ESG influencers survey response: Gender Based Violence & Harassment

From time to time, Preventable Surprises invites ESG influencers – senior practitioners and stakeholders who shape responsible investing – to share their sentiment on select topics and set an...

22 December 2021

Human Rights, Positive Mavericks, Forceful stewardship

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Investor stewardship and the Border and Surveillance Industry: a Discussion Note

We are pleased to share a Discussion Note on Investor Stewardship and the Border and Surveillance Industries. This Note is intended to educate – and advocate for – proactive...

7 December 2021

Human Rights, Forceful stewardship, Climate disruption, Pandemic

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Investor stewardship in the Border & Surveillance Industries: roundtable summary

On 28 October 2021, Preventable Surprises hosted an investor roundtable to launch the Border & Surveillance Industries (BSI) Stewardship Project. Participants discussed how institutional investors in these industries  can...

16 November 2021

Human Rights, Forceful stewardship

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Time to act, part II: Seven Steps investors can take today on Gender Based Violence & Harassment

This article recaps lessons on investors and Gender-Based Violence and Harassment (GBVH)  from our 14 October online roundtable with Lauren Compere, Managing Director at Boston Common Asset Management  and...

4 November 2021

Human Rights, Forceful stewardship

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The Border and Surveillance Industries Investor Stewardship Project

Preventable Surprises is pleased to launch the Border and Surveillance Industries Investor Stewardship Project. The project will bring together global institutional investors, NGOs and experts to determine how to...

18 October 2021

Human Rights, Forceful stewardship, Corporate political capture

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Time to act, Part I: tackling Gender-Based Violence requires more assertive investor engagement

One out of three women globally are victims of Gender-Based Violence. In this first of two blogs, we look at what companies and investors are doing, why many more...

28 September 2021

Human Rights, Forceful stewardship

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Top 50 asset managers have yet to match rhetoric with action to address negative lobbying & corporate policy capture – report

New Preventable Surprises report and asset manager report card sets ambition for finance to help prevent corporate policy capture.  What is at stake for investors when a former British...

24 May 2021

Forceful stewardship, Corporate political capture

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Moving beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: 3 questions to Jon Lukomnik and Jim Hawley

Three Key Questions for Jon Lukomnik and Jim Hawley, authors of a really important new book, “Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Investing That Matters”.  As you’ll see, this book...

29 April 2021

Positive Mavericks, Institutions, Forceful stewardship

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ESG Leaders should commit to supporting a free, fair and non-violent election and upholding democratic standards in the United States.

We are one day from the US Presidential election. With democratic standards eroding, we have found only two CEOs of large institutional investors who have shown that their...

3 November 2020

Forceful stewardship, Corporate political capture

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CLAP: healthcare sector discussion note and September roundtable 

Join our CLAP online roundtable on 24 Sept. & check out the new healthcare discussion note. Preventable Surprises is pleased to share the second Corporate Lobbying Alignment Project...

8 September 2020

Forceful stewardship, Corporate political capture

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Responsible Investment needs a bigger toolbox

A survey of ESG influencers shows the elusive side of investor responsibility. What to do? When the Covid-19 crisis exploded in winter 2020, we spelled out four different...

17 June 2020

Institutions, Forceful stewardship

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Integration and stewardship as we use the terms

Integration means the active consideration of ESG data and qualitative assessments of ESG risks and opportunities at the company level, sector level, and asset class or country level...

11 May 2020

Forceful stewardship

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Making Net Zero count by facing up to its shortcomings

The world is increasingly committing to Net Zero emission strategies. Preventable Surprises has been supportive, but science and experience now show it won’t be enough to meet the Paris...

6 March 2020

Forceful stewardship, Climate disruption, Must reads

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Open letter: as SEC curtails shareholder activism, big institutional investors must act

The SEC is proposing to change rules that govern shareholder proposals. This would seriously undermine corporate accountability. Silence from U.S. institutional investors on this issue will hurt them and,...

30 January 2020

Forceful stewardship

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Please show your stewardship mettle

More transparency about the impacts of ESG integration, improved proxy voting records, deeper and more long term engagement, decisive voices on the future of capitalism, and more: learn how...

15 January 2020

Forceful stewardship, Publications

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Which financial sector players have most influence with the Bolsonaro government and Brazilian companies?

Belatedly, attention is focusing on the crisis in the Amazon and inevitably people are asking who are the financial sector players that have most influence with the Brazilian government...

7 August 2019

Institutions, Forceful stewardship, Biodiversity loss

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UK Govt consultation on investment duties of pension fund trustees

The UK Government has recently undertaken a consultation about how to clarify and strengthen investment duties of pension fund trustees. Preventable Surprises made a submission which was supported by...

17 July 2018

Forceful stewardship

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The AGM anti-climax: How success breeds failure at U.S. utilities

A resolution calling on Exxon to report on risks posed by climate change was hailed as a “game changer” last year after shareholders got behind it. However Exxon’s 2-degree...

25 May 2018

Forceful stewardship, Climate disruption

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FT reporter pens critical piece on lack of stewardship

Financial Times’ columnist Attracta Mooney has written a hard-hitting piece acknowledging the fact that the largest investors are dragging their heels on climate change risk. An earlier FT piece...

23 October 2017

Forceful stewardship, Climate disruption

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PS responds to media spin

With publication of the votes from the 2017 proxy voting season, large US investors are being given much credit for their votes in support of shareholder resolutions seeking disclosure...

10 October 2017

Forceful stewardship, Climate disruption

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Vanguard: “Look Beyond the Numbers”

In Vanguard’s just-published Investment Stewardship report, Chairman and CEO William McNabb encourages readers to “look beyond the numbers” when reading about Vanguard’s engagement efforts as a responsible investor. That...

1 September 2017

Forceful stewardship

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“But you are so different … no one would take the career risks you have taken!”

By Raj Thamotheram Founder and co-chair, Preventable Surprises This is a refrain I hear quite often when I invite ESG professionals to consider how they could be a bigger...

13 June 2017

Positive Mavericks, Forceful stewardship

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Disrupting CEO Pay

The former CEO of the Investment Association, the trade body that represents UK investment managers, has made a disruptive proposal on CEO pay. Decades of technocratic effort by corporate...

27 March 2017

Executive pay, Forceful stewardship, Climate disruption

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Preventable Surprises encourages the G20 to require investors to disclose AGM votes

G20 leaders face a long list of pressing issues when they meet at their September summit, including the backlash against globalization and migration. While climate change could take...

3 September 2016

Forceful stewardship, Climate disruption

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The US AGMs: which investors matter the most?

Preventable Surprises has undertaken an analysis of who owns the nine companies in the USA that are facing 2°C stress test / transition plan resolutions. One highlight of this...

8 May 2016

Forceful stewardship, Climate disruption

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The Forceful Stewardship Guidelines

The guidelines have been described by John Rogers, the former CEO and President of the CFA Institute, as “an emerging best practice framework to guide investor action”.  There are...

10 December 2015

Forceful stewardship

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Why we need forceful stewardship (and why BAU engagement isn’t fit for purpose)

Preventable Surprises is delighted to see growing awareness that finance is arguably the critical player post COP21. And we are also delighted to see engagement taking an increasingly central...

9 December 2015

Forceful stewardship

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What do investment “positive mavericks” think about litigation

This survey (“ThinkTank views on litigation“) shows that “positive mavericks” think litigation is an important ingredient in the mix of change strategies: the immunity to change in the investment...

24 November 2015

Forceful stewardship

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Who are the 50 biggest institutional investors in the world?

Here’s a list of the top 50 institutional investors today.  Our thanks to IPE for the data. Did you know that 8 of the 10 biggest investors are fund managers headquartered...

24 November 2015

Institutions, Forceful stewardship

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“How our screwed-up CEO pay system makes climate change worse”

This is the title of a hard hitting article in GRIST about the role of executive remuneration in exacerbating the climate change challenge.

12 October 2015

Executive pay, Forceful stewardship, Climate disruption

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Which investors count?

As society focuses on what investors can do to better manage systemic climate risk, the question emerges which investors have most influence. Slide 1 is a snap shot of...

5 August 2015

Institutions, Forceful stewardship

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