The financial reform legislation in Congress, the Dodd-Frank act, is sure turning into a monstrosity. Now it’s totaling over 2000 pages. Tucked away in the bill, in a “miscellaneous provision,” Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana slipped in language covering the disclosure of revenues from oil and mineral extracting companies.
If government agencies are going to require industries and companies that they regulate to offer more disclosure, perhaps these agencies should issue reports so that their vendors, employees, and of course, the taxpayers, understand the impact these agencies are having in their communities?
With the SEC’s February interpretive release suggesting that companies discuss risks related to climate change if they are material to a company’s operations, there should be much buzz about the future of sustainability reporting.
A decade ago, publicly-held companies selling securities in the United States simply had to submit an annual 10-K (or 40-F if for non-US firms) to the US government, mail out a slick shareholder report to its shareholders once a year, and if they could be bothered, issue a pretty corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. But soon, we may see a trend where the 10K and CSR become one.
Leon Kaye has entered a competition which, if successful, could have him work in Amsterdam for a few days at the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Conference in Amsterdam May 26-28. The URL is http://www.justmeans.com/contestidea?ideaid=NDQ2
Every so often, green entrepreneurs reach out to me asking for advice with their investing woes. Usually, they approach me through LinkedIn. Perhaps they need US$11.5 million for a bioethanol plant in Southeast Asia. Or they are going to open a solar farm in Northern Africa, and have 15.6 million euros budgeted, and are short [...]