Federal Court rules landmark case should proceed in California State Court
February 23, 2021 (Berkeley, CA) Earth Island Institute, represented by Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, received a favorable ruling today in its landmark lawsuit against 10 major food, beverage, and consumer goods companies for the nuisance created by their plastic packaging, including polluting California waterways with plastic trash and touting products as recyclable when they’re not.
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, granted Earth Island Institute’s motion and ruled that the lawsuit belongs in state rather than federal court. This decision means that the lawsuit against the companies can proceed toward its merits rather than facing delays involved with attempts to change the venue. Similar tactics have been used by Big Pharma and Big Oil to try to delay or derail lawsuits against them. Judge Gilliam’s decision prevents Big Plastic from a
This paper attempts to provide a definition and context for the term,
Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”), explain how and why it is used, demonstrate how investors are driving the proliferation of ESG reporting, illuminate how investor reliance on ESG information creates new risks for reporting companies, and suggest steps attorneys can take to help mitigate the risks. This paper also provides a short summary on some hot topics in the ESG world.
I. The Evolution of ESG Disclosures
A. What is ESG?
In basic terms, ESG is a collection of information about a company’s operations in three broad areas of activity: Environmental, Social and Governance. It is data-based as well as narrative, and typically static or backward-looking. Increasingly, ESG reporting is goal-oriented and aspirational. Oftentimes, ESG is used interchangeably with the term “sustainability.”