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CalPERS Opts to Keep Ban on Tobacco Stocks
CalPERS said no again to tobacco Monday. Amid a passionate debate on the wisdom and morality of investing in tobacco, the big California pension fund rejected a recommendation by its staff to end its 16-year-old ban on the practice. CalPERS’ investment committee, in a 9-3 vote, concluded that the tobacco industry is heading toward long-term decline and presents too much of a risk
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- North America
- Tags
- impact investing
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Investors Sharpen Focus on Social and Environmental Risks to Stocks
Pfizer stock was riding high in June 2015, up 128 percent in five years, making it the second-most valuable American drug maker. Nine out of 10 Wall Street research analysts recommended that investors hold it in their portfolio, if not buy more.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- North America
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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Health to Humanity Uses Bath Amenity to Train African Entrepreneurs
"What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization,” said Dr. Abraham Maslow, a psychologist who, in 1943, wrote about his theory on human’s hierarchy of needs.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- North America
- Tags
- public health
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A huge public pension fund faces an agonizing decision: Should it reinvest in tobacco?
Sixteen years ago, CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension fund, vaulted to the forefront of the social investing movement by voting to dump its $671 million in tobacco stocks.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- North America
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GSK Opens Global Vaccine Center in Rockville, MD
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) today will officially open its newest global vaccines R&D center in Rockville, MD, where the pharma giant will base 450 researchers and support staffers and spend $50 million over the next 2 years on technology and equipment.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- North America
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America’s Poor Still Lack Access to Basic Banking Services
Despite a sprawling and varied financial industry, more than one-quarter of Americans don’t have adequate access to basic banking tools, such as checking accounts, credit cards, or loans for instance. That group—known as the underbanked—is made up of those who suffer the most from growing inequality and systemic marginalization: Americans with low incomes, those with less than a college degree, and minorities.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- North America
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A Zika vaccine is being developed at warp speed, but will there be a market for it?
When top US health authorities convened in late January to brief President Barack Obama on the Zika outbreak in Latin America, the post-meeting scuttlebutt was that the president was eager to push development of a Zika vaccine.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- North America
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U.N. Apologizes for Role in Haiti’s 2010 Cholera Outbreak
After six years and 10,000 deaths, the United Nations issued a carefully worded public apology on Thursday for its role in the 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti and the widespread suffering it has caused since then.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- North America