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NEWS STORY:
CLIMATE CHANGE: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Investors Want More Disclosure of Climate Risk Data from Corporations
CDP survey of signatory investors finds that integration of climate risk considerations into investment decisions is growing.
NEWS BRIEF:
EMISSIONS STANDARDS: AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
Investors Call on Auto Industry to Improve Disclosure on Emissions
The risks and opportunities for carbon reduction strategies for the automobile industry are considerable and warrant particular attention from investors.
NEWS BRIEF:
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: SHAREOWNER ACTIVISM
Role of Corporate Boards in Sustainability Issues Is Growing
Survey of board directors finds that as shareowner resolutions increase, more boards of directors are addressing the risks and opportunities of sustainability issues.
NEWS BRIEF:
ACQUISITIONS: SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENT RESEARCH
Riskmetrics to Acquire Innovest
RiskMetrics cites expansion of research on environmental, social, and strategic governance issues as major reason for purchase.
NEWS STORY:
SOCIAL INVESTMENT REPORT
ESG Criteria Creeping Slowly into Mainstream Investing
New report lays out the five hurdles ESG investing has to clear before it can be incorporated on a large scale.
NEWS STORY:
SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING
The Assurance Industry Grows in League with ESG Reporting
With more companies publishing sustainability reports, more third parties are stepping in to validate the information in CSR reports.
NEWS BRIEF:
SUSTAINABILTY REPORTING
Half of S&P 100 Companies Published Sustainability Reports in 2007
More leading US companies are publishing their sustainability work and embracing the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines.
NEWS STORY:
CLIMATE CHANGE:CORPORATE RESPONSIBLITY
Large UK Companies Put Their Best Foot Forward
New study of the FTSE 100 finds most companies, but not all, are improving their performance on environmental, social and governance issues.
NEWS BRIEF:
SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING
More Companies in Emerging Markets Create Corporate Governance Websites
A growing number of large companies in Central and Eastern Europe are publishing environmental, social and governance reports on-line in English, but the area still lags behind other emerging markets’ disclosure rates.
NEWS STORY:
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Measuring Companies with a Ruler of Responsibility
With 21 return businesses from the 2007 list, CRO's 100 Best Corporate Citizens 2008 ranks large-cap companies' corporate responsibility.
NEWS BRIEF:
INDEXES
Two New Indexes of SRI Interest
Standards & Poor's launches ESG-screened index of Indian companies and FTSE introduces its environment technology index.
NEWS STORY:
SUSTAINABILITY
Yearbook Presents Sustainability Trends and Leaders
SAM and PricewaterhouseCoopers offer insights into the sustainability efforts of cutting-edge companies.
NEWS BRIEF:
SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING
Vast Majority of Emerging Market Companies Disclose Their Sustainability Efforts
New SIRAN/KLD report upbeat about sustainability reporting, but improvements still need to be made.
NEWS BRIEF:
SUSTAINABLITY
100 Most Sustainable Global Corporations Published
Corporate Knights and Innovest Strategic Value Advisors announced their fourth annual list of sustainable corporations.
NEWS STORY:
CLIMATE CHANGE: BANKING
Are Banks Getting Caught With Their Umbrellas Down?
A new report from the RiskMetrics Group ranks 40 of the world's largest banks responses to climate change risks and possibilities.
NEWS STORY:
Sustainability Issues All Over the Map at Large Cap Companies
An extensive study from RiskMetrics shows sustainability governance among companies varies widely from country to country, and from sector to sector.
NEWS STORY:
Wal-Mart's First Sustainability Report: Just a Gesture or a Just Account?
Many call the biggest retailer's sustainability report a good first step on a long road.
NEWS STORY:
Leave Only Footprints: Measuring and Managing Corporate Carbon Emissions
Corporate carbon footprinting is on the rise, but so too is the number of footprint methodologies, challenging companies and investors to discern the best options. Part two of a two-part article.
NEWS STORY:
Many Sustainability Reports Upbeat, Ignoring Climate Change Risks
A new study from GRI and KPMG on sustainability reports notes that companies highlight new business opportunities created by climate change and shy away from risks associated with climate change.
NEWS STORY:
SustainAbility Predicts How Sustainable Development Will Play Out Over Next Two Decades
Part two of this two-part article looks at a recent report from SustainAbility that projects four scenarios of potential developments in sustainability over the next 20 years.
NEWS STORY:
Grading Sustainability Reports: Creating the Curve
As more and more companies publish sustainability reports, awards and studies of these reports help raise reporting standards.
NEWS STORY:
If You Tag It, It Will Be Used: Sustainability Reporting in XBRL
Weeks after the latest SEC roundtable on interactive data, the Global Reporting Initiative releases a draft taxonomy of XBRL tags mapped to G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.
NEWS STORY:
S&P 500 Lags on Climate Disclosure, Electric Utilities Burning Economic Value Into Carbon
Two recent reports use findings of the 2006 Carbon Disclosure Project to assess limits of transparency on climate risks and opportunities and drag on value creation at electric utilities.
NEWS STORY:
Global 100 List Raises the Profile of Sustainability at the World Economic Forum (and Beyond)
Competition to make the third annual list of the 100 most sustainable companies--based on ratings by Innovest--continues to spur strong corporate social and environmental performance.
NEWS STORY:
The Problem with Voluntary Corporate Initiatives Is -- Well, They Are Voluntary
A Harvard study identifies the voluntary nature of such corporate social and environmental initiatives as their pitfall, limiting the ability to gauge their effectiveness.
NEWS STORY:
Costs of Carbon and Coal: Examining Emissions Trading Scheme Impact on Shareowner Value
WWF and SAM Group collaborate on a study modeling impacts of rising costs of carbon dioxide emissions on the valuation of German utility RWE, the biggest private carbon emitter in Europe.
NEWS STORY:
Corporate Accountability Improves, Progressing on Stakeholder Engagement But Not Assurance
Vodafone, BP, and Shell top the annual Global Accountability Rating by AccountAbility and CSRnetwork, with Home Depot rising 10 percentage points and Chevron falling 20.
NEWS STORY:
Merrill Lynch and World Resources Institute Issue Second Auto Sector Climate Change Report
The report again balances stock picking and investment analysis with in-depth discussion of regulatory and market developments in response to global warming and energy security concerns.
NEWS STORY:
Sustainability Reporting Improving, But Not Necessarily Contributing to True Sustainability
The biennial survey of global reporters by SustainAbility assesses disclosure on sustainability performance, but refrains from directly assessing corporate sustainability performance.
NEWS STORY:
As Climate Debate Matures, Companies Strategize Solutions and Investors Push for Disclosure
Companies are taking tangible actions to minimize risks and seize opportunities related to climate change, while investors promote more robust climate-related disclosure.
NEWS STORY:
Global Compact Aligns with GRI and the Practical Side of the Change Agenda
In part two of this two-part interview, SocialFunds.com speaks with Georg Kell about new alliances facilitating Communication on Progress reporting as well as broader issues facing the Global Compact.
NEWS STORY:
Global Compact Puts 335 Companies in Deep Freezer Until They Communicate on Progress
In part one of this two-part interview, SocialFunds.com speaks with Georg Kell about the de-listing of 335 companies from the Global Compact for failing to issue Communication on Progress reports.
NEWS STORY:
Investors Call on S&P 500 Companies to Use New Global Reporting Initiative G3 Guidelines
Only 13 percent of the S&P 500 issues GRI reports--those that do see the move as insulating them against the possibility of future mandated disclosure on issues such as climate risk.
NEWS STORY:
FTSE4Good Deletes Nine Companies on Environmental and Supply Chain Labor Standards
FTSE4Good criteria promote incremental progress in corporate social responsibility performance, and climate change is the latest topic covered in newly proposed standards.
NEWS STORY:
Mainstreaming of SRI Boosts Assets in Europe Over One Trillion Euros
The latest report by Eurosif on socially responsible investing in Europe notes the distinction between core SRI, which is steady, and broad SRI, which is fueling the growth.
NEWS STORY:
Canadian Social Investment Organization Recommends Mandating Global Reporting Initiative
In a submission to the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility, SIO advocates for amending the Canada Business Corporations Act to mandate annual GRI reporting.
NEWS STORY:
Carbon Disclosure Project Finds Tipping Point in Awareness But Not Action on Climate Risks
CDP4 reveals almost three quarters of FT500 tracking their greenhouse gas emissions, but less than half of those who think climate change poses risks are reducing GHG emissions.
NEWS STORY:
DJSI Takes Holistic Approach to Assessing and Promoting Corporate Sustainability
Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes assesses overall sustainability performance, driving constant improvement through the competitiveness to attain best-in-class status.
NEWS STORY:
Trucost Joins Yale Professor to Devise Tool to Gauge Financial Cost of Environmental Impacts
Professor Robert Repetto and Trucost Researcher Dan Dias apply the TRUEVA methodology for measuring externalities in financial terms to the US electric sector, which scores terribly.
NEWS STORY:
Benchmarking Corporate Climate Change Mitigation to Scientific Targets
The Center for Sustainable Innovation launches a new tool for measuring corporate sustainability using emissions reductions goals set by science, not business or politics.
NEWS STORY:
Shareowners Push TimeWarner on Movies Depicting Smoking, Recycled Paper, and Pay Disparity
Part two of this two-part article documents steps forward made by TimeWarner, as well as areas where shareowner activists continue to press for progress.
NEWS STORY:
Shareowner Activists See Progress at TimeWarner, and Room for Improvement
In part one of this two-part article, activists applaud the company on its first corporate social responsibility report while continuing to push on environmental, social, and governance issues.
NEWS STORY:
ADVANCE Converts Corporate Environmental Metrics Into Monetary Terms
The transparent methodology stands to advance corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investing, but it remains to be seen if it measures true sustainability.
NEWS STORY:
BP, Suncor, and Shell Top Oil Sector Sustainability Rating; Chevron and ExxonMobil Rank Low
The report by Jantzi Research examines 23 oil companies worldwide on environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions as well as human rights and other social issues.
NEWS STORY:
UN Advances Business Case for Materiality of SRI, Leaving Skeptics Little Wiggle Room
A new UNEP FI report assesses how investment banks are integrating environmental, social, and governance factors and linking them to financial performance in their research.
BOOK REVIEW:
Book Review--The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social, and Environmental Success--And How You Can Too
The book lays out a framework for companies to follow on the path toward integrating the triple bottom line of economic, social, and environmental sustainability.
NEWS STORY:
Some Applaud Rise in Sustainability Reporting, Others Say It Masks Corporate Un-sustainability
A new study documents the increase in sustainability reporting, but a paper by St. Andrews researchers considers corporate sustainability an unrealistic goal under current economic system.
NEWS STORY:
World Resources Institute and Citigroup Team Up to Report on Solutions to Climate Change
The report recommends a dozen companies poised to profit from a carbon-constrained future, including Archer Daniels Midland, Caterpillar, Cypress Semiconductor, GE, Itron, Johnson Controls, Monsanto, and Waste Management
BOOK REVIEW:
Book Review--Managing the Business Case for Sustainability: The Integration of Social, Environmental, and Economic Performance
The book presents a wide breadth of academic and practitioner perspectives on corporate social and environmental sustainability.
NEWS STORY:
Applying an Ant Colony Mentality to Extra-Financial Factors and Enhanced Analytics
A report from the Universities Superannuation Scheme, a member of the Enhanced Analytics Initiative, calls for diverse, community-wide advocacy of factoring extra-financials into research.
NEWS STORY:
United Nations Endorses SRI Strategies in Launching Principles for Responsible Investment
Some 50 institutional investors globally representing $4 trillion in assets have signed on to the Principles, which promote the consideration of environmental, social and governance factors.
NEWS STORY:
Social Footprint Introduces Simple Elegance in Measuring Corporate Sustainability Performance
The method conceived by the Center for Sustainable Innovation for quantifying corporate social and environmental impacts uses quotients to compare company action to sustainability goals.
NEWS STORY:
Shareowner Resolutions Overcome Obstacles to Promote Sustainability Reporting
A campaign advocating for sustainability reporting refines its strategies, shifting from requiring adherence to recommending Global Reporting Initiative guidelines.
NEWS STORY:
US Banks Sink to the Bottom of the Barrel on Latest Sustainability Ratings from Oekom
Most US banks fail to disclose enough information on their social and environmental performance to qualify for analysis, and only four of 21 analyzed earned above D-level grades.
NEWS STORY:
Wells Fargo Issues Alternative Energy Report to Join Ranks of Banks Advancing SRI Research
The report provides an overview of the alternative energy market as well as the pros and cons of investment opportunities in wind, solar, hydroelectric, hydrogen, biomass, and even nuclear.
NEWS STORY:
SRI Community Adding Its Two Cents to Comments on GRI G3 Guidelines
The Global Reporting Initiative is seeking public comments on its new sustainability reporting guidelines by March 31st.
NEWS STORY:
Financial Wonks Meet Treehuggers: New Tool Places Valuation on Corporate Sustainability
The sdEffect analytical framework takes the next step in establishing metrics to translate sustainable development into valuation.
NEWS STORY:
How to Determine the Top 100 Sustainable Companies in the World
Innovest Strategic Value Advisors and Corporate Knights announce the Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies at the World Economic Forum, documenting financial outpeformance.
NEWS STORY:
Top Five Socially Responsible Investing News Stories of 2005
Socially responsible investing, corporate social responsibility, and microfinance embraced by the mainstream; shareowner advocates withdraw several climate change resolutions as companies agree to report; and exchange traded funds apply SRI strategies.
NEWS STORY:
UK Kills Operating and Financial Review of Environmental and Social Information
The move, which was seen as capitulation to the business community, leads to legal challenges.
NEWS STORY:
A Light Bulb Turns On: Goldman Sachs First Investment Bank to Adopt Environmental Policy
The policy matches the robustness of other such policies recently adopted by global financial institutions, but the status of Goldman Sachs as an investment bank brings added significance.
NEWS STORY:
Citigroup Smith Barney Report Seeks to Bridge Divide Between SRI and Traditional Analysis
The report seeks to cross the metaphorical river dividing socially responsible investing analysts, who assess sustainability, from traditional analysts, who examine financial fundamentals.
NEWS STORY:
One Year On: Global Compact Maps Progress on Mainstreaming ESG Considerations
Two recent reports paint a vivid picture of developments over the past year on integrating environmental, social, and governance considerations into traditional financial analysis.
NEWS STORY:
Fiduciary Duty Redefined to Allow (and Sometimes Require) Environmental, Social and Governance Considerations
A report commissioned by UNEP FI and prepared by Freshfields attorneys dispels the persistent myth that laws prevent fiduciaries from considering environmental, social, and governance issues.
NEWS STORY:
Insurers at the Crossroads: Intersection Between Insurance and Sustainability is a Busy Corner
Swiss Re exemplifies global sustainability leadership, as the chair of its US arm gives the keynote address at a summit on climate change and insurance in Connecticut.
NEWS STORY:
SRI Research from UBS Strikes Balance Between Ethics and Economics
The new socially responsible investing team at UBS quantifies the costs of corporate social and environmental impacts as a means of effecting ethical and economic rectification.
NEWS STORY:
Institutional Investors Drive Research on Mainstreaming of SRI by Investment Managers
A new line of research at Mercer Investment Consulting rates proxy voting, shareholder engagement, and analysis of environmental, social, and governance issues by mainstream investment managers.
NEWS STORY:
Business Roundtable May Be Seeing the Light with New Initiative
The SEE Change program hints at a tipping point for US business community engagement of social, environmental, and economic issues, but the program's success may depend on how critics view its performance.
NEWS STORY:
Lighthouse G3: Third Generation GRI Guidelines Shine a Beacon for Sustainability Reporters
The Global Reporting Initiative dubbed its guidelines overhaul and update "G3," in which it is defining metrics for the Indicators and integrating the Principles with the Indicators.
NEWS STORY:
Insurers Behind the Curve on Addressing and Disclosing Risks of Climate Change
Two reports, one from Ceres and one from Friends of the Earth, concur that climate change is catching insurance companies, which are particularly impacted by global warming, unawares.
NEWS STORY:
Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes Launch United States and North America Indexes
The new indexes apply a best-in-class approach that differs from the approach of US socially responsible investing indexes currently available, which focus on exclusionary screening.
NEWS STORY:
Third Carbon Disclosure Project Survey Finds Increasing Action on Climate Change
CDP3, now sponsored by 155 institutional investors with more than $21 trillion in assets, also reveals some significant footdragging by the Financial Times 500 companies.
NEWS STORY:
AccountAbility Cooks Up a New Recipe with Stakeholder Engagement Standards
An exposure draft of new AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standards to be released next week may prove useful to the socially responsible investment community of shareholder activists.
NEWS STORY:
Taking Account of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports
A Pleon survey of CSR reporting finds differing opinions on best practice for report assurance and verification amongst respondents as well as professional experts.
NEWS STORY:
Banks and Financial Service Providers Figure Prominently in FTSE4Good Attrition, DJSI Matriculation
Corporate social responsibility plays an important role at banks and financial service companies, which are not only recipients but also increasingly purveyors of socially responsible investment.
NEWS STORY:
Arthur D Little Study Identifies Trends in Sustainability Innovation
The report finds increasing corporate commitment to sustainability innovation, though it demonstrates room for more growth.
NEWS STORY:
Ethical Investment Research Service Follows Socially Responsible Investing Growth around the Globe
Spawned by the anti-apartheid movement seeking information on companies operating in South Africa, EIRIS has since grown astride with the expansion of SRI.
NEWS STORY:
The Lowdown from Corporate Governance and Proxy Advisory Experts on ISS-IRRC Merger
Implications of the buyout of the Investor Responsibility Research Center by Institutional Shareholder Services on social research and competition in proxy advisory services.
NEWS STORY:
Gap and Nike Engage Stakeholders For Assurance Statements on Sustainability Reports
Sustainability reports, whose credibility is enhanced by such stakeholder engagement and assurance statements, are gaining in significance, as KLD indexes add Nike due in part to its report.
NEWS STORY:
Vigeo-Ethibel Merger Forms New European Socially Responsible Investment Research Firm
The Vigeo Group becomes the largest corporate social responsibility rating agency in Europe, with global operations that the newly-created company plans to expand.
NEWS STORY:
KPMG Finds More Than Half of Fortune 250 Issuing Standalone Sustainability Reports
Surveying the top 250 companies in the Fortune 500, the percentage rises to almost two thirds when considering annual financial reports that address corporate responsibility.
NEWS STORY:
Merrill Lynch and World Resources Institute Analyze Climate Change Investment Opportunities
The jointly-produced report, the first such collaboration between a mainstream US investment bank and a environmentalist nonprofit, breaks new ground by issuing stock recommendations.
NEWS STORY:
Business for Social Responsibility Suggests Improvements to the Global Reporting Initiative
A BSR report surveys 19 member companies on their experience and opinions of sustainability reporting according to GRI guidelines, identifying both strengths and weaknesses.
NEWS STORY:
Canadian Corporate Sustainability Reporting In Its Infancy, Shows Signs of Growth
A lengthy report released yesterday by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada provides a primer on sustainability reporting as well as a statistical snapshot.
NEWS STORY:
The Value of Local Expertise in SRI Research: Jantzi Research Knows Canada
Jantzi Research conducts socially responsible investment research and corporate social responsibility rating and ranking focused on the Canadian market primarily for institutional investors.
NEWS STORY:
Report Ranks Best German Corporate Sustainability Reports
Henkel, adidas-Salomon, Volkswagen, BMW, and Deutsche Telekom rank in the top 10 of the 150 German companies surveyed.
NEWS STORY:
Institutional Investors Call on SEC, Wall Street, and Companies to Address Climate Risk
The second Investor Summit on Climate Risk focused on information, from the perspectives of disclosure, data generation, and analysis, as a key to transforming climate risk into opportunity.
NEWS STORY:
Pharma and Biotech Companies Just Starting to Pass the Transparency Litmus Test
oekom research rates the social and environmental sustainability performance of 27 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and finds disclosure lacking across the board.
NEWS STORY:
Not Just for Corporations: Six Microfinance Banks on Three Continents Use GRI Guidelines
Microfinance institutions in Africa, Asia, and South America are issuing sustainability reports using Global Reporting Initiative guidelines, as are other non-corporate entities such as GRI itself.
NEWS STORY:
Tale of Two Reports: Sustainability Yearbook Compares Extra-Financial to Financial Reporting
Published jointly by Sustainable Asset Management and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the yearbook shows how adding extra-financial data to a financial report increases buy recommendations.
NEWS STORY:
Web Design, Lobbying Disclosure Fuel Co-Operative Bank Win of UK Sustainability Reporting Awards
The award judges distinguished between sustainability and corporate social responsibility reporting, noting that many reports identifying themselves as the former (which are more rigorous) were actually the latter.
NEWS STORY:
Latin American Forest Products Company Illustrates Best Practice Sustainability Reporting
Terranova issues its second Global Reporting Initiative-based sustainability report, exhibiting many exemplary practices such as stakeholder engagement and external verification.
NEWS STORY:
Calvert First SRI Firm to Issue Global Reporting Initiative-Based Sustainability Report
While many small-to-medium-sized enterprises consider sustainability reporting prohibitive, Calvert finds value in doing what it asks publicly traded companies to do.
NEWS STORY:
Report Finds Bank Sector Assessment of Impact on Disadvantaged Communities Lacking
AccountAbility and Business for Social Responsibility to apply their new assessment methodology to the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and extractive sectors next.
NEWS STORY:
UNEP Report Takes First Steps Toward Understanding Slow Consumer Uptake of Sustainability
While advancing interesting findings, the report is marred by lack of adequate documentation.
NEWS STORY:
Rating Corporate Sustainability: Behind the Scenes at Oekom Research
SocialFunds.com visits Oekom Research to get a more in-depth look at corporate social and environmental sustainability research.
NEWS STORY:
Sustainability Reporting Improves, But Falls Short on Linking to Financial Performance
A new benchmarking survey correlates the top 50 corporate non-financial reports to credit ratings, but reports themselves fail to link financial and sustainability performance.
NEWS STORY:
European Utilities Top Oekom Sustainability Rankings, US Utilities Crowd the Bottom
Corporate sustainability rating firm Oekom Research rewards climate change mitigation and enhancing energy accessibility for the economically disadvantaged in its latest report.
NEWS STORY:
Shell and BP Top Innovest CSR Ratings of Integrated Oil and Gas Companies
Marathon and several companies operating in emerging markets sink to the bottom of the rankings of corporate social responsibility performers.
NEWS STORY:
Memo From: SRI Analysts To: Companies--Use GRI Sustainability Reporting Platform!
A coalition of 17 socially responsible investment firms recommends that companies disclose social and environmental data using the Global Reporting Initiative.
NEWS STORY:
EHS Auditors Slow to Take Up GRI
Part two of this two-part article addresses changes Environmental, Health & Safety auditors are making in response to the Global Reporting Initiative.
NEWS STORY:
Sarbanes-Oxley Moves EHS Auditing From the Backroom to Boardroom
Part one of this two-part article addresses changes Environmental, Health & Safety auditors are making in response to Sarbanes-Oxley; part two addresses changes prompted by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
NEWS STORY:
Report Advocates Breaking Down Barriers to Global Corporate Sustainability Reporting
An Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and CorporateRegister.com report tracking sustainability reporting worldwide finds its growth hampered by obstacles.
NEWS STORY:
Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes Add General Electric and Drop Electrolux
The annual change in the DJSI is based on recent assessment of corporate economic, environmental and social performance.
NEWS STORY:
Stakeholder Engagement, Verification, and Transparency in ISO Social Responsibility Standards: An Interview with ISO Secretary-General
International Organization for Standardization Secretary-General Alan Bryden discusses these issues and more in the final installment of this three-part interview article.
NEWS STORY:
ISO and Social Responsibility--A Closer Fit Than You Might Think: An Interview with ISO Secretary-General
International Organization for Standardization Secretary-General Alan Bryden discusses divergences and convergences of ISO technical standards with social responsibility guidelines (part two of a three-part article).
NEWS STORY:
Answering the Market Call for Social Responsibility Standards: An Interview with ISO Secretary-General
International Organization for Standardization Secretary-General Alan Bryden discusses the history and implications of ISO's new social responsibility standards (part one of a three-part article).
NEWS STORY:
Trends in Sustainability Reporting
Part two in this two-part article looks at how the present trends in sustainability reporting project into the future.
NEWS STORY:
A Brief History of Sustainability Reporting
Part one of this two-part article outlines the history of sustainability reporting up to the present; part two projects trends in sustainability reporting into the future.
NEWS STORY:
Auditing Sustainability Reporting
As sustainability reporting increases in significance, so too does the auditing of it.
NEWS STORY:
UK Prepares To Mandate Environmental and Social Reporting
Proposed guidelines for Operating and Financial Review reports require British company directors to discuss the effects of social and environmental issues on business.
NEWS STORY:
Carbon Disclosure Project Report and Greenhouse Gas Protocol Release Second Editions
Climate change initiatives get a significant boost this month with the release of two revised editions of a report and a protocol for addressing global warming.
NEWS STORY:
Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Renault Lead Movement Toward Sustainable Mobility
Two Japanese carmakers rank highest on the environmental rating of Innovest's latest sector report, while two European companies rank highest on the social rating.
NEWS STORY:
Number of US Retail Firms That Oekom Recommends for Sustainable Investment: Zero
Oekom Research finds 15 US-based retail companies insufficiently transparent to recommend for sustainable investment, while five of the top six firms recommended hail from the UK.
NEWS STORY:
Oekom Revamps Its Rating System, Dividing Companies According to Transparency
Oekom Research now provides Outside Ratings for companies with insufficient transparency to qualify for the more robust Inside Ratings.
NEWS STORY:
Sustainability Report Awards Reward Disclosure on Environmental, Social Performance
Canada-based Suncor and Dofasco, Texas-based Dell and Kinko's, and Michigan-based Ford win sustainability reporting awards from CERES and ACCA.
NEWS STORY:
Oekom Rates Food and Beverages Industry Average in Sustainability Performance
The example of Starbucks illustrates how Oekom Research rates food and beverage companies as average performers in social and environmental sustainability.
NEWS STORY:
Wisconsin Energy Reaps External and Internal Benefits from Social and Environmental Reporting
Wisconsin Energy won accolades for its Global Reporting Initiative-based report, which also raised internal awareness of social and environmental performance.
NEWS STORY:
Report on SRI Research Organizations Characterized as Valuable But Also Controversial
A recent report from SustainAbility, onValues, and Mistra provides valuable insight on SRI research organization methodologies but lacks some needed transparency.
NEWS STORY:
Welcome to the Jungle: CSR Questionnaire Incompatibility Hampers Applicability
A Nordic Partnership report finds wide variance in questions posed in corporate social responsibility surveys, calling into question their comparability and applicability.
BOOK REVIEW:
Book Review--The Corporate Responsibility Code Book
This book is no thriller, but it is indispensable for anyone seeking to grasp the complex landscape of the multitudinous tools that measure corporate social responsibility.
NEWS STORY:
The Rashomon Effect: Why Do Innovest and Oekom Rate Toyota's Environmental Performance So Differently?
A Japanese film may help investors understand the discrepancy between the environmental ratings of Toyota by Innovest and Oekom.
NEWS STORY:
Film Depicts Environmental and Social Reporting Disappearing in SEC Black Hole
A documentary film by environmental attorney Sanford Lewis reveals the SEC's failure to enforce its rules requiring companies to disclose environmental and social liabilities.
NEWS STORY:
Underreporting of Material Environmental Liabilities Persists
Despite clear documentation of the problem, multiple solutions proposed, and petitioning to enhance enforcement, corporate underreporting of material environmental liabilities continues.
NEWS STORY:
Survey Says: NGOs Believe Corporate Social Responsibility Reports That Reveal Faults
In a recent survey, nongovernmental organizations say they believe CSR reports that disclose noncompliance, poor social or environmental performance, and big challenges.
NEWS STORY:
Corporate Governance Ratings Take Different Approaches to Produce Similar Results
GovernanceMetrics International rates corporate governance in relation to other companies, while Institutional Shareholder Services rates in relation to market indexes.
NEWS STORY:
Members of Congress Consider Social and Environmental Disclosure in SEC Filings
A group of Senators and Representatives summoned a symposium on the need for social and environmental disclosure by companies in their SEC filings.
NEWS STORY:
AccountAbility Launches Assurance Standard for Corporate Responsibility Reporting
Investors and other stakeholders stand to benefit from the standardized verification of corporate reporting on social, environmental, and economic performance.
NEWS STORY:
Corporate Social Responsibility Rating Agencies Balance Standardization and Differentiation
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) rating agencies are struggling to balance the need to standardize CSR ratings with the need to differentiate their ratings from competitors'.
NEWS STORY:
SRI Ratings Need Greater Independence and Standardization, Says New Dutch Guide
A new guide from Holland profiles 28 SRI rating agencies from around the world and recommends greater independence, standardization, and transparency in SRI research.
NEWS STORY:
SEC Urged to Strengthen Rules Governing Corporate Disclosure of Environmental Risks
The Rose Foundation is petitioning the SEC to require more comprehensive disclosure of environmental liabilities, allowing investors to assess the potential effect on shareowner value.
NEWS STORY:
Companies Skirt Disclosure of Environmental Liabilities
New study echoes social investors' call for the SEC to strengthen its rules regarding corporate disclosure of environmental liabilities.
NEWS STORY:
New French Law Mandates Corporate Social and Environmental Reporting
French social and environmental rating agency offered both kudos and criticism for a new law requiring French companies to disclose social and environmental performance.
NEWS STORY:
Swedish Foundation Reports on Socially Responsible Asset Management and Research
MISTRA, a Swedish environmental research foundation, recently released a report that assesses asset managers and research firms as its first step toward adopting socially responsible investing principles.
NEWS STORY:
Benchmarking Corporate Environmental and Social Reporting
Recent survey examines the environmental and social reporting practices of the 100 largest global firms.
NEWS STORY:
Major UK Fund Manager to Require Environmental Reporting
Institutional investors are increasingly seeing the need for environmental disclosure.
NEWS STORY:
SEC Asked to Enforce Its Environmental Disclosure Rules
Socially responsible financial firm and international think-tank believe shareholders need more information about their companies' environmental risks.
NEWS STORY:
Wal-Mart’s First Sustainability Report: Just a Gesture or a Just Account?
Many call the biggest retailer’s sustainability report a good first step on a long road.
NEWS STORY:
Wal-Mart’s First Sustainability Report: Just a Gesture or a Just Account?
Many call the biggest retailer’s sustainability report a good first step on a long road.
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