Asia’s biggest funding opportunity for sustainable solutions offers up to S$1m and more for clean energy & circular economy solutions

Singapore—The Liveability Challenge on 10th January launched a global call for innovative clean energy and circular economy solutions for cities in the tropics, dangling Asia’s biggest prize for sustainability solutions with up to S$1 million in project development funds, as well as exclusive crowdfunding campaigns and mentorship opportunities up for grabs. The global call for submissions will close on 5 April 2019, 11:59pm (GMT+8) Singapore time.

The need for transformative action has never been greater. Humanity only has 12 years to curb its carbon emissions and keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius—or risk an irreversible climate crisis, according to the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Lego + more investments in renewables

Denmark's KIRKBI A/S, the family holding company behind toy maker Lego, wants to expand its renewable energy investments.

* KIRKBI has invested 6 billion Danish crowns ($876 million) in two offshore wind farms operated by DONG Energy in German and British waters
* "We would like to see these wind turbines up and running first, but we definitely have an appetite for more, and we're constantly looking for possible investment opportunities," the Chief Executive Soren Thorup Sorensen said

Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2013

Abu Dhabi is a significant platform for international dialogue and cooperation. It is expected to welcome over 30,000 participants from 150 countries, including world leaders, policy makers, thought leaders, decision makers, experts, scientists, business leaders and academics, in an effort to:

• Tackle the world’s pressing issues in energy, water and environment
• Accelerate the global adoption of renewable energy
• Address water challenges in arid regions
• Elevate the water - energy nexus topics on the global agenda
• Encourage the dialogue between broad industry stakeholders to strengthen strategic partnerships
• Stimulate investment in water, energy and environment projects
• Empower the young generations and entrepreneurs

U.S. $125 Billion Investment Growth In Sub-Saharan Africa

Despite the data challenges, this research provides a surprisingly detailed look at the sustainable investment landscape in the region

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates that 125 billion U.S. dollars of investment that integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is set to grow significantly.

The New Era Of Sustainable Investment

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Green is good (as Gordon Gekko would never say).

We're unlikely to see a film any time soon starring a reformed Gordon Gekko proclaiming "green is good", but until that happy day the Environmental Tracking Index Series is an interesting instrument for Fools who want to save the planet and make money.
Launched in May, it's a kind of exchange-traded fund and its unapologetically noble purpose is to punish polluting companies while rewarding green ones. More later, but it does so by ranking companies according to their greenhouse gas emissions, whether they like it or not.

Paying Attention to Risks Pays Dividends to Sustainable Investors

How often do you listen to the quarterly earnings calls of your investments? How about reading the transcripts of those quarterly earnings calls at SeekingAlpha.com? 

If you do, have you ever heard discussion of the risks associated with employee turnover, staff diversity or plant emissions (other than a major oil spill)? As we have learned in The HIP Investor book excerpts, all of these factors impact shareholder value - because they are leading indicators of profitability.

Al Gore says capitalism can save the world Commentary: Former Veep says it’s time for sustainable investing

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) — In a keynote speech last week for the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, former Vice President Al Gore urged people to radically shift markets toward a more sustainable form of capitalism.

Gore, of course, is famous for his environmentalism, less so for his capitalism. But he has a track record there, too. As chairman of Generation Investment Management, Gore has sought to leverage financial capital to effect social and environmental change among the business community.

Generation Investment Management says its investment approach is based on the idea that sustainability factors—economic, environmental, social and governance criteria — will drive a company’s returns over the long term.

Sustainable recovery in sentiment towards European equities

Luke Stellini (pictured), European Product Director, Invesco Henley European Equity Team, examines growing evidence of a recovery in the European stockmarkets.
The year-to-date outperformance of European stockmarkets has surprised many investors. Rather than seeing this as a blip, Invesco Perpetual’s European equity experts believe that some of the underlying reasons for Europe’s early leadership are sustainable. They see substantial evidence of a sustainable recovery in sentiment as the continent continues to navigate away from the storm of default risk that drove extreme antipathy towards the region in 2010.

Green Business Guru Joel Makower To Speak at SRI in the Rockies Conference in New Orleans

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In a First, Conference "Hits the Road" to New Location Outside of Rockies
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., March 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Well-known green business leader Joel Makower will be a plenary speaker at the 22nd annual SRI in the Rockies Conference, the leading edge forum for the sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) industry in the North America.  In a departure from the usual setting for the major annual conference, this year's industry gathering will be held at the Sheraton New Orleans October 2–5, 2011.
Makower is the chairman and executive editor of GreenBiz Group, host of the annual State of Green Business Forum, and author of Strategies for the Green Business Economy.

Ethical investment hits $11 trillion

Socially responsible investment (SRI) hit $11 trillion in 2010. The increase was due to demand from European pension funds, universities and insurance companies and high net worth ­individuals (HNWIs).

Hedge fund managers have been urged to stop considering SRI as an eccentric offshoot of the alternative investment industry and instead view it as a major source of fresh capital.

Pax World Launches Socially Responsible EAFE ETF (EAPS)

Pax World, a leader in the field of sustainable investing, has rolled out the second product in its ESG Shares lineup. The Pax MSCI EAFE ESG Index ETF (EAPS) will seek to replicate a benchmark consisting of stocks in the Europe, Australasian, and Far East regions that meed certain environmental, social, and governance criteria. EAPS will be the first ETF based on a sustainability or ESG-based index to target the EAFE region.

First report about Sustainable investment in the Middle East and North Africa

Sustainable Investment in the Middle East and North Africa is the first report measuring the amount of sustainable investment in the Middle East and North Africa. It assesses current levels of sustainable investment awareness, practices, and demand in the region and finds that while current volumes are small, there is scope for much greater sustainable investment in the region. The report also identifies opportunities to increase the flow of sustainable investment funds to the region and develop this increasingly important market segment:  Sustainable Investment in theMiddle East and North AfricaRegion Report

5 Top Sustainable Investment Stories of 2010

[Editor's note: This article originally appeared at SocialFunds.com.]

Viewed through the lens of growth, 2010 can be seen as one in which sustainable investment moved closer to acceptance by the mainstream investment community, in the US and elsewhere.
By the end of the year, three reports detailing regional states of sustainable investment -- in Europe, the United States, and Australia and New Zealand -- had been published, and each showed that uptake of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors in investment decision-making was on the increase.

Investors turn to sustainable investment opportunities

A quick profit was what investors cared about before the financial crisis hit the markets. Now, more investors are looking to invest in an ethical and eco-friendly way - but that also means weeding through the scams.

Before the financial crisis hit global markets in 2008, investors didn't give much thought to sustainable investment. Sustainability was merely seen as a term for environmental and development policies. But after the stock market slump, investors slowly began investing in businesses with sustainable production ethics and lending money to banks financing social projects in developing countries.

"In recent years, we have seen a remarkable change of attitude," said Christof Lützel from Germany's GLS, a green bank. "An increasing number of people eat a healthy diet, buy natural cosmetics, drive cars that don't need much gas and use green electricity. In addition, they want a green investment or a green bank."

The GLS bank differs from its conventional competitors, as it only invests in eco-friendly projects. Though the bank was founded back in the 1970s, only recently has it seen a rise in its customer numbers.

SAM gets €800m asset boost as parent Robeco transfers funds

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Zurich-based sustainable investment firm SAM has taken over the management of two sustainable funds from parent firm Robeco.

This, combined with further fund transfers planned for next month, will give SAM an immediate €800m injection in assets under management. As at June 30 last year, SAM had CHF14.8bn (€11.5bn) in AUM.

The moves are the first significant development since the appointment of former Credit Suisse Asset Management executive Michael Baldinger as SAM’s chief executive last month. He took over the role vacated by former CEO Sander van Eijkern, who quit almost a year ago in a dispute over strategy. Baldinger has a specific brief to explore closer collaboration between SAM and Robeco.

And the changes are part of the wider shake-up of Robeco under CEO Roderick Munsters, the former chief investment officer at Dutch pension giant APG who took the helm in 2009.

Munsters had told Responsible-Investor.com last year that he saw SAM as a “centre of expertise” on ESG within the group.

SAM assumed responsibility for the Robeco Agribusiness Equities Fund and the Robeco European Equities Fund as of January 15.

The former, with €145m in assets, has become the SAM Agribusiness Equities Fund managed by Martin Jochum. The latter, worth €440m, is renamed the SAM Sustainable European Equities Fund, run by Kai Fachinger.

In addition, the €22m Robeco European Stars Fund and the €142m Robeco European Midcaps Fund will be merged into the SAM Sustainable European Equities Fund from February 18. 

source: responsible-investor.com

The push for sustainable instead of ethical investment

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On Wednesday night, Barchester Green held a seminar as part of NEIW where John Ditchfield, the director of Barchester Green spoke about the importance of sustainable investment.

Mr Ditchfield said sustainable investment differed from ethical investment as it seeks to actively address environmental problems.

He said: "We all agree we are depleting the world's resources and sustainable investing aims to support companies trying to prevent and even reverse this.

"With social impact investing, investors not only want good financial returns but for their investments to have a positive social impact, for example microfinancing."