ESG Efforts Ramp Up, Tesla Semis Hit The Road And Reaping Billions From Clean Energy Bonds

This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.

A new survey from Deloitte finds that more companies are working to prioritize ESG in their business. For example, last March, when Deloitte ran a similar survey, only 21% of the executives surveyed said their companies had built cross-functional teams geared towards ESG. Just a few months later, that number is now 57%—nearly triple what it was. Challenges lay ahead for these types of efforts, however. The survey also found that over a third of respondents said that a major obstacle for these efforts is the accuracy and completeness of data. As both regulators and stakeholders around the world look more closely at companies’ ESG activities, demand for this kind of data–and action based on what that data says–is likely to increase. That said, a majority of executives surveyed also expect efforts to meet these ESG disclosure and action demands as worth the effort, as they expect ESG efforts to yield stronger stakeholder trust, better employee retention and improved returns on investment.

The Big Read

How Wall Street Banks Will Reap Billions From Tax-Free Renewable Energy Bonds

One of the hottest trends in finance is prepaid muni bonds structured to help local utilities buy decades worth of renewable electricity. They’re good for the environment, but even better for the banks that will profit from cheap financing, trading profits and federal tax breaks.

Read more here.

Discoveries And Innovations

An air purifier developed by Harvard spinoff company Metalmark is inspired by the nanostructure of butterfly wings and organisms like the self-cleaning lotus flower–and it produces beyond HEPA-grade results.

A small study suggests that air-circulating indoor green or “living” walls can improve the skin quality and immune system of office workers in less than a month.

New research from McKinsey suggests that action by corporations using existing technology could put the world on a sustainable environmental trajectory by 2050–and make them money in the process.