Investment

CDP: water a substantial risk to ASX100 companies

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 29 JUN 2012  |  NEWS
More than two thirds of 22 ASX100 water-sensitive companies responding to a Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) request for disclosure on water management identify water as a substantial risk to business, but only 55% report board-level oversight of water-related ...

ARENA board members, CEO named

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 29 JUN 2012  |  NEWS
Jane Sargison, Betsy Donaghey, Judith Smith and Mark Twidell have been appointed as inaugural board members of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), and Ivor Frischknecht has been named ARENA's first chief executive officer.

MSCI launches ESG portfolio analytics tool

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 29 JUN 2012  |  NEWS
MSCI has launched MSCI ESG Portfolio Analytics, a reporting tool to help fund managers and institutional investors assess the ESG characteristics and risk profile of an equity portfolio.

Australian Ethical management survive general meeting vote

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  WEDNESDAY, 27 JUN 2012  |  NEWS
Shareholders of Australian Ethical have voted to keep the existing board and executive management in place, rejecting a series of resolutions put to a general meeting.

Farmers, land managers examine Carbon Farming Initiative

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 22 JUN 2012  |  NEWS
As farmers and land managers examine the new structures of the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) that will lead to the generation of Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs), industry professionals say a perceived cloud of political and financial uncertainty ...

Mercer: green bonds deserve investment consideration

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 22 JUN 2012  |  NEWS
Green bonds have relatively simple structures and credit quality and yield levels similar to AAA bonds, meriting "consideration as an allocation within a fixed interest portfolio," but a lack of issuance depth is a challenge for institutional investors ...

EUAs finance $4.9m in Melbourne environmental retrofits

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  WEDNESDAY, 20 JUN 2012  |  NEWS
Environmental upgrade financing vehicles in the City of Melbourne have funded AU$4.9m in energy and emissions efficiency retrofit programs and are projected to save 5350 tonnes of CO2-e emissions per year, according to the Sustainable Melbourne Fund.

Investors call for management of fugitive methane emissions

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  WEDNESDAY, 20 JUN 2012  |  NEWS
The Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC) and two other global investor groups are calling on companies to minimise methane emissions from gas and oil production through hydraulic fracturing.

Investor Profile: Five Oceans Asset Management

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 15 JUN 2012  |  NEWS
Five Oceans Asset Management is an international equities fund manager that uses concentrated, non-index relative approaches to building portfolios of listed global equities. The company has integrated environmental, social and corporate governance analysis ...

SEFA selects Queensland social enterprise for first loan

RACHEL ALEMBAKIS  |  FRIDAY, 15 JUN 2012  |  NEWS
Social Enterprise Finance Australia (SEFA) has made its first loan to a Queensland social enterprise that will provide accommodation to people in Cairns and Indigenous people from Cape York who travel to Cairns for health services.