Passive Investors Get Active on Sustainability

Edouard Dubois, Partner at SquareWell, has penned an article on how the largest passive investors, namely BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), are incorporating the materiality of sustainability risks within their portfolios and therefore, taking action on it.

These two global investment firms have set the tone for engagements from the very top in recent years and have had further rippling effects on driving public policy debate. This year Larry Fink, Chair/CEO of BlackRock, has highlighted the need for the financial system to have a rethink about climate change and investment risk. SSgA has also joined BlackRock in calling for companies to comply with the framework set out by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), two powerful initiatives which are driving reporting and disclosure to higher standards.

You can access the full article on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance website here.