Emerging Markets ESG: Emerging Markets ESG is dedicated to the analysis, benchmarking, development and promotion of reporting on environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators in emerging markets.

“LSE launches ambitious plan to embed environmental sustainability across its operations” – London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – October 21, 2020

By Geoffrey on October 21, 2020

On October 21, 2020 the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) “launched its plan to tackle the climate crisis and announced it will be the first UK university to become carbon neutral, for all the emissions it currently measures.

The university’s Sustainability Strategic Plan was created in full consultation with the LSE community. Through a series of events and workshops, engagement with Student Union societies and an online survey, LSE students and staff made clear their desire for the university to take bold action on the environment.

In response, the new plan – co-ordinated by an advisory group of staff and students under the leadership of Professor Nicholas Stern – sets out six key areas of focus to maximise LSE’s impact in shaping a more sustainable world.

These areas include collaboration; education; engagement and leadership; investment; operations; and research.

As a social science institution, LSE is well-placed to embed sustainability into the curriculum and equip students with knowledge and skills to address climate change. This includes promoting and introducing new courses and extra-curricular activities which relate to sustainability and highlighting these clearly to students, for instance by using green tags.
The School will make sustainability a key part of investment decisions and strengthen its Socially Responsible Investment policy towards fund managers who embed climate change in their company selection using tools such as the Transition Pathway Initiative.”

You may read the press release on the LSE internet site.

Geoffrey Mazullo, Principal, Emerging Markets ESG, is an alumnus of the LSE. As a student, he received an environmental bursary, to promote environmental practices, including recycling, on LSE’s campus. He commented on the university’s Sustainability Strategic Plan.

“China’s Next Problem Is Recycling 26 Million Tons of Discarded Clothes” – Bloomberg – October 18, 2020

By Geoffrey on October 18, 2020

On October 18, 2020 Bloomberg reported that the “world’s biggest fashion buyer is running out of room for all its used garments.

In a country that makes more than 5 billion T-shirts a year, there is a stigma to wearing old or second-hand clothes and millions of tons of garments are discarded every day. An aspirational middle class, combined with a boom in e-commerce, has turned China into the world’s biggest fashion market, overtaking the U.S. last year. Greater China accounts for a fifth of Japanese retail giant Uniqlo’s global revenue and the company’s sales in the region rose almost 27% in the 2017-2018 fiscal year to more than $4 billion. Most of China’s purchases are fast fashion – mass produced, cheap, short-lived garments.

The result: China throws away 26 million tons of clothes every year, less than 1% of which is reused or recycled, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The environmental cost of this waste is huge.”

Registered subscribers can read the article on the Bloomberg internet site