The JUST Report

On January 1st we launched a major media campaign with Empower Media to elevate JUST’s brand and celebrate the leadership of top-performing companies.

Capitalism, it seems to me, is undergoing a transformation, not unlike Charles Dickens’s famed Christmas creation, Ebenezer Scrooge. The question is whether its future will be different from its present and its past.

How does the world address climate change while safeguarding economies, acknowledging disparities, protecting worker well-being and jobs, meeting consumer needs, and supporting communities?

This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a challenge to the bankruptcy deal meant to compensate victims of the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin and shield Purdue Pharma’s owners, the Sackler family, from liability.

Between forces motivated to ensure AI benefits society, and those who view AI through a purely commercial lens.

What makes a good job? It’s a question that’s driving many conversations today – from picket lines with auto employees and Starbucks baristas to C-suites and boardrooms across the country.

How can corporate America better serve those who’ve served our country? It’s an important question to highlight on Veterans Day. In fact, it’s one that helps guide our work here at JUST Capital year round. 

Two moments this week reminded me why JUST’s mission matters so much to the bigger macroeconomic situation we find ourselves in.  

Are you happy? It may seem like an odd question in times like these. But according to Mo Gawdat, former Chief Business Officer at Google X, and renowned happiness expert, it’s a question more and more employers should be asking of their people. 

How should companies respond to global tragedies, wars, and acts of mass terrorism? Should business leaders speak out in internal emails to employees? To the public? If so, when? And what should they say?

This week, I sat down with TIAA Chief Information and Client Services Officer Sastry Durvasula to discuss how artificial intelligence will impact financial services in a recent episode of our Linkedin Live series,

“In Atlanta, we learned that despite the gleaming new office buildings in downtown Buckhead, economic mobility is low, deep inequality persists, and talent goes untapped.”

This year, climate week was about much more than climate.

The dispute between the United Auto Workers and Detroit’s so-called “Big Three” – Ford, GM, and Stellantis – has once again thrust the topic of employer-employee dynamics into the headlines. Some view it as a test case with wider repercussions for American industry.

Amidst all the confusion, misinformation, and political wrangling over corporate ESG, stakeholder capitalism, and social responsibility, it is easy to lose sight of two basic questions. What are companies actually doing, and why? 

The American worker takes center stage yet again. 

One of the most just CEOs of the last several years, PayPal’s Dan Schulman, will step down toward the end of September. His legacy for workers will endure.

The ESG shakeout currently working its way through corporate America is taking some interesting twists and turns.

Make no mistake: Regardless of industry, workers are asking more of their employers in a way that hasn’t been seen in a long time.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing former Sprint CEO and JUST Capital Board member Dan Hesse about the importance of purpose-driven human leadership in business. 

What could have been a highly disruptive strike was avoided on Tuesday when UPS and the Teamsters – which represents more than half of the company’s workforce – reached an agreement on wages and benefits just days before their current contract expired.

While it’s true many Americans still face severe financial difficulties, it’s also true that things do seem to be finally trending in the right direction.

The world just had the hottest week on record, according to preliminary data published by the World Meteorological Organization. It follows the hottest June on record and, according to some scientists, possibly the hottest day on Earth – July 4th – in over 125,000 years.

Last week’s Supreme Court decision on affirmative action in college admissions could have far-reaching implications for corporate America. 

This week we marked the five-year anniversary of the JUST ETF. Launched in partnership with Goldman Sachs Asset Management, the fund has delivered exactly what we expected: solid financial return and measurable positive change on just business behavior.