Inside: Executives are paid more than 300 times what workers earn. Water security and forest risks disclosures are on the rise. Starbucks puts a lid on recyclers. Democrats' "green new deal" takes shape. Wealthy black executives take on racial inequality.  — Eric Roston

Sustainable Finance

Verizon’s billion-dollar entrance into the green bond market on Tuesday saw soaring interest from investors, suggesting U.S. companies may be starting to warm to environmentally friendly debt after years of being among the most reticent issuers, writes Bloomberg's Emily Chasan.

S&P Global Ratings said it is adding a section on ESG issues in its corporate credit rating reports.It will phase in the ESG sections over time, starting with oil & gas and utilities companies. The new sections will "more clearly underline" how ESG considerations are incorporated into credit ratings for about 2,000 credits by the end of the year. 

Tesla agreed to acquire battery-technology company Maxwell Technologies for about $218 million in stock. The small acquisition gives the electric-car maker a short-term energy storage technology that Elon Musk has called a key to the future of electric cars. Volkswagen said it will use Tesla batteries at U.S. car-charging stations. Meet Tesla's McKinsey-groomed, newly minted millennial CFO. Cold spells and electric cars have an uneasy relationship.

Lindsay Patrick, head of sustainable finance at RBC Capital Markets, spoke with Bloomberg TV’s Scarlet Fu about the growth of ESG ETFs and the funds' potential use in structured products.

In Brief

• Madrid has hired banks to issue a 10-year, euro-denominated sustainable bond.
• Prince Charles, 70, is opening a $100 million fund that will channel bond investors’ money to give half a million women and girls access to better education, jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities over the next five years.
• Filipino energy investor AC Energy raised $185 million in green bonds, making its total issuance $410 million. The company wants to expand its renewable capacity to 5 gigawatts by 2025.
• A fund managed by BlackRock sold 54 megawatts of solar farms in Ontario to Ullico, an insurer.

Environment

Deforestation and droughts are quickly climbing the list of corporate climate change worries, writes's Bloomberg Opinion's Nathaniel Bullard. 

Steel producers are facing sharper scrutiny from a group representing investors worth $30 trillion. The Climate Action 100+ initiative has already rattled oil companies, pressing BP to agree this week to link bonuses to greenhouse gas emissions cuts. Now, they are pressing steelmakers to lower emissions in line with the Paris climate accord, with a report that is a warning shot for companies like ArcelorMittal and Tata Steel. 

An early legislative draft of the Democrats' Green New Deal stops short of banning fossil fuels. If legislators get the details right, and a climate-related economic program could do a lot of good, writes Bloomberg Opinion's Editorial Board.

The EU wants to ban 90 percent of microplastics, according to Bloomberg's TicToc.

Google announced long-term contracts to purchase 547 megawatts in January, almost five times more than second place Vale SA, according to BloombergNEF. Google’s four solar power purchase agreements bring the company’s clean energy portfolio to almost 3.8 gigawatts.

Social

CEOs earn salaries more than 300 times larger than their workers. A recent analysis also revealed that hundreds of the biggest U.S. public companies pay their workers less than a living wage. "That’s not sustainable," writes Nir Kaissar of Bloomberg Opinion.

Google employees are losing their sense of purpose. Googlegeist, an employee poll, asked workers whether CEO Sundar Pichai’s vision of what the company can achieve inspires them. Nearly 80 percent indicated yes, down 10 percentage points from the previous year. There were similar declines for questions about Pichai’s decisions and strategies, his commitment to diversity and inclusion, and the compensation the company pays, according the results, which were viewed by Bloomberg News. 

Rosalind G. Brewer, Starbucks' chief operating officer, joined Amazon's board as its fourth woman and only black director.

The Black Economic Alliance is the U.S.'s only political action committee founded by black business leaders and specifically dedicated to the economic issues — wealth, wages, work — that affect black Americans. Jordyn Holman of Bloomberg News tells the group's story.

More than a decade after Lehman collapsed, six women who worked at the bank’s subprime-mortgage unit are still accusing a former colleague of sexual harassment. 

Companies will divert more resources to increasing women's pay and advancing their opportunities, as the U.K.'s second gender-pay reporting deadline of April 5 looms, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. The government is considering making companies report ethnicity pay gaps, which could begin from 2020.

Governance

Wells Fargo has replaced directors, reorganized divisions and changed how it compensates employees in the wake of a 2016 lending scandal, the company said in a 104-page report. 

Earnings call questions, once deemed “boring” by Tesla's Elon Musk, have opened up to smaller shareholders thanks to a startup called Say Inc.

U.K. financial regulators issued a discussion paper suggesting new stewardship standards for institutional investors. 

Starbucks's board is pushing back against a coffee-cup recycling proposal from shareholders worried about ocean pollution.

Note: Please send tips, suggestions and feedback to Emily Chasan at echasan1@bloomberg.net.

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