CSR Update 
Missed Opportunity for Climate Change LegislationThe opportunity for much needed climate change legislation appears to be lost for the near future. Unfortunately, legislators did not feel that there was enough support for this important law to get it passed. Socially responsible investors were hopeful that this legislation, which would have provided for disclosure of and reduction of carbon emissions, would "level the playing field" for corporations. Best in class companies on environmental factors would be easily compared to those who were laggards. Coupled with recent decisions by the EPA to push off the deadline for disclosure of emissions by large facilities, the United States is quickly losing ground to developing economies when it comes to regulating the ability of corporations to pollute.Publish What You Pollute: SECThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today issued new interpretive guidance that will help socially responsible investors like UCF determine how invested companies are flexing their responsilbities on climate change. The SEC guidance states that publicly-traded companies need to disclose to investors climate-related ‘material’ effects on business operations, whether from new emissions management policies, the physical impacts of changing weather or business opportunities associated with the growing clean energy economy.
This is a major step forward for investors and the ability to construct portfolios with an eye toward ESG data. Many investors believe that companies who are impacting the environment and the people of the world in a positive way are the ones that will be the best long term investments.
UCF has been a voice calling for better environmental disclosure for a long time and we believe this will lead to more informed decision-making practices.
To learn more, go to the CERES website.
Funding Environmental CleanupThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering imposing financial assurance requirements on three industries: the chemical manufacturing industry; the petroleum and coal products manufacturing industry; and the electric power generation, transmission, and distribution industry. Ensuring that companies operating in these sectors maintain the funds that would be required to clean environmental releases, toxic dumps, or accidental emissions would be a significant change to the way companies are treated by the EPA currently. This would also give investors a better sense of a company's environmental liabilities. This would also have an important impact on Main Street: taxpayers would no longer be on the hook for the restoration of Superfund sites. Today's press release from the EPA is not yet at the stage of proposal or final regulation. Still, it's an important step for more responsible practices on the part of America's corporations. Sustainable Water SourcesThe CSR office is actively working on changing how the world views water. Learn more about water as a public asset by reading a new ICCR report: Liquid Assets: Responsible Investment in Water Services (pdf) |