Specialist food and agriculture investor Anterra Capital has announced the first close of its third fund, Fund III, at $100m, against a target of $200m. Anterra’s view is the food system is “too large and too entrenched to be replaced”, but should be transformed from within by companies operating at deep leverage points that can scale on existing industry infrastructure….
New Forests Launches A$1 Billion Global Natural Capital Fund
Nature-based real assets-focused investment manager New Forests announced today the launch of its Global Landscape Opportunities (GLO) strategy, the firm’s first global natural capital fund, aimed at investing across forestry, agriculture, and complementary markets such as carbon and biodiversity. The firm is seeking to raise A$1 billion (USD$707 million) for the new fund, according to media reports. Founded in 2005,…
P&G’s First Chief Sustainability Officer Virginie Helias Retires
Virginie Helias, who has led sustainability efforts at consumer brands giant Procter & Gamble (P&G) for 15 years, including serving as the company’s first Chief Sustainability Officer, announced that she will step down from her role at the end of June. P&G’s top sustainability role will be taken over by Michele Baeten, who currently serves at the company as Vice…
NYC Comptroller Launches Search for Asset Managers After Predecessor Recommended Dropping BlackRock Over Climate Concerns
New York City Comptroller Mark Levine announced that the City’s five public pension systems have launched a search for asset management firms to provide public equity passive indexing services, which make up the majority of the systems’ $127 billion in public equity investments. The new bidding process follows a recommendation last year by former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander that the city’s pension…
Workiva Launches Agentic AI Sustainability Reporting Solution
Business data and reporting solutions provider Workiva announced the launch of Workiva Sustainability Disclosure Agent, a new solution aimed at enabling companies to identify and fill sustainability reporting gaps and comply with various disclosure standards. According to Workiva, the new solution was designed to solve challenges facing sustainability teams that are required to keep pace with shifting requirements and a…
S&P Global Launches Solution to Screen Portfolios for UN Global Compact Alignment
S&P Global’s sustainability-focused business unit S&P Global Sustainable1 announced the launch of its new United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Screening Dataset, a new solution designed to help investment professionals, banks, and corporates assess alignment with the UNGC Principles. Launched in 2000, the UNGC is a voluntary corporate sustainability initiative involving more than 20,000 companies across 160 countries, committing to operate responsibly in…
EU Member States Agree to Expand CBAM Carbon Import Tax to Downstream Products
The European Council announced an agreement by EU member states on a series of proposed changes to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the EU’s carbon tax on imported goods, including expanding the scope of the CBAM to some downstream products, in order to avoid a shift in production away from EU manufacturers to those in countries with weaker climate…
ESG Today: Week in Review
This week in ESG news: SBTi releases new flagship corporate net zero standard; CDP splits, launches private equity-backed sustainability reporting commercial entity; Omnibus cuts nearly 90% of non-EU companies from CSRD scope; Amazon hits 75% milestone towards water positive data centers goal; Google signs record sustainable aviation fuel deal with American Airlines; UK proposes dropping TCFD climate reporting requirements for…
Cypress Creek Secures $3.5 Billion to Build One of the Largest Solar & Storage Projects in U.S.
Renewables developer and power producer Cypress Creek Energy announced that it has secured $3.5 billion in financing to fund the construction and operation of the first two phases of the Steel River Energy Center project in Arkansas, one of the largest solar and battery storage projects under development in the U.S. The Steel River Energy Center project is expected to…