Penned by Cooley’s Beth Sasfai, Emma Bichet, Michael Mencher and Jack Eastwood, here’s a comprehensive Cooley alert that offers a snapshot of where sustainability-related regulations stand here and abroad at this point in time. Here’s an excerpt about sustainability-focused legislation at the US state level: “As discussed in this September 2024 client alert, climate reporting continues to be a focus of state-level legislation, primarily led …
The ‘ESG’ Acronym Is Less Popular – Does It Matter?
It’s clear that over the past few years, investors have tweaked their voting policies to tone down use of the term “ESG.” And it’s also clear that more and more companies are changing the title of their reports relating to ESG issues to another term, with the most popular one being “Sustainability.” Other notable titles are “Growth and Impact” and “Corporate Social Responsibility.” Not to …
Large Companies Are Now Living in a Double Materiality World: What About Smaller Companies?
With most S&P 500 companies well underway on their CSRD materiality assessments, it’s not surprising that there is a fast-growing number of them that have completed – or are in the process of completing – “double” materiality assessments. Cooley’s Michael Mencher notes that smaller companies are less likely to be on this path if they’re not subject to the CSRD, and their references to a …
Here Come the EU CSRD and IFRS Disclosures
Just as I was starting this job, Cooley put out an awesome alert – with a set of great graphics – noting how the initial disclosures made voluntarily under the CSRD look. The top takeaways include:
What to Expect From the Mandatory Sustainability Disclosure Standards for Non-EU Companies
Here are four headline “Key Takeaways” about the draft sustainability reporting standards for non-EU parent companies from the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), as pulled from this more detailed Cooley Alert penned by Emma Bichet and Jack Eastwood: By the way, here’s a 2-minute video about having a global strategic approach to ESG – and here’s another 2-minute video about adopting targets and goals …
Challenges in Meeting 2030 Climate Goals? What To Do Now
I was talking to Cooley’s Beth Sasfai and Michael Mencher about the challenges many companies are facing with ambitious climate goals that no longer seem realistic. Here’s what Beth and Michael told me (also see them in this 3-minute video with Emma Bichet about the same topic): Maybe you set 2030 targets way back in 2019 or 2020 – or recently set targets to meet …
Does the ‘Quiet Disbanding’ of SEC Enforcement’s ESG Task Force Mean Anything?
As Cooley’s Cydney Posner covers in her great PubCo blog, Bloomberg Law reported that the SEC’s Enforcement Division “quietly disbanded” its “Climate and ESG Task Force.” The task force had 22 members and lasted about three years. Does this mean anything? Nope, not really. As Cydney notes, the SEC issued a statement that the “strategy has been effective, and the expertise developed by the task …
Tips for Making the Case to Add Head Count to the Corporate Secretary’s Office
This is a tough one. You’re a cost center. You’re not driving revenues. Sure, you’re important. I know that. You know that. But do the bean counters know? Not really. In essence, you must prove a “but for” case. “But for” this department, you wouldn’t have received shareholder approval for this and that. “But for” this department, you might have been sued for misleading disclosure. …