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Environmental Law and Sustainability for Business

Archives: ESG

Do Something about Slavery in Your Business Supply Chain

Slavery exists in 2022. There is simply no morally defensible reason for not doing everything in our power to end modern slavery. U.S. Customs and Border Protection describes in a May 17, 2022 update, that at any given time, “an estimated 40.3 million people are in modern slavery.” That “means there are 5.4 victims of … Continue Reading

Maryland’s New Corporate Diversity Law Violates the Equal Protection Clause

By Stuart Kaplow on July 10, 2022 Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG, State

Corporate diversity is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. Maryland has published, for public comment, regulations implementing the corporate diversity law enacted by the legislature in 2021. But the proposed regulations are unconstitutional on their face, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and Article 24 of the Maryland … Continue Reading

SEC Alleges BNY Mellon made ESG Misstatements and Omissions

By Stuart Kaplow on June 26, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, ESG, Federal

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged BNY Mellon Investment Adviser, Inc. with misstatements and omissions about ESG considerations for certain mutual funds that it managed. To settle the charges, on May 23, 2022, BNY Mellon Investment Adviser agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty. The SEC’s order finds that, from July 2018 to September 2021, BNY … Continue Reading

SEC Proposes Two Rules as Cairns to Prevent Misleading ESG Claims

By Stuart Kaplow on June 19, 2022 Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG, Federal, GHG

On October 7, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reopened the public comment periods, for 14 days from the day the notice is published in the Federal Register, for 11 of its rulemaking releases, some of them viewed as controversial including the rules discussed in this blog post, due to a technical glitch that … Continue Reading

Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to be Enforced June 21

By Stuart Kaplow on June 12, 2022 Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG, Federal, Solar Panel

Congress passed, and on December 23, 2021 President Biden signed into law, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The new law that will be enforced beginning June 21, 2022 has implications for imported cotton and tomatoes and most significantly for solar panels. The Act, codified at 22 U.S.C. §6901, establishes a rebuttable presumption that any … Continue Reading

SEC Charges Mining Company with Misleading Investors in its ESG Disclosures

By Stuart Kaplow on May 29, 2022 Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month charged Vale S.A., a publicly traded Brazilian mining company and one of the world’s largest iron ore producers, with making false and misleading claims about the safety of the Brumadinho dam including through its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures. According to the SEC’s complaint, for years, … Continue Reading

SEC Extends Comment Period for Proposed Rules on ESG Related Disclosures

By Stuart Kaplow on May 22, 2022 Posted in ESG, GHG, Sustainability

On October 7, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reopened the public comment periods, for 14 days from the day the notice is published in the Federal Register, for 11 of its rulemaking releases, some of them viewed as controversial including the rule discussed in this blog post, due to a technical glitch that … Continue Reading

Maryland Resets the Trajectory with Greenhouse Gas Reduction Law

By Stuart Kaplow on April 17, 2022 Posted in ESG, GHG, State

With legislation that became law last week, without the Governor’s signature, Maryland has enacted the most rigorous state law in the country reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and otherwise addressing ESG stewardship including climate change. Businesses can and should treat this as the greatest opportunity and responsibility of our time. Literally resetting the trajectory of … Continue Reading

California Racial, Ethnic and LGBT Quotas for Company Boards Ruled Unconstitutional

By Stuart Kaplow on April 10, 2022 Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG

Last Friday a California court ruled unconstitutional the state’s racial, ethnic, and LGBT quotas for corporate boards of directors. This now voided law had been an ideological lodestone for the “G” (governance) in ESG. Superior Court judge, the Honorable Terry Green, granted the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment without a trial in Robin Crest, et … Continue Reading

Rooney Rule Revised Provides ESG Opportunity

By Stuart Kaplow on April 3, 2022 Posted in ESG, Sustainability

Last Monday the NFL announced at the owners meeting that it had approved adjustments to the Rooney Rule, first adopted in 2003, “to enhance opportunities for people of color and women for nearly all league and team jobs.” As companies, most that are far afield from the NFL, look to have a positive impact on … Continue Reading

SEC Climate Risk Rule is Transformative At a Cost

By Stuart Kaplow on March 27, 2022 Posted in ESG, GHG, greenhouse gas

Last Monday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3 to 1 to issue a long awaited proposed new rule to mandate climate risk disclosures by public companies and other businesses in their supply chains. The 510 page proposed rule will require public companies to include climate related disclosures in their registration statements and periodic … Continue Reading

Modern Slavery a Key ESG Factor

By Stuart Kaplow on March 20, 2022 Posted in ESG, Solar Panel, Sustainability

Slavery exists today. The British government recently reported there are more enslaved people today than there have been at any time in history! And if you doubt that modern slavery is here and now, 20 days ago, on March 1st, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized four shipments of palm oil at the port … Continue Reading

SEC Chair Tweets about Upcoming ESG Regulation

By Stuart Kaplow on March 13, 2022 Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG, Federal, Sustainability

ESG law is emergent and fast evolving such that today, the best sources are blogs and Twitter, not bound statutes and printed law reviews. Last week U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler Tweeted about the future of ESG regulation. You do not need to be a futurist to know that SEC regulation of … Continue Reading

Ukraine is Now a Real ESG Issue

By Stuart Kaplow on March 6, 2022 Posted in ESG, Sustainability

While there has been near universal condemnation of the war against Ukraine by Russia, and our empathy is unequivocally with the people of Ukraine, this invasion of a sovereign nation, something that echoes the darkest days in European history, today presents issues of ESG. This blog post is being written 9 days after Putin’s war … Continue Reading

Zero Waste in an Era of Net Zero Everything

By Stuart Kaplow on February 26, 2022 Posted in ESG, LEED

Despite that the Zero Waste movement peaked in about 1998, in the modern context of Net Zero from Net Zero Energy to Net Zero Carbon, we are today with surprising frequency asked about a business being able to claim it is Zero Waste. In a widely accepted definition, Zero Waste is, The conservation of all … Continue Reading

The ESG Benefit of Paying Employees to Work at the Polls

By Stuart Kaplow on February 20, 2022 Posted in ESG, Solar Panel, Sustainability

The “S” in ESG is among the most impactful sustainability factors despite being among the least measured. There are a myriad of Social factors in sustainability, but what they have in common is they are about “social relationships.” A company’s relationship with its employees is key, but so is its relationship with the community and … Continue Reading

The UK Sets the Scene for Mandatory ESG Laws in the Western World

By Stuart Kaplow on February 13, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, Codes and Regulations, ESG

As we in the U.S. await action by the federal government on mandatory ESG laws, the United Kingdom has become the first European Union country to enact mandatory ESG disclosure laws. These new reporting requirements are of import beyond the shores of Great Britain in that they portend what government mandates are to come across … Continue Reading

ESG is an Opportunity for Commercial Landlords

By Stuart Kaplow on February 6, 2022 Posted in Climate Change, ESG, Green Building, Green Globes, LEED

At first blush the California Climate Corporate Accountability Act requires only a small number of the nation’s biggest corporations generating more than $1 Billion in annual revenue to report their greenhouse gas emissions, but a thoughtful consideration makes clear that if enacted SB 260 will require carbon reporting by thousands if not tens of thousands … Continue Reading

ESG Poll Results Drive Strategies for Business

By Stuart Kaplow on January 30, 2022 Posted in Environmental, ESG, Sustainability

The use of ESG to evaluate companies is the cause celebre in early 2022 and while still in an early phase, primitively and ill defined, it is reaching nearly all corners of the economy at a fever pitch. The appeal of ESG is compelling. People want to save the planet while they make a profit. … Continue Reading

ESG may be Fashionable in New York

By Stuart Kaplow on January 23, 2022 Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG, Sustainability

Clothing is worn by almost everyone, almost all of the time. Across the globe, the $1.3 Trillion clothing industry employs more than 300 million people. Over the last 15 years, clothing production worldwide more than doubled and during that period people bought 60% more garments than before but kept them, on average, only half as … Continue Reading

FTC Regulates What You can Say about Your Solar Panels

By Stuart Kaplow on January 16, 2022 Posted in ESG, Solar Panel, Sustainability, wind turbine

A business that generates renewable energy, say, with solar panels, but sells the Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for that renewable energy may not then claim it “uses” renewable energy. The Federal Trade Commissions has prescribed that such would be deceptive. That guidance from the FTC is not new, but as both onsite and offsite renewable … Continue Reading

ESG Often Led by Renewable Energy

By Stuart Kaplow on January 9, 2022 Posted in Energy, ESG, Solar Panel

Businesses often ask about including green power in ESG efforts. We suggest rephrasing the query such that it is about using renewable energy to reduce the environmental harms associated with fossil fuel energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase the supply of renewable energy and foster a just transition to an ESG driven economy. Businesses do … Continue Reading

ESG will be the Environmental Issue of 2022

By Stuart Kaplow on January 2, 2022 Posted in Environmental, ESG, Sustainability

ESG will be the environmental issue of the year, if not also among the biggest business issues of the year. ESG is everywhere. And yes, this is with appreciation that environmental is only the E in ESG. This is more than a Magic 8 Ball prediction, although we do regularly consult one of the 1960s … Continue Reading