Library | Sustainable Finance Practices
Active ownership
Active ownership is a component of effective stewardship. Guidance on how investors can influence investee, borrower or policyholder behaviour through active ownership, including proxy voting and engagement on ESG issues, fostering long-term value creation.
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UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance: Policy engagement guidelines
This guideline released in 2023 outline principles for asset owners to integrate net-zero commitments into public policy engagement. The framework emphasises accountability, active participation, consistency, and transparency in climate advocacy. Asset owners are urged to engage policymakers to support the transition to a low-carbon economy and ensure alignment with fiduciary duties.
Contextualising ESG funds' engagement strategies in Asia
The report examines the engagement strategies of ESG funds in Asia, highlighting the unique challenges posed by regulatory constraints, concentrated ownership, and political influences. Using a structured engagement pyramid, the study categorises ESG fund strategies, ranging from investment screening to direct corporate control. Despite obstacles, notable regional features can support ESG initiatives, such as shareholder voting mechanisms and strategic collaborations. The report provides insights into how ESG funds navigate these challenges to influence corporate governance and sustainability outcomes in Asia.
Point of no returns part V – leading practice: A guide to current leading practices by asset managers on responsible investment
This report provides investors with insights into leading practices for integrating biodiversity into investment strategies. It highlights best practices, case studies, and practical recommendations for enhancing the sustainability and resilience of investment portfolios.
The Shareholder Commons
The Shareholder Commons (TSC) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to aligning corporate behaviour with social and environmental sustainability. TSC advocates for systems-first investing to prioritise long-term global health over short-term profits. It provides resources, research, and strategies to help investors protect shared interests and promote sustainable economic practices.
Responsible investment and blockchain
The report explores blockchain technology's relevance to responsible investment, highlighting its potential to enhance transparency, automate processes, and improve ESG data tracking. It discusses blockchain's implications for shareholder voting, decentralised systems, financial inclusivity, and sustainability. Practical challenges, including regulation, technical integration, and energy use, are also addressed. .
Engaging affected stakeholders: The emerging duties of board members
This report provides guidance for corporate boards on effectively engaging stakeholders to uphold human rights. It outlines strategies for meaningful engagement, addressing stakeholder concerns, and integrating human rights considerations into corporate governance and decision-making processes.
Business for Nature
Business for Nature is a global coalition uniting over 100 business and conservation organisations, along with forward-thinking companies. It promotes credible corporate action and advocates for ambitious governmental policies to establish a nature-positive economy by 2030.
Trase
TRASE maps forest risk supply chains linking consumer countries and traders with places of production. This allows for greater visibility of the countries, regions and companies that have higher rates of deforestation.
Transforming global finance for climate action: Addressing misaligned incentives and unlocking opportunities
The report identifies systemic barriers preventing the flow of capital to climate-positive projects. It introduces the PIVOT framework, outlining policy vacuum, misaligned incentives, valuation challenges, inactive ownership, and transition misalignment. The report provides actionable solutions for policymakers, investors, and stakeholders to align finance with the Paris Agreement.
Sustainability preferences: The role of beliefs
The study investigates how beliefs shape investor preferences for sustainable investments. Using incentivised survey methods, it finds that investors’ expectations of financial returns are higher for ESG-rated funds when aware of their ESG rating. This study highlights the biases in unincentivised surveys and the complex motivations driving socially responsible investments, suggesting that incentivised methods may better capture true investor beliefs about ESG fund performance.
Global partnerships case study: Measuring and managing financial inclusion outcomes
This case study explores how Global Partnerships adopts outcomes-focused impact measurement and management (IMM) practices. It highlights the importance of tracking both development and intermediate outcomes in financial inclusion to ensure investments genuinely benefit underserved populations and achieve measurable social impact while mitigating potential risks.
The big three and board gender diversity: The effectiveness of shareholder voice
The report analyses how campaigns by major institutional investors significantly boosted gender diversity on corporate boards. From 2017 to 2019, these initiatives increased female directorships by encouraging firms to broaden candidate searches and reduce the focus on executive experience, indicating impactful, non-tokenistic change.
Community forest governance and synergies among carbon, biodiversity and livelihoods
The report examines the relationships between carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and livelihoods in tropical forest commons. It highlights the importance of local governance, particularly community management and rule-making, in achieving synergies among these benefits. The study identifies trade-offs and co-benefits across five distinct forest clusters, emphasising that effective governance plays a key role in fostering multifunctional forest landscapes.
Divestment and engagement: The effect of green investors on corporate carbon emissions
This report investigates whether green investors influence corporate carbon emissions by either divesting from polluters or engaging with management through stock ownership. The findings suggest green investors significantly reduce emissions through active engagement, whereas divestment strategies may counterproductively increase emissions. The report highlights private markets’ potential to address environmental issues independently of government regulation.
The unseen 'others': A framework for investor stewardship
The report introduces an analytical model that expands traditional investment management by recognising multiple stewardship relationships beyond immediate clients and beneficiaries. It advocates for enlightened stewardship that considers the broader impacts on society, the environment, and the economy, urging the integration of such perspectives into stewardship codes.