We start by discussing what motivates investors to enter the sustainability field (section 11.2). We debate different reasons for their engagement, ranging from concerns for securing competitive returns to changes in the regulatory landscape and client demand. Next, we discuss how ESG factors are integrated into different asset classes. We first discuss how ESG considerations are integrated into equity investing (section 11.3). We then look at other ways to consider ESG-related information in investment decisions, focusing on impact investing and fixed income (section 11.4). Section 11.5 looks at how investors that already have invested in companies can improve these firms’ ESG performance, either via active engagement and dialogue or via voting on shareholder resolutions. Next, we discuss what different kinds of data can shape investors’ consideration of sustainability issues (section 11.6). Finally, we look at the new European legislation (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, SFDR) which requires investors to disclose the level of sustainability risks and adverse sustainability impacts associated with their investment decisions.

Although private actors are generally depicted as profit maximizers with little concern for social impact or inclusion, this chapter shows how this assumption can be relaxed with the emergence of private owners with socially oriented preferences. Yet the chapter also acknowledges that such owners may not accept the inherent financial trade-offs in activities with critical service attributes or that target highly vulnerable beneficiaries. Private investors may also misrepresent their social contributions, leading to what is known as the practice of greenwashing. The chapter concludes by reinforcing the importance of corporate owners as ultimate decision makers pursuing and supporting socially oriented strategies that reduce the potential hazards of private delivery.

The emphasis of this chapter is on particular BHR issues and challenges as they arise in different industries, how those industries deal with them, and what specific policy instruments have been put in place to address those issues. The brief overviews provided do not aim at being comprehensive, but rather at giving short introductions to the prevailing challenges, solutions, and best practices in some of the industries that are most exposed to human rights risks and impacts. Furthermore, it will outline some of the more prominent sector-specific guidelines and initiatives in these industries.The following industries are dealt with: the Extractive sector; the Finance and Banking sector; the Information and Communication Technology sector; the Garment and Footwear sector; and the Food, Beverage, and Agribusiness sector.

Recent research across European countries indicates that a large majority of individual investors – between 60% and 75%, depending on how the questions are framed – want to invest sustainably. Consumers say that they are willing to give up return for environmental outcomes: a recent survey of German and French retail investors suggests that 64% would accept a sacrifice of -5% on their pension benefits. In this context, the €97 trillion question is obviously why most of them still invest in non-sustainable investment products. This chapter is an attempt to answer that question, with a focus on upcoming EU regulations such as the Ecolabel for financial products. Covering the results from our upcoming research reports, we cover issues including consumers’ sustainability objectives, mis-selling of financial products, lack of voting rights on sustainability issues, environmental impact claims and deceptive green marketing. We describe the main issues with the European policy response, and how they may end up amplifying existing problems – by creating confusion in relation to how green financial products are understood and how to deal with the expectations of impact-focused consumers.

This chapter addresses debt-based investing as a driver for global sustainability. Loans, bonds, and other forms of debt constitute a substantial proportion of the capital that corporations use to finance their operations and offer a distinct set of legal tools to influence corporate conduct. Drawing on corporate law and financial regulation scholarship, this chapter explores the regulatory and corporate governance issues arising from green bonds. Green bonds, along with social bonds and sustainability bonds, enable issuers to use the proceeds from their sale to finance projects, assets, or business activities with environmental, social, or economic objectives. This chapter examines the private standards, certification schemes, indices, and assurance practices and government-based regulatory frameworks in the green bond market. To prevent greenwashing and ensure the continued growth of this market, this chapter proposes reforms to corporate governance practices to enhance the monitoring and control powers of green bond investors.

The author participated in the local implementation of Clinton Era legislatively created programs that a Congressional delegate once described as having the potential to lift the yolk of paternalism and allow Native Americans an opportunity to achieve the American Dream. Lofty language aside something seemed amiss. Therefore, he recounts – from a practitioner’s perspective – the history to increase access to capital for tribal community- and economic development through a Native Community Development Financial Institutions based in Arizona. The challenges are evident as he states: “Where English canon law was used as a weapon to dispossess Native people of their lands, languages and cultures; western style finance as a tool has been withheld since the colonial period and through current times for the rebuilding and resurgence of tribal Nations.” He ends by reflecting on the continuing effort to build the infrastructure and institutions necessary for a modern economy in a tribal context.