All stories by Nick Masercola

“How can the stakeholder model lend American corporations a competitive advantage on the world stage?” The more I ponder this, the more I realize it is in fact a defining proposition.

Companies are starting to hold each other accountable for their actions, and many of the underlying issues have distinctly bipartisan support. Take a look at two important corporate alliances coming out this week.

For corporations, bold action on climate is already a must. Net-zero commitments – essentially, a promise to balance GHGs emitted with GHGs removed and/or avoided – are everywhere.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll continue to track significant racial equity announcements and actions from companies not captured in the first iteration of our Tracker here.

This week’s chart takes a look at an intriguing correlation we found in our data – companies with diversity & inclusion policies and targets also tend to produce less greenhouse gas emissions.

The role of business in advancing racial equity isn’t about politics. It’s about building a bridge to a better economy and a more just society.

“The problems that are tearing at the fabric of American society require all of us – government, business and civic society – to work together with a common purpose.”

In this Chart of the Week, we take a look at our charitable giving data to analyze whether there are meaningful trends around the ROE of Russell 1000 companies.

CEOs of some of America’s largest corporations have begun to voice their opposition to what they say is restrictive legislation that makes it harder for Americans to vote.

JUST and the Head of CECP will talk with Nick about how he led a cultural transformation to engage employees, enhance diversity, and increase transparency around key human capital issues.

Pay equity mattered a lot to the public before the pandemic, and it matters even more now.

This week, Emmanuel Faber, one of the world’s foremost proponents of stakeholder capitalism, lost his job as CEO and chairman of Danone. The easy reaction would be to see this as a blow for proponents of the stakeholder cause. That would be a mistake.

CEOs are a notoriously optimistic bunch. But even so, their views contrast sharply with those of their workers, who have a decidedly different take on the situation.

Yesterday, acting SEC Chair Allison Herren Lee – who at the beginning of the week had said at a conference that voluntary ESG disclosure wasn’t cutting it – announced the creation of a Climate and ESG Task Force in the Enforcement division

Companies that have invested in their workforces have been more successful than those that haven’t for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Walmart has seen both sides of the stakeholder vs shareholder debate over the last seven days, losing $25 billion off its market cap after a mixed earnings call.

This week, we look at Morningstar’s most recent analysis Jackie Cook, diving into the C-suite Gender Pay Gap.

Of all the changes that COVID-19 has brought, the rapid increase in work from home (WFH) policies have been among the most significant for businesses today. How will this continue to change the modern workplace? We partner with AARP to take a look.

We partnered with AARP to explore the need for a broader dependent care infrastructure for U.S. workers to build community, increase employee engagement, and better engage stakeholders more broadly.

In a collaboration with AARP, we take a look at how workers’ paid sick leave policies have changed in response to COVID-19, and what actions business leaders can take to help moving forward. 

With the societal and legal move towards decarbonization, utilities that emit a comparatively high amount of carbon are challenged by stranded assets and/or potentially high costs to upgrade equipment.

If we’re looking at what Americans want, and what our biggest corporations can provide them, the bar has to be set higher.

We need a living wage for all Americans. And there is a return on that investment.

investors are becoming sophisticated enough to tell the difference between greenwashing and value creation…and this Exxon case proves it.

We wrote in the opener of our 2020 Year In Review, released yesterday, that “Stakeholder capitalism has gone beyond being merely an idea.” Boy did this week prove that out.