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CSRwire Weekly News Alert
3.11.2008 - 11:59pm ET
The Latest Corporate Social Responsibility News - Taking the Pulse of Socially Responsible Investing
Diagnosis: Healthy, Growing
Every other year, the Social Investment Forum
(SIF) takes the pulse of socially responsible investing (SRI) with its
trends
report. The diagnosis? A healthy heart rate fuels continuing growth.
From 2005 (when the report was last published) to 2007, SRI assets rose
more than 18 percent--from $2.29 trillion to $2.71 trillion. In
comparison, the broader market of all investment assets under management
practically stood still, growing less than 3 percent. The report made
waves, garnering coverage by the Wall
Street Journal, On
Wall Street, GreenBiz,
Pensions
& Investments, and Financial
Planning.
Doctors usually advise patients to "stay active," and SRI has certainly
done so through shareholder activism - with healthy results. Support for
shareholder resolutions on social and environmental issues reached a
record high in 2007 of 15.4 percent on average, up from the 9.8 percent
average two years earlier.
SRI shareholder activism extends beyond social and environmental issues
encompassing corporate governance, an area where social investors have
been very successful. Boston Common Asset
Management helped define strategies for
addressing excessive executive compensation by engaging with Aflac,
which became the first company to provide shareholders "Say on Pay."
Aflac's proxy ballot this year contains an advisory vote on executive
compensation, the result of "open and constructive dialogue" with Boston
Common dating back to 2006. Almost a hundred other companies face
resolutions this year asking them to implement "Say on Pay" as Aflac has
done.
In another indicator of health, SRI research firm Innovest Strategic Value
Advisors was named among the "Green 11,"
the “most eco-savvy corporations” according to Condé Nast
Portfolio. This on top of recognition of Innovest by TBLI and
Investment & Pensions Europe and the United Nations Environment
Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI.) Interestingly, the “Green
11” contained six other CSRwire members: Ceres, DuPont,
Organic
Valley, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and Whole
Foods. Not bad.
This article was written by CSRwire contributor Bill Baue.
To read the latest corporate social responsibility news from LOHAS,
Baxter, Organic Valley, Alcoa, Reader's Digest and other leading socially
responsible organizations, visit http://www.csrwire.com/LastAlert.html.
About CSRwire's Weekly News Alert
CSRwire's free weekly News Alert is a summary of the latest and most
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news. The Alert highlights noteworthy initiatives and informs the CSR and
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About CSRwire.com
CSRwire is the leading source of corporate social responsibility and
sustainability news, reports and information. CSRwire members are
companies and NGOs, agencies and organizations interested in communicating
their corporate citizenship, sustainability, and socially responsible
initiatives to a global audience through CSRwire's syndication network and
weekly News Alerts. CSRwire content covers issues of Diversity,
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Rights, Workplace Issues, Business Ethics, Community Development and
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