The JUST Report

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. 

For the first time in a long while, a right-of-center economic policy thinker questioned the virtues of untrammeled free market capitalism.

This week, we released a powerful video and article series documenting how the lives and livelihoods of workers at Verizon, Chipotle, PayPal, and Prudential Financial have changed because of these investments. I invite you to take a look. 

Two weeks ago, I noted how Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said the advent of ChatGPT represents a “printing press moment” for society today, and how JUST Capital co-founder and chairman Paul Tudor Jones saw “huge winners and huge losers” being created. 

Knowing and investing in your company’s culture is a must for any business leader today.  

A “printing press moment” is how Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, framed the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) in his Senate testimony on Tuesday. 

Sunday is Mother’s Day and so we wanted to highlight how the business community can better support mothers in the labor force. 

The business case for reducing inequality is a compelling one, and the WBCSD’s report shows how to do it.

Our own Tolu Lawrence, JUST Capital’s Managing Director of Programs and Partnerships and Head of Corporate Impact, is launching our new Corporate Care Network to help company leaders dedicated to advancing access to and awareness of care benefits.

Necessity breeds invention. Invention results in impact, opportunity, and growth. We’re seeing that play out right now in the climate world. 

From a markets perspective, ESG is about understanding and capturing emerging risks and opportunities. It’s not a dogma, or a monolith. And it isn’t – or shouldn’t be – about politics

Words matter. Especially, as our recent focus groups show, when it comes to how the public thinks about ESG, “woke-ness,” and corporations’ role in society.

One of the arguments those opposed to ESG often make is that it is antithetical to the interests of everyday hard-working Americans.

Home Depot announced Tuesday it will direct $1 billion to give its hourly employees in the U.S. and Canada a raise and to lift starting wages for staff across supply chain, customer care, merchandising, and other frontline roles to at least $15 an hour.

The derailment of the Norfolk Southern Corporation freight train 32N in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3 is turning into a stakeholder disaster of the highest order and, I suspect, a defining moment for the industry.