Business Case (Part 1)
Last week, I blogged about navigating corporate sustainability initiatives and finding business opportunities when you don’t have data. Today, let’s look at how you might be able to show executives the business value of sustainability without ROI. Yes, you read...
The “No-ROI” Sustainability Business Case (Part 2)
Continuing from the previous blog about Gartner’s “death by ROI”… Gartner pointed out that “while our results were specific to the D&A [data & analytics] practice, it’s safe to assume any similar support function could encounter this same trap,” so...
Companies Walk Back, Reassess Climate Goals
A few years ago, excitement and enthusiasm for the energy transition was high. Companies across virtually every sector set “net-zero” emissions targets, many of which were bold and aggressive. However, it was easy to have enthusiasm when companies only had...
Navigating the “No Data” Sustainability Business Case
Everywhere we turn, there is talk about the need for more data on sustainability. Generally, those conversations center on data for corporate disclosures. Increasingly, however, more companies are looking to the data for business opportunities. In a recent post on...
Are You Prepared for Materiality of the Third Kind?
ESG/sustainability professionals are well versed in the concepts of financial materiality (embedded in traditional financial reporting)and double materiality (embedded in relatively new sustainability disclosure frameworks and EU directives). But as the call grows for third party assurance of ESG reports,...
Australia Sets Out Sustainability Roadmap
Australia has been working for a while now to develop and implement mandatory climate reporting and other sustainable finance initiatives. Recently, the Australian Treasury announced its Sustainable Finance Roadmap, laying the groundwork for GHG reporting and other ESG priorities in...
Are Sustainability Professionals Being Real About AI?
Ask anyone familiar with the dire state of the climate and they’ll tell you humankind is at an inflection point. We either reduce carbon emissions and stabilize the global climate, or we fail and face catastrophic damage and potential societal...
Newest Feature: Tracking Changes in Corporate Climate Commitments
Companies face a tough reality at the moment: achieving climate commitments made years ago is proving more difficult and expensive than expected – especially at a time when the climate has become highly politicized and the efficacy of corporate actions...
Sustainability Professionals – Make Your Bed
An hour doesn’t goes by during the week (and sometime weekends) when I don’t read something or hear from a friend/colleague about how hard it is to work in sustainability/ESG right now. New regulations with unprecedented scopes, business uncertainties, rapidly...
New Podcast: Employer Immigration Sponsorship
A new podcast is now available for members. In conversation with Laura Lemanski (she/her), People Operations Manager at NextRoll, we dive into employer immigration sponsorship. Laura draws on her specialized expertise in managing leaves of absence and global immigration to...
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Featured Q&A Members Only
Why are climate risk disclosures in 10-K are different from a company’s ESG report?
I saw discussion on LinkedIn that FedEx’s 10-K states that the company is not going to meet their climate goals. Since SEC’s climate rules aren’t in effect, I thought there is no requirement to file climate disclosures with the SEC. Plus what is in the 10-K is completely different from what the company says in their ESG report. What is going on?
07/23/2024, Question #23943
Asking for ESG department funding increases in an anti-ESG world
I’m preparing for a meeting with senior management and the board where I will be asking for additional funds for the company’s ESG programs. I already know there will be strong pushback, especially given the anti-ESG/anti-DEI developments since the previous budget cycle. What are some ideas for making my case?
07/18/2024, Question #23885
CSRD exemptions
Does anyone know whether the non-EU parent consolidated report due in 2029 (where applicable for “significant presence” in the EU) will exempt “large” EU subsidiaries from their own earlier reporting requirement under the non-EU parent subsidiary exemption (not the artificial consolidation exemption). In other words, could a “large” EU subsidiary of a non-EU parent with a “significant presence” in the EU rely on this exemption to delay its reporting in 2026 until 2029, or would the consolidated report have to be filed in 2026?
05/23/2024, Question #22824