Congratulations to all the winners and finalists at the 2018 Better Society Awards which took place last night. For the fourth consecutive year the awards have recognised and celebrated the great strides made in creating a better world through community action, technological innovation and corporate responsibility.

Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, has acknowledged the growth on ethical investment in the consumer market, and urged institutions to allow individuals greater power to support good causes through their financial arrangements.

Bank of America has issued the largest corporate green bond, and fourth largest of any type, for USD 2.25bn, and makes Bank of America the first US financial institution to issue four corporate green bonds, raising a total of USD 4.35bn for renewable energy projects since 2013.

Dutch pension fund ABP is still on course with the execution of its policy for sustainable and responsible investing. At the end of 2017, ABP had around euro 50bn invested in sustainable companies and activities, which is around 12 per cent of the fund’s total assets.

Lloyds Banking Group has launched a new GBP 2bn scheme offering discounted finance to commercial banking clients how are investing in a lower carbon operations, increasing the bank’s total lending commitment to GBP 3bn.

The Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT) is being built by Bazalgette Tunnel Limited, and its associated firm Bazalgette Finance has issued GBP 175m of index-linked green bonds in order to support the design, building, commissioning, and maintenance the Tunnel in London.

A new report released by sustainability non-profit Ceres, 'In Sight of the Clean Trillion: Update on an Expanding Landscape of Investor Opportunities', explains the expanding and diversifying range of low-carbon investment opportunities that align with core investment fundamentals such as long-term risk diversification.

Norges Bank, the central bank of Norway has actively been pressing the companies it is engaged with to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and has revealed that it is currently supporting a shareholder resolution asking for a report reviewing energy infrastructure firm Kinder Morgan’s policies, actions and plans to measure, monitor, mitigate, disclose and set quantitative reduction targets for methane emissions from all operations.

Major UK investors including Sarasin & Partners, the Church in Wales, and Ealing, Islington and Lewisham pension funds have indicated that they will cast their votes in support of Shell becoming the first oil major to comply with the Paris climate goals at the company’s AGM.

In the US, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has taken steps to address climate risk by conducting a climate-related financial risk stress test and analysis of insurance companies’ investments in fossil-fuels – investments totalling USD 500bn in fossil fuel-related securities and USD 10.5bn in thermal coal enterprises – and associated transition risks.

Crown Estate Scotland has unveiled proposals to lease seabed to encourage a new generation of offshore wind projects in Scotland’s waters. A paper has been published to outline the draft process and ask for feedback to help shape the final approach

The move to greater recycling has had a rather unexpected result, in that as households wash out containers to place in the recycle bins, the additional food waste and fat is causing blockages to drainage systems.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has published a report on the impact of electric vehicles (EVs) predicting that the number will reach over 1.6 million this year, from a few hundred thousand in 2014, and go on to 11 million in 2025 and then surging to 30 million in 2030.

Volvo is to remove single-use plastics from all its offices, canteens and events across the globe by the end of 2019, replacing over 20 million single-use plastic items such as cups, food containers and cutlery with more sustainable alternatives.

PMI (Philip Morris International) has published its 2017 Sustainability Report. This is of particular interest for several reasons, one of which is that it is a ‘sin stock’ company that is undergoing change and removing itself from that label, but also because it demonstrates that companies that are making such transitions cannot reasonably be expected to do so overnight. If the direction of travel is correct, and the speed not so slow, then such change should be encouraged in building a better society.

The Co-op is pioneering a new national food redistribution scheme that will donate fresh food, and other products, within use-by and best-before dates to thousands of small community groups. Called Co-op Food Share, the scheme will take products off sale earlier to get fresh food within its use-by date to charities.

Danish pension fund PKA has entered into a partnership with turbine maker Vestas and Swedish utility, Vattenfall, for a 353 MW wind energy project in Sweden. It is the pension fund’s first investment in onshore wind, which will see Vestas provide 353 MW of V136-4.2 MW turbines. Vestas will become a 40 per cent shareholder through a share purchase agreement, with PKA and Vattenfall taking on 30 per cent of equity.

The annual Sunday Times Rich List was published over the weekend, with the estimates of the wealthiest UK citizens. As annual event is has lead t the traditional political and philosophical rows in the press, but one item that has been overlooked is the amount the richest individuals give to charity.

This is Me, the campaign to end the stigma around mental health in the workplace has gone national, having now been adopted by firms in the North West of England. This is Me grew across businesses throughout the City of London, and has now been launched in the North West by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and there are plans to roll out the campaign across the UK.

Santander’s Changemaker Fund has surpassed GBP 1m in matched funding and support from the crowd for charities, social enterprises and community projects across the UK. The Changemaker Fund is open to any social enterprise, small charity or community group that helps disadvantaged people in the UK and that is seeking funds of up to GBP 20,000.

ClientEarth has appointed Alice Garton to lead its new Climate programme after three years of heading up the organisation’s Company & Financial Project.

Dr Hans-Christoph Hirt, head of Hermes EOS, is highlighting the limited progress in the implementation of a value-creating strategy at the Deutsche Bank AG AGM, raising concerns about the high turnover of management and supervisory board members.

The National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) has backed a shareholder resolution calling for Shell to align its greenhouse gas intensity targets with the goals of Paris Agreement. With over six million members, Nest last year established a bespoke investment fund to manage the risks of climate change within its members’ portfolios, has nearly GBP 7m invested in Shell on behalf of UK workers.

Large commercial vehicles in the European Union will have to emit a third (30 per cent) less CO2 by 2030 under a new proposal. Currently there is no limit on the level of CO2 produced by lorries and trucks, yet produce a quarter of all road emissions.

Carillion's directors presided over a "rotten corporate culture" two committees of MPs have concluded, and have called for the break-up of the big four audit firms, all engaged at some level in the company and its demise.

A new report from the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) underlines the importance of corporate management of human rights and reveals that there are signs of improvement - with benchmarks, civil society and investor pressure helping to create a “race to the top”.

The time is approaching for many large companies to throw open tier doors in the annual AGM season, with Centrica, Cineworld, Astrazeneca and Shell all about to brave investors scrutiny. Executive pay, diversity and green issues will be near the top of many agendas, and there is a greater demand for action than before from institutional investors as well as pressure groups, and the media.

Carlos Alvarado, Costa Rica’s newly elected president, has vowed to ban fossil fuels and create the world’s first fully decarbonised country.

UN talks regarding implementing the Paris climate agreement have stalled, and extra time been given to help the differences still outstanding. Negotiations will now resume in September with an extra week.

Lloyd's of London is telling its underwriters to stop insuring schemes related to the National Rifle Association of America (NRA).