SustainabilityHQ.com Weekly Highlights September 17, 2013

Top Story of the Week

One of the much-anticipated annual events in the days of September is the announcement out of Switzerland as Robeco Sam Group announces the components of the S&P Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.  The DJSI are important benchmarks for sustainable & responsible investment (SRI), widely used by mutual funds, investment advisors, asset managers as well as asset owners, and others seeking "sustainable" investments or components for their portfolios. 

Companies are "in" and "out" each year.  Among those being added:  Bank of America, UBS AG and UPS.  And being dropped, Johnson & Johnson, HSBC Holdings, and Vodafone Group.   This is an important development which has impact throughout the coming year -- check out the details in our Top Story this week.  The story is posted on our Sustainability HQ platform.

Results Announced for 2013 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices Review
Friday - September 13, 2013
Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices - S&P Dow Jones Indices, one of the world’s largest providers of financial market indices, and RobecoSAM, the investment specialist focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing, today...

Sustainability in Focus

Redefining Sustainability
(Friday - September 13, 2013) 
Source: Harvard Crimson - When people think about sustainability today, they often think about it in the contexts of attaining energy security and solving global warming. While this definition is pertinent to addressing our most immediate challenges...

How to get investors to care about sustainability? Show them the money
(Friday - September 13, 2013) 
Source: Guardian.co.uk - Corporate leaders consistently mention their frustration that investment professionals rarely, if ever, ask questions about sustainability during quarterly analyst calls. While there may be a great deal of sustainability data out...

Wal-Mart suppliers report progress with sustainability 
(Friday - September 13, 2013) 
Source: The Packer - Although the fresh produce industry wasn’t specifically discussed during Wal-Mart’s global sustainability milestone meeting, the practices and products of industries closely tied to produce were front and center in reports about...

Nine steps for young business leaders to drive sustainability
(Wednesday - September 11, 2013) 
Source: Guardian - There's a lot of talk about how a new generation of younger business leaders will be instrumental in driving the corporate sustainability agenda. But while it may be true that they come to the boardroom thinking that short-term...

Research shows success of local sustainability efforts to improve environment
(Tuesday - September 10, 2013) Associated Profiles: UN - Global Compact 
Source:  examiner.com - "The reefs are our livelihood, and we strive to protect them." The news of a successful local initiative comes on the heels of the release of the United Nations Global Compact 2013...

Execs want sustainable products. Will they walk their talk' 
(Tuesday - September 10, 2013) Associated Profiles : Verdantix
Source: GreenBiz - More than two-thirds of green business leaders consider it important to improve product sustainability performance during the next year, according to a recently published survey by Verdantix, a UK-based...

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 September 17,2013