SustainabilityHQ.com Weekly Highlights July 19, 2012

Telling the Story of Your Sustainability Journey Through a CSR Report
(Tuesday - July 17, 2012)
Source: Hank Boerner, chairman, Governance & Accountability Institute, CSRWire - No matter your age or status, that's a wonderful incentive to begin a conversation. Everything we do tells a story; if we apply that to the corporation, the story is told through strategies adopted, the corporate culture, the...

ESG / Sustainability

Drought in U.S. reaching levels not seen in 50 years, pushing up crop prices
(Tuesday - July 17, 2012)
Source: Washington Post - A drought gripping the Corn Belt and more than half the United States has reached proportions not seen in more than 50 years, the government reported Monday, jacking up crop prices and threatening to drive up the cost of food....

Corporate governance best practices 10 years after SOX
(Tuesday - July 17, 2012)
Source: Journal of Accountancy - You could hardly go to a Washington hearing related to an accounting or auditing issue this spring without someone singing the praises of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). At a House subcommittee meeting on accounting and...

Commentary

Sustainability Q & A: Bill McKibben
(Wednesday - July 18, 2012)
Source: NY Times - Bill McKibben is an environmental activist, professor, author and the founder of 350.org, an international organization fighting climate change. In his latest best-selling book, “Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet,” he...

Research

New Study Examines University Endowments' Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance Investments
(Wednesday - July 18, 2012)
Source: MarketWatch - A new report finds the college and university endowments' environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) investments are less prevalent than often believed, particularly given their history as sustainable investing pioneers...

Sovereign Wealth Funds

Why America is Losing to Europe in the Battle for Chinese Money - policymic.com
(Tuesday - July 17, 2012) Associated Profiles : China Investment Corporation
Source: Policy mic.com - On a more political stage, China Investment Corporation (CIC), the country's main sovereign wealth fund, has been actively looking to diversify China's US $2 trillion worth of foreign currency holdings into stocks and company...

UAE oil pipeline bypasses threatened Strait of Hormuz - Tampa Bay Online
(Monday - July 16, 2012) Associated Profiles : International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC)
Source: Tampa Bay Online - The state-run International Petroleum Investment Company behind the project confirmed that the first export shipment was loaded onto a tanker through the pipeline. The pipeline can handle at least 1.5 million barrels of crude a...

Commodity Falls Spark Investor Rethink - CNBC
(Friday - July 13, 2012) Associated Profiles : PGGM – Asset Managers for Pension Funds
Source: CNBC - ABP and PGGM, the leading Dutch pension funds that pioneered commodities investment in the early 2000s, are part of that trend. Both, with billions of dollars under management, continue to see commodities as an important part of...

US Pension Funds

City pension funds stumble to post weak 1.7% return in past year  - New York Daily News
(Wednesday - July 18, 2012) Associated Profiles : New York City Comptroller’s Office: Bureau of Asset Management
Source: NY Daily News - The office of City Controller John Liu blamed lackluster pension fun returns on European woes and ;tepid U.S. economic growth.; THE CITY’?S pension funds posted tepid returns of 1.7% over the last year,...

Analysis: Funds may have won and lost in Libor scandal - Reuters
(Wednesday - July 18, 2012) Associated Profiles : California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)
Source: Reuters - The investment chief of Calpers, the largest U.S. public pension fund, threatened a lawsuit if the fund was harmed by banks' manipulations of the London InterBank Offered Rate, or Libor. But he left himself some...

Judge in no rush to hear Wal-Mart bribery lawsuit
(Tuesday - July 17, 2012) Associated Profiles : California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), New York City Comptroller’s Office: Bureau of Asset Management
Source: USA Today - A Delaware judge scolded attorneys for two large public employee retirement systems on Monday for rushing to court with lawsuits over allegations of bribery involving Wal-Mart Stores' operations in Mexico.

Nation’s largest public pension fund reports dismal 1 percent annual return
(Tuesday - July 17, 2012) Associated Profiles : California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)
Source: Washington Post - The nation’s largest public pension fund collected a dismal 1 percent annual return on its investments, a figure far short of projections that will likely bring pressure on California’s state and local...

Commentary

Editorial: CalSTRS audit must dig into spiking claims - Sacramento Bee
(Friday - July 13, 2012) Associated Profiles : California State Teachers’ Retirement System
Source: Sacramento Bee - It's been more than eight months since State Controller John Chiang announced he was launching an audit "to test the California State Teachers'  Retirement System's efforts at identifying and preventing pension spiking."

This is just a sample of some of the articles from this weeks SustainabilityHQ Highlights.  You can view the full Highlights by using the following links.  Sustainability | ESG, Highlights for the Week of July 19, 2012