Corporate Knights Spring 2021

ARE “HEROES” WORKER-FRIENDLY? Thanks for the Hero article on the Norwegian private fund manager Storebrand and its climate change investment criteria, especially its divestment of companies that are heavily involved in spending to “delay, control or block policies designed to tackle climate change.” I noted with interest in the adjacent Zero article on Uber and Lyft that these companies spent heavily on promoting California Proposition 22, which diluted the worker protections that had been gained in an early California law. It would be interesting to follow up with Storebrand to determine what investment criteria they have regarding worker rights and protection. Investors should be concerned not only about the green transition but also about just treatment for workers. —Paul Atkinson, Waterloo CK: Excellent point. In its apparel-sector investments at least,…

This March, Tariq Fancy, the former chief sustainable investment officer of the largest investment house in the world, BlackRock, called out the multi trillion-dollar sustainable investment complex for perpetuating a massive greenwash campaign that is duping the public and imperiling the planet. Fancy made three main points: 1. Wall Street is hawking funds labelled as green or sustainable that in many cases are anything but. 2. The much-pedalled idea that sustainable investing is good for the bottom line is a myth. 3. Sustainable investing acts as a deadly distraction delaying what really needs to be done to avoid climate disaster: government stepping in to fix the rules. As is often the case with whistleblowers, his claims were challenged by conventional wisdom, with the head of sustainability research at Morningstar chastising…

In 2017, the Trudeau Liberals pledged to end the sale of all new petroleum-powered vehicles within 23 years. It was a bold step at the time, when electric vehicles (EVs) accounted for just 1% of auto industry sales. But thanks to new technologies, Canadians seem likely to put their old gas-guzzlers in the rearview mirror long before 2040. In February, a KPMG study reported that 68% of Canadians who plan to buy a new vehicle in the next five years say they are likely to buy an EV. Younger drivers are more charged up than their parents: 79% of drivers aged 18 to 44 say they’re likely to buy an EV in the next five years, versus just 58% of adults over 45. “Canada’s automotive industry is nearing the tipping…

As plastic pollution mounts in oceans and lakes, so too does the global campaign to reduce or eliminate single-use plastics. But this is yet another pollution source that financiers seem happy to tolerate. A recent report tabulated that global banks collectively provided more than US$1.7 trillion to 40 major companies in the global plastics supply chain between 2015 and 2019, largely without attaching any environmental conditions to their support packages. U.K. non-profit Portfolio Earth reports that 90% of funding came from banks in just eight countries: the U.S. (46%), the U.K. (15.5%), Japan (7.7%), France (6%), Germany (5.5%), Switzerland (3.5%), Canada (3.3%) and the Netherlands (3.1%). The list of top-20 lenders includes Canada’s TD Bank (ranked 18th, with loans worth US$23.6 billion) and RBC (ranked 20th, with loans of US$21.8…

The need to rebuild the economy for a zero-carbon future scares a lot of people. Where will future jobs and growth come from? If only there was some sign from the future – say, a list of successful, increasingly green companies that demonstrates that clean economy products and services are not only possible, but can produce new business opportunities and better-than-average investor returns. Meet the Carbon Clean200, the 2021 list of companies with the most clean revenue, compiled by Corporate Knights and As You Sow, a California-based non-profit promoting shareholder advocacy. The Clean200 ranks the largest publicly listed companies by their total clean revenues, with a few additional screens to help ensure the companies are indeed building the infrastructure and services needed for the shift to a low-carbon future. Released…

It seemed like the culmination of the American dream when California-based Taylor Guitars announced it was embracing 100% employee ownership. But the big winners may eventually be Canadians. Hippie musicians Kurt Listug and Bob Taylor were young coworkers at a small guitar shop called the American Dream when the owner quit to go backpacking (it was 1974, after all). The pair bought the store for $3,700, including machinery and parts, and renamed it. Nearly 50 years later, Taylor Guitars has 1,200 employees and factories in El Cajon, California, and Tecate, Mexico. Listug and Taylor aren’t quite ready for retirement, but they’re serious about ensuring that their departure won’t hurt the company’s fortunes, its products or its employees. Taylor Guitars is too big for individual employees to buy, which usually means…