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When Water and Climate Issues Turn into Material Risk for Ag Lenders
Some of the most notable impacts of climate change in agriculture are physical risks – such as droughts, floods, changing rainfall patterns, and extreme weather events - which all damage crops. Not all physical risks are material risks, though. Material risk...
GIS and Data Analytics – The Business Risk Mitigation Duo
When combined with data analytics, GIS (geographic information system) technology can provide insights into physical risks that may present material risks to lenders and investors. As the USC Dornsife Spatial Sciences Institute points out, “Historically, the largest...
SaaS GIS as a Risk Mitigation and Reporting Tool for Ag Lenders
GIS tools are an effective way for lenders and investors to gain insight into the physical and material risks that their portfolios are exposed to. Access to aggregated data from disparate sources that are organized into the context of unique lending portfolios gives...
Ecosystem Services Have an Important Role in Risk Mitigation
Ecosystem services include all of the ways that the natural environment contributes to human livelihood and well-being. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. describes ecosystem services as “the multitude of benefits that nature provides to society” and...
Using GIS as an ESG Data Provider in Agricultural Lending
GIS (or, geospatial information system) technology has a wide range of applications in the agricultural sector, from predicting crop-specific water needs, to monitoring soil quality and crop health, to improving water use efficiency. GIS software can use data from...
4 Types of Transition Risk – Water and ESG Reporting
Much of the conversation around climate change focuses on environmental impacts, such as rising temperatures and extreme weather events. A big part of climate risk, however, involves transition risk – or the risk that results from changing policies, practices, and...
ESG Data Collection for Agricultural Finance with GIS
ESG reporting is quickly becoming an expectation and will soon be a legal requirement in many sectors, including agricultural finance. As these reporting needs become more complex, financial institutions and other ag professionals with a comprehensive approach...
The Physical Risk of Water Issues in Agricultural Finance
Agricultural lenders and investors face a range of risks to their portfolios when it comes to water issues, particularly in the context of climate change. These include policy and legal risks, market risks, reputation risks, and more. One of the most important risk...
What A Water Market Can Do – Water Markets & Water Futures
New developments in water markets and water futures trading have stirred up plenty of controversy in recent months as ag lenders, growers, investors, and conservationists worry about the impact these practices will have on water stress and water costs in agriculture....
Protecting Against Stranded Assets Due To Water Risk
The Stranded Assets Programme at the University of Oxford describes stranded assets as those that have “suffered from unanticipated or premature write-downs, devaluations or conversion to liabilities,” usually due to external forces such as environmental issues,...
Social Capital and Its Role in ESG Risk Mitigation
Social capital can be one of the most difficult ESG metrics to measure. According to the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, the “S” in ESG covers a range of different factors, including “human rights; labour issues; workplace health & safety; and...
Financial Capital and Its Role in ESG Risk Mitigation
For the past several centuries, financial capital has been the dominant form of capital in modern societies. It’s what individuals use to make an investment or purchase a home, and it’s how businesses develop a capital structure to generate revenue and maximize...
ESG Investing Principles for Mitigating Risks in Portfolios
ESG investing is a strategy that allocates financial capital to companies that meet criteria in three key areas – environmental, social, and governance impacts. As investors choose to prioritize more sustainable, ethical investments, companies themselves are putting...
Why Companies’ ESG Data Will Be in High Demand
The coming necessity of ESG reporting compliance (environmental, social, and governance) is expanding in many parts of the economy. The change is driven by increased shareholder interest, as well as government policies that are intended to mitigate the risks of...
Natural Capital and Its Role in ESG Risk Mitigation
Natural capital refers to the natural resources that a company utilizes or owns – from renewable resources like water or trees to non-renewable resources like fossil fuels and minerals. The link between the wellbeing of natural capital and the wellbeing of financial...
Leveraging California Water Districts GIS To Understand Water Risk In Ag
Geographic information systems are becoming increasingly important to agricultural professionals in California, especially in the understanding of water risk and how that applies to specific water districts. While GIS tools can be useful for understanding water rights...
The Relationship of Soil and Water – Interview with Regenerative Organic Alliance
The new year is here, 2020 is behind us, and the world looks to 2021 to produce better fortunes. Percolating up through the web of important topics are ESG movements and corporate commitments, sustainable investing, the need for climate reporting, more efficient...
The Benefits of GIS in Banking
Geographic information system (GIS) technology is already being used in the banking industry and other risk-focused industries in a wide variety of ways. The World Financial Review shows how a business analyst at a local or regional bank can “open a map… and choose...
Water Risk Assessment and GIS Go Hand in Hand
Climate risk is one of the primary concerns that the Federal Reserve cited in its annual financial stability report – an issue that is especially important for agricultural lenders. A recent climate stress test by Rabobank found that “water stress is likely to...
Why Water GIS Matters to Ag Professionals and Lenders
Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is used to understand multiple complex layers of data, compiled in a map-based format, usually based on satellite or drone data and other geospatial information. This technology is beginning to trend in the agricultural...