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October 10, 2008
Investor Initiatives Join Forces to Call for ESG Considerations in Investment Research
by Robert Kropp
UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment and Enhanced Analytics Initiative have more than
$15 trillion in assets and a shared commitment to better research.
SocialFunds.com --
The movement to encourage traditional investment research to include the impact of
"extra-financial" issues such as corporate governance and climate change has led to the merger of
the Enhanced Analytics Initiative
(EAI) into the UN-backed Principles for
Responsible Investment (PRI).
 The two investor initiatives, with joint assets under
management of more than US$15 trillion, will join forces to help achieve improved long-term
investment returns by calling for the integration of extra-financial issues into investment
analysis.
The mission of PRI is based on the premise that consideration of environmental,
social and governance (ESG) issues is proven to be a successful method of delivering superior
risk-adjusted returns. While PRI is not designed to be relevant only to socially responsible
investment (SRI) products, its integration of ESG issues into investment analysis is compatible
with the practices of SRI fund managers.
EAI is an international collaboration between
asset owners and asset managers that seeks to address the absence of investment research which
considers material extra-financial issues. The initiative offers research providers a commercial
incentive to produce research capturing the value of corporate performance on extra-financial
issues.
EAI membership consists of 25 organizations and includes pension funds, asset
managers and brokerage arms of investment banks.
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SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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