glass ceilings everywhere...

What decade is this? The CEO of IBM is a woman, Virginia Rometty, but she can't be a member of Augusta National, because it's an all male golf club!

From today's Wall Street Journal

The Masters will lull you. To enter Augusta National Golf Club is to step back in time, and the atmosphere amid these pine trees is intoxicating—serene, verdant, immaculate. There's no modern chaos. Even when invaded by thousands of golf tournament "patrons"—a grandiose term for "fans"—tradition rules.
Of course, all that whispery reverence becomes pretty silly. The Masters can feel stoned on mysticism and prestige, to the point where Augusta National becomes a reality distortion field, detached from the outside world. This is not heaven. If it's heaven, it's heaven with a Hooters around the corner, and a brand new champion named Bubba.
But reality takes its time pushing through the gates here, which is why Augusta National is again confronted with a question that gets elevated as a "cultural moment" but really just sounds absurd in 2012: Why aren't there any women members?
The subject has been pushed to the forefront by the appointment of Virginia M. Rometty as the CEO of IBM. IBM is a prominent Masters sponsor, and Augusta National has a history of inviting the company's top executive to join its club. Ms. Rometty is a golfer. She spent late Sunday afternoon at Augusta sitting in a second-row chair behind the 18th green. Her jacket was pink, not green.
To enter Augusta National is to step back in time, and the atmosphere amid these pine trees is intoxicating—serene, verdant, immaculate.
She was right there when fan favorite Bubba Watson and Louis Oosthuizen sank par putts to send the 76th Masters to a playoff. She stayed locked in her seat as the pair rolled up 18 again for the first playoff hole. She stood and applauded when word arrived that the 33-year-old Watson had captured the Masters on the second playoff hole, at the tenth, down the hill from IBM's company cabin. If she's not a golf fan, it's hard to say who is.
For Augusta, welcoming Ms. Rometty to the club should be a no-brainer, a rubber stamp, a tap-in, to use the golfer's term for an easy putt. But it's not.
Defenders of Augusta National always point to the fact that it's a private club, and is permitted to conduct its business the way it wants. And it's true that the club is not breaking any laws.
Beyond the fierce protectors, there's a substantial, soft middle population of patrons and sponsors who may agree that women belong in Augusta, but are too enchanted by the Masters to push. This charming environment of white-painted cabins and $1.50 pimento cheese sandwiches makes it easy to turn down the common sense, and resist rocking the boat. That is how exclusion survives.
It's time to take off those stylish green tin foil hats, turn down the reality distortion field, and acknowledge the obvious: Absence of a female member at golf's most prominent club—not just a folksy conclave in the woods, but the sport's best-known stage, a citadel of corporate power, happily monetizing and broadcasting its event to millions—is woefully out-of-date and should embarrass anyone invested in this event.
It feels bizarre to even refer to this as a "debate." This confers far too much respect, as if it's actually a subject worthy of argument. Look at the recent comments from President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney—I'm pretty sure if you put both men in an open field, one of them would tell you it's sunny and the other would tell you there's a raging hailstorm. Both men agree that Augusta should admit women.
But Augusta National abides by its own clock. In an instant-response, social media era in which the slightest provocation and merits a reply, it doesn't react to campaigns or even polite queries. The club can do as it wants, and knows that this majestic tournament has a way of airbrushing uncomfortable truths. Sponsors glide along.
Witness Augusta National chairman Billy Payne's awkward news conference last week, in which he repeatedly dodged questions about female membership. Augusta National has dragged its heels before—it didn't have an African-American member until 1990, and it endured protests about the absence of women in the previous decade. Stubbornness is built into the woodwork here.
This controversy is unlikely to stop the Masters from being a significant event. The shame is that it's preventing it from being a better, more inclusive one. If Augusta can handle a Bubba in a green blazer, it can handle the 21st century. And the 20th.
Watson is a likeable, unpretentious champion—"It's just me. I'm just Bubba," he said when it was over—and Virginia Rometty is not an inconvenience for Augusta National. She's a gift. A female power broker, a golfer, atop one of the world's most prominent companies, where a green jacket has customarily come with the job. It doesn't matter if Ms. Rometty wants to press her case. All the public relations gurus and crisis managers on earth couldn't have given this anachronistic club a better opportunity.
It should be so simple. It's sad that it's not.
Write to Jason Gay at Jason.Gay@wsj.com

Social investment groups join forces

Sustainable investment organizations from around the world – including Canada's Social Investment Organization – will collaborate on a new global report on trends in sustainable and responsible investment.

The regional organizations currently produce their own research reports, usually once every two years. The new report is scheduled for release in December 2012.

"This is an important step in helping to identify and compare sustainable investment industry developments across geographic boundaries," the groups said in a joint press release. "Specifically, the report will analyze the prevalence of investment strategies that consider environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors in investment analysis and ownership activities."

The report will be a "valuable resource to investors and policy makers and will serve as the baseline for future research," the press release continued. Each participating organization will be responsible for collecting data in its home market.

The sustainable investment organizations agreed to implement the new report at a meeting in London last week, also pledging to launch a global website later this year and to collaborate more closely on policy issues.

"The strength of the sustainable investment industry lies in the diversity of our members in Canada and around the world," said Eugene Ellmen, Executive Director, SIO. "Our collective activities as sustainable investment forums will give voice to our members by showing this global diversity."

The meeting was attended by sustainable investment groups from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and Holland, as well as the European Sustainable Investment Forum and the Association for Sustainable & Responsible Investment in Asia.

The sustainable investment organizations collectively represent more than 1,000 members including pension funds, asset managers, NGOs, banks, community development organizations, research institutions and consulting firms, impact investors and financial advisors.

VC Investing in the Green Economy in Canada

As part of the SIPC webinar series, last week I had the pleasure of listening to Andrew Heintzman, President and CEO of Investeco, and a pioneer of green investing in Canada, discuss the why’s and how’s of cleantech investing.

He began be describing the ‘depressing global backdrop’ that makes investing in cleantech a necessity. As the world population grows, not only are we consuming more natural resources, but people in developing nations are aspiring to live the rich, resource intensive lifestyles of the western world. The confluence of demographics, resource scarcity, and environmental challenges means the economy of the future has to be a green economy.

Stating that ‘Capital markets like to flow to where significant capital can be productively employed.’, Heintzman believes that the next investment wave will be green. This includes areas such as resource efficiency, renewable energy, energy efficiency, biofuels and water.

He describes Canada as transitioning from a staples economy where wealth is based on exploiting raw natural capital without consideration of external costs, to a green economy, where we add value to our natural capital through innovation.

Heintzman provided examples of innovation in areas such as biofuels, desalination and biomaterials. However, for me, the most interesting story of an industry in transition was in forest products. Triton Logging Inc. are ‘underwater harvesting specialists’. According to their website, “Some 300 million trees have been completely flooded by hydro dams and still stand perfectly preserved beneath the world’s reservoirs. Today, Triton Logging is working around the globe recovering this forgotten resource, bringing value to communities and a clear environmental wood choice to consumers.” This demonstrates how the traditional forest products model can be transformed in an innovative way, by using something that people previously thought was waste.

The webinar concluded with Heintzman’s answers to some general questions on VC investing. Terms are more friendly today due to recent market turmoil. Sustainable investing is now less niche, and more broadly accepted. And the pie is still very small in Canada - we are significantly under investing in cleantech.

For a look at another company that’s finding new ways to be profitable in the green economy, check out this article on Waste Management Inc in the Wall Street Journal.

Sustainalytics announces Asian acquisition

ESG research firm Sustainalytics has announced plans to acquire Singapore-based Responsible Research Pte Ltd., an ESG information provider covering Asia and other emerging markets.

Established in 2009, Responsible Research has built a strong reputation for high-quality ESG research and analysis, Sustainalytics said in a release.

"The addition of the Responsible Research team is another milestone in Sustainalytics' commitment to provide its clients with global coverage that is supported by insightful, regional expertise."

Responsible Research has a staff of 12, including London-based executive director Lucy Carmody and a team of eight analysts in Singapore.

Sustainalytics is based in Amsterdam, with offices in Boston, Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris, Timisoara (Romania) and Toronto, and representatives in Brussels and Copenhagen.

This isn't the company's first move into Asia. Last September, Sustainalytics announced a partnership with Korea's Sustinvest, an investment research and consulting company.

The Responsible Research deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in May. Financial terms were not disclosed.