There is currently an intense political divide in the United States regarding the integration of environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) factors into the investment decisions of public and private pension funds. The key issues are whether ESG factors are appropriate considerations in furthering optimal financial performance and whether it is appropriate for plan fiduciaries to consider potential collateral social or environmental benefits in making their investment decisions. David Cifrino discusses the history, fiduciary law, financial performance and regulation associated with ESG investing.

The world-wide spike in energy prices, instigated by Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, has resulted in calls to “drill baby drill” by some, and celebrated by others as an accelerant to efforts to transition to a greener future. Who is right? Are they both right to some degree? Joseph Aldy, Professor at Harvard Kennedy School and former Special Assistant to the President for Energy and Environment, gives his views on our current energy crisis.

Anyone who is interested in a presidential appointment must navigate a complicated process in order to be confirmed by the Senate. Sarah Bloom Raskin explains what it entails and tells why she withdrew her name from consideration for a post on the Federal Reserve in 2022.

Impact performance reporting has been too influenced by mainstream financial reporting, trying to boil everything down to numbers, metrics and scores. Sarah Gelfand and Laura Budzyna, impact specialists, highlight the critical importance of also integrating qualitative information so the field does not lose the nuance that would ultimately make it better impact investors.

OPINION COMMENTARY:

Urban heat islands, compounded by the effects of climate change and environmental neglect, have a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged communities. David Cifrino, a 2022 Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Senior Fellow, uses Dorchester’s Columbia Road greenway as a model of our opportunity to bring about environmental justice.

Professor George Serafeim discusses the latest news of the Harvard Business School Impact-Weighted Accounts Project, an initiative that will mark a critical turning point for capitalism as we know it. The goal is to enhance Milton Friedman’s ‘fair rules of the game’ by fixing one of the most significant deficiencies of modern-day capitalism: social and environmental externalities.

TRANSFORMING CITIES SERIES:

Failing to apply a rubric for social impact, government-funded infrastructure has been culpable for legacies of segregating communities, spurring blight or displacement, and devastating natural environments. Daniel Balmori discusses how innovative efforts to reimagine underutilized public spaces -- including prior infrastructure follies -- have demonstrated that, deployed thoughtfully and with a lens toward equity, infrastructure improvements have the potential to positively transform the quality of life for entire communities, catalyze economic opportunities, and make environments more resilient.

TRANSFORMING CITIES SERIES:

OPINION COMMENTARY:

Urban greenery can help create more resilient cities -- but only if residents are engaged in the process. Professor John Wilson, working at the intersection of sociology, environmental science and technology calls for an all-hands approach.

Addressing climate change effectively requires understanding factors other than CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions. Susan Farist Butler discusses how not enough attention has been given to other inter-related factors impacting global climate health: heat, water, and photosynthesis.

THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION SERIES:

The Biden administration has moved rapidly in its first 100 days to renew our government’s efforts to stem climate change. The Department of Energy and Department of Interior will both play outsized roles among the federal agencies in helping to implement Biden’s climate agenda.

Tom Conforti has a conversation with Daniel Schrag, Professor of Geology, Environmental Science and Engineering at Harvard University, Director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment and Co-Director of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, about climate change, solutions and adaptation.

COVID-19 RECOVERY SERIES:

A conversation with Dr. Renee N. Salas, Affiliated Faculty at the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) and a Yerby Fellow at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, about how climate action needs to be seen as a prescription for better health and achieving health equity.

COVID-19 RECOVERY SERIES:

A conversation with Dr. John M. Reilly, a Senior Lecturer at the Sloan School of Management, and Co-Director, emeritus of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. As an energy, environmental and agricultural economist, he has focused on understanding the contribution of human activities to global environmental change and the effects of environmental change on the economy and society, and solutions to the threats of global environmental change.

Our present day water situation is the result of human negligence and behaviors that have destroyed this natural resource. Michelle A. Urrea Vivas discusses how the scarcity of water, its over-exploitation, contamination by industrial, commercial, agricultural, and residential activities evidences how inefficiently and unsustainably this resource has been handled, to date.

Pedro Mariani discusses why international cooperation on climate change has substantially failed so far and whether we should hope for better outcomes in the near future.

In Rebecca Henderson’s new book, Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, there opens a new path for the future of capitalism, a ‘journey’ that offers rewards, but is demanding.

As climate-induced wildfires and hurricanes ravage America, our lives, our livelihoods, and the stability and security of our financial markets are in danger. Steven Rothstein and Veena Ramani, from Ceres, discuss how climate change is a systemic risk and we need our elected representatives to use their power to hold regulators to account for immediate climate change action.

Sustainable, regenerative, and circular business models are not simply an ethical choice, it is the next frontier of innovation and growth. Tze Ni Yeoh discusses what is the circular economy and how can businesses benefit from it.

There are a little over 60,000 individual species of trees in the world. More than 11,000 of these are at risk of extinction and 3,300 are critically endangered - meaning that without intervention, they will become extinct. Doris Honold discusses how U.K.-based Botanic Gardens Conservation International and their Tree Conservation Fund are working with communities to save trees from extinction.