Sharp to pay more than $300 Million for solar project developer

Holy cow!  As a sign of a possible "land grab" of established solar companies, Sharp Corporation announced an agreement to acquire California-based Recurrent Energy for $305 million.  Recurrent is a solar project developer and generating company with a 2 GW pipeline.  The acquisition is expected to close before the end of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

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Are US companies among the world's most sustainable firms?

Sustainability is in the eye of the beholder.  And while well-meaning investors may disagree on which factors are most important in a corporate sustainability assessment, we are not without sufficient data to make informed decisions.  In this edition of The Sustainable Investor, we hope to highlight just how accessible a responsible portfolio is to each one of us.  We can customize an investment program to meet our unique criteria and track our progress over time.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average may be the world's best known index of common stock levels.  However, few have heard of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.   The bottom line for investors is that these indexes are meticulously constructed with robust research from Sustainable Asset Management USA (SAM).  And the bar is set high to be included in the index, at all.  In fact, no United States-headquartered companies are considered "Global SuperSector Leaders" from a sustainability perspective.  Still, household names such as BMW Group, Unilever and Nokia are prominently represented as the best in their respective sectors.

The lack of US firms as sector leaders hardly means that we should abandon this family of indexes.  Quite the contrary.  Dow Jones and SAM have made it easy for investors to benchmark their portfolios to very specific criteria.  In fact, separate regional indexes track the "most sustainable" companies by geographical area.  One can even exclude particularly controversial industries, such as tobacco, gambling, adult entertainment or armaments. 

Any investor can customize their investment criteria to meet their unique values.  Now, there is a decent chance that you can track your investment manager's progress versus appropriate benchmarks.  For more information on Dow Jones Sustainable Indexes, click here.

World's largest solar plant to power 800,000 homes

U.S. officials are expected to approve by this fall what would be the world’s biggest solar power plant, a 1,000-megawatt project in the California desert that developers say could power 800,000 homes. The Blythe Solar Power Project, which would use concentrated solar thermal technology, is to be built on 7,025 acres of public land in Riverside County, about 10 miles west of the city of Blythe.  Read More

Even the Chinese get it: New sustainability index for China equities

China has taken a major step in the promotion of sustainable investment in the country with the launch of its first ESG-based (environmental, social, governance) index, a joint venture between Chinese Securities Index Company (CSI) and ECPI, the Italian-based ESG index and research group. The CSI ECPI China ESG 40 Equity Index is made up of 40 domestic companies listed either on the Shanghai or the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, both joint owners of CSI. The index constituents will be the best Chinese companies meeting its sustainability criteria.  Read more

Pension consultant advocates larger allocation to emerging markets

Mercer, one of the world's largest pension consulting firms, has urged institutional investors to consider developing markets as an alternative to developed countries that suffer from high debt burdens and a dearth of bank lending. The consultancy said there was still a strong bias toward these countries, rather than developing nations, which were enjoying stronger growth and population increases.


Divyesh Hindocha, who is global director of consulting at the group’s investment consulting business, said investors were more inclined to invest in large-cap stocks, which would increase their risk exposure and could compromise returns.  He said: "The growth trajectory of developing countries was only briefly interrupted by the financial crisis, whereas many developed economies now face public, corporate and private debt issues that will take many years to work through."

Hindocha said these factors, combined with a growing amount of regulation and the risk of policy missteps, ran the risk of slowing economic growth in these countries. "We appear to be in the opening act of a fundamental rebalancing of the global economy," he said.

"While this may not be guaranteed, it is a brave investor who would take such a significant bet against the emerging world and other growth engines."

Article appears courtesy http://www.ipe.com/.

Clean Tech Ventures: Three to watch in the Bay Area

Three promising clean tech firms received fresh infusions of capital from venture firms last week...   

Solazyme, leading producer of renewable oil and bioproducts from microalgae, announced that Unilever and Sir Richard Branson joined its Series D financing round as a strategic investors... 

Designer, manufacturer and marketer of silicon PV modules Solaria Corporation raised $65 million in round D financing, including $10 million in a growth loan facility. Solaria markets its products to solar system integrators, project developers and electric utilities and its “secret sauce” is a technology that essentially halves the requirement for silicone, still the most expensive ingredient in solar cells... 

Vertically integrated solar cell manufacturer Calisolar announced that it raised $10 million in new funding.  Calisolar is poised to profit tremendously from its technology that uses “dirty” (metallurgical grade) silicon for solar cells. “Dirty” (recycled) silicone is substantially less expensive than electronic grade silicon, which gives them a good leg up over competitors, in terms of pricing.
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Beyond environmentalism -- The Top 100 Corporate Citizens

Sustainable and Responsible Investing is often summed up in "environmental" terms.  And while environmental factors are clearly an important component of an SRI strategy, other measures of Corporate Social Responsibility, such as human rights or corporate governance, are often just as important.

Corporate Responsibility Magazine recently announced its 11th annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List.  This report is widely known as the world’s top corporate responsibility ranking based on publicly-available information and is recognized by PR Week as one of America’s top three most-important business rankings.

This list is surely not an all-inclusive universe of potential SRI portfolio holdings.  In fact, this ranking only evaluates the largest US firms, leaving out many smaller companies who may have better overall records.  Failings aside, the top-ranked firms on this list are a good start place for anyone asking the question, "What does a Sustainable or Responsible Investment look like?" 

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Can Green Business Make Big Change Fast Enough?

Over 70% of Fortune 500 companies have sustainability mandates, but do they go far enough? In a sea of corporate social responsibility programs, "green seals of approval"; and eco claims, business really has not changed significantly. Seeking to enable a deep green business transformation, the Environmental Defense Fund is hosting a series of Sustainable Solutions Labs across the U.S. "un-conference" think-tanks. Orchestrated by DigIn, the Labs bring together green business leaders throughout each region to share successes, lessons learned and needed future actions that will accelerate the sustainability shift.
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