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Education NEWS STORY: OPPORTUNITY FINANCE Book Review-Good Policies For a Great America, published by Opportunity Finance Network A new collection of essays on the impact and possibilities of the opportunity finance industry is a guidebook for the next President and Congress. 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 BRIEF: PHILANTHROPY Charities Should Match Investments to Missions Says 83% of Public Survey finds the majority of the public expects charities to invest ethically. INTERVIEW: Sunshine is the Best Disinfectant: Shareholder Activists Promote Corporate Transparency SocialFunds writer Bill Baue speaks with Sanford Lewis of the Investor Environmental Health Network on his shareholder activism promoting corporate disclosure NEWS STORY: GREEN SECTORS The Very Rich Green Their Portfolios With European and Middle Eastern investors leading the way, high-net-worth investors are putting their money into green technologies and alternative energy sources. NEWS BRIEF: RESPONSIBLE INVESTING UN PRI Stresses Disclosure Principles for Responsible Investment considers expelling firms who don’t follow disclosure requests. NEWS STORY: INSITUTIONAL INVESTOR MANAGEMENT STRAGETIES Mainstream Fund Managers Vary Widely on Social Responsibility Even as more fund managers accept the impact of environmental, social, and corporate governance issues on performance, the application of responsible investment practices is hit or miss with most mainstream firms. INTERVIEW: Bob Monks: ExxonMobil Exemplifies Corpocracy SocialFunds writers Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon interview corporate governance advocate Bob Monks about his shareholder activism at ExxonMobil and his new book, Corpocracy. INTERVIEW: Shelley Alpern on How Tar Sands Perpetuate Petro-Addiction SocialFunds writer Bill Baue speaks with Shelley Alpern of Trillium Asset Management about its shareholder activism on oil company exploitation of tar sands. NEWS STORY: CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Principled Companies Praised Ethisphere Magazine publishes its second annual list of the World's Most Ethical Companies. NEWS STORY: SUSTAINABILITY Envisioning the Sustainable Supply Chain Innovative collaborations between suppliers, retailers and consumers need to be forged so future supply chains support businesses and the environment. INTERVIEW: STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Michael Conroy on Activist Campaigns and the Certification Revolution SocialFunds writer Bill Baue speaks with Michael Conroy about his new book, Branded! How the “Certification Revolution” is Transforming Global Companies NEWS BRIEF: The Toxic 100: New Report on Polluting Companies Hopes to Empower Communities and Shareholders Index of top corporate air polluters updated in new report from researchers at the University of Massachusetts. NEWS STORY: The Toxic 100: New Report on Polluting Companies Hopes to Empower Communities and Shareholders Index of top corporate air polluters updated in new report from researchers at University of Massachusetts. INTERVIEW: Abolishing Child Labor on West African Cocoa Farms Mil Niepold of Verité on the International Cocoa Verification Board and Bama Athreya of the International Labor Rights Forum on the Commitment to Ethical Cocoa Sourcing. INTERVIEW: SHAREOWNER ADVOCACY ICCR Defines the Past, Present, and Future of Shareowner Activism Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility Executive Director Laura Berry speaks with SocialFunds.com about transformative changes in shareowner activism. NEWS STORY: SCREENING B Corporations: Verified Sustainability B Labs takes the guesswork out of which companies are actually working for the future. NEWS STORY: SCREENING,SHAREHOLDER ACTIVISM,COMMUNITY INVESTING SRI Assets Surge Ahead New socially responsible investing study reports one dollar out of every nine dollars under professional management is invested responsibly. INTERVIEW: ENVIRONMENT: BUSINESS TRENDS Joel Makower on the GreenBiz.com State of Green Business 2008 Report GreenBiz founder talks about the inaugural report, which surveys the top 10 green business stories of 2007 and introduces the GreenBiz Index. NEWS STORY: CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP New Survey Uncovers Discrepancies on Corporate Citizenship Issues There is gap between what executives say on corporate citizenship and what their corporations actually do, finds a survey of over 750 executives. NEWS BRIEF: SRI INDUSTRY NEWS New SIF Board Chair Elected The Social Investment Forum recently named Cheryl Smith as its new board chairperson. NEWS STORY: PERSONAL FINANCE Top Five Socially Responsible Investing News Stories of 2007 New alternative energy and green funds fuel expansion of socially responsible investing; climate change is pushed to the forefront; community development organizations flourish despite the subprime mortgage debacle; consumers demand healthy products and work environments; and SEC limits shareholder rights. NEWS STORY: PERSONAL FINANCE Whistling Past the Graveyard—Socially Responsible Investing and the Financial Crisis SRI thought leaders analyze the potential impacts of the widespread economic downturn caused by the subprime meltdown and deflating dollar. NEWS STORY: FINANCIAL PRODUCTS Socially Responsible Investing Branches Out Over Asset Classes A handbook published by Boston College's Institute for Responsible Investment outlines how managers can diversify socially responsible investments. NEWS STORY: SHAREOWNER ADVOCACY SEC Sacrifices Shareholder Rights to Achieve Temporary Certainty Instead of reaffirming shareholder rights to file resolutions to nominate directors, the SEC cites uncertainty as a rationale for stripping these rights. NEWS STORY: Environmental, Social and Governance Standards: Glass Half-Empty or Half-Full? The spread of voluntary and mandatory ESG disclosure and performance standards for business raises the question, how robust is implementation and enforcement? NEWS STORY: Launch of Five Climate Change Funds May Enrich Investors, But Won't Save the World Deutsche Bank, F&C, HSBC, Schroders, and Virgin Money launch climate funds, a trend that validates the role of finance in addressing--though not solving--global warming. NEWS STORY: Corporate Operations in Burma Fuel Human Rights Abuses, Say Shareowner Activists Shareowner letters to Chevron and Total criticize the piping of revenues to the Burmese regime, while the Norwegian Pension Fund defends its decision not to divest from Total. NEWS STORY: Emissions Trading Commodifies Carbon, But Does It Really Help Solve Climate Change? Proponents of carbon trading see markets as the best mechanism for reducing emissions, while critics characterize carbon trading as a devil's bargain that steers profits to polluters. NEWS STORY: Contracting Human Rights? Ruggie Teams with IFC on Study Empirical research conducted by John Ruggie and the International Finance Corporation examines if foreign investment contract clauses enable human rights violations. NEWS STORY: The Subprime Meltdown and SRI: Engage, Avoid, Predict Shareowner activists engaged banks on predatory lending long before the subprime crisis climaxed, and SRI research predicted the meltdown in time to avoid some impacts. 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. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review-World Inc: How the Growing Power of Business is Revolutionizing Profits, People and the Future of Both Author Bruce Piasecki argues that better products will help make a better world as companies face the "S" frontier. NEWS STORY: To Avoid Risk of Alien Tort Claims Act Cases, Companies Must Improve Human Rights The first-ever corporate ATCA verdict of not guilty does not diminish the ongoing liabilities companies face in US courts for human rights violations committed overseas. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review-A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking and the Business Solution for Ending Poverty Phil Smith and Eric Thurman offer a primer on microcredit for businesspeople who want the best bang for their charitable bucks. NEWS STORY: SEC Chair Cox Votes For Two Opposing Proxy Access Proposals--Both May Curtail Shareowner Rights Republican commissioners support a proposal barring shareowners from nominating directors; Democrats support one allowing it, though it introduced other reductions in shareowner power. NEWS STORY: Twenty Diverse Companies Make the Sustainability Cut With some help from KLD, SustainableBusiness.com releases their 6th annual Sustainable Business 20 List: The World's Top Sustainable Stocks. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy Author Hazel Henderson's exhaustive survey of the sustainable business landscape serves as a perfect primer on green economics and tracks lesser-known trends and developments. 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: Brundtland Report Celebrates 20th Anniversary Since Coining Sustainable Development Part one of this two-part article examines how the Brundtland Report has promoted sustainable development over the past two decades. NEWS STORY: Principles For Responsible Investment Quadruples Assets in First Year The United Nations sponsored Principles for Responsible Investment is only one year old, but have already reached $8 trillion plus in assets and expect to keeping on growing. NEWS STORY: Fidelity Divests Large Chunk of Sudan-Related Holdings Despite similar pressure from Sudan divestment activists, Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway retain holdings in PetroChina, which is linked to genocide in Darfur. NEWS STORY: Opening Up Pandora's Box: SEC Proxy Roundtable Questions Role of Non-Binding Resolutions SEC officers and panelists discuss the possibility of removing non-binding resolutions from the proxy and replacing them with online communications between shareowners and companies. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Deep Economy: The Wealth Of Communities And The Durable Future Author Bill McKibben's latest book helps lay the groundwork to create a more livable and viable world in which less is actually better. NEWS STORY: Yes and No: Newmont Recommends Voting For One Resolution, Petitions SEC to Omit Another The actions span the gamut of corporate responses to shareowner resolutions on environmental, social, and governance issues, from wholehearted support to forceful opposition. NEWS STORY: Corporate Social Responsibility: Perfect Playing Field for Tipping Points and Cognitive Frames The Lifeworth review of CSR developments in 2006 fuses two popular concepts on social beliefs and change to promote personal, corporate, and societal transformation. 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: Porter and Kramer Framework Melding CSR with Business Strategy Wins Harvard Award The Harvard Business Review grants the 2006 McKinsey Award to an article arguing companies create competitive advantage by integrating social and environmental issues into core strategy. NEWS STORY: Carbon Offsets: Modern-Day Indulgences to Assuage Carbon Guilt or Market Mechanism for Supporting Clean Energy Even as they gain popularity as a climate change solution, carbon offsets have come under considerable criticism for diluting action on global warming--the truth likely resides between these extremes. NEWS STORY: The World's Poor: Huge Market or Just a Marketer’s Fantasy? New report from the International Finance Corporation and World Resources Institute measures the market-size of the Earth's people who live in poverty. NEWS STORY: Shareowner Activism Precedes Development of SRI Slavery Screen Most slavery exists far up the supply chain, and auditing practices do not yet exist to monitor for slavery at second- or third-tier suppliers, so it is too early to enact an enforceable slavery screen. NEWS STORY: Ruggie Report Says Voluntary Human Rights Initiatives Set Stage for Binding Global Standards While the report finds significant flaws with voluntary collaborations between corporations and civil society, they currently fill the gap created by nation-states failing to protect human rights. NEWS STORY: Mutual Funds Inch Toward More Conscientious Proxy Voting on Social and Environmental Resolutions Corporate social responsibility resolutions addressing climate change reveal the increasing complexity of assessing proxy voting records. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The New Capitalists: How Citizen Investors Are Reshaping the Corporate Agenda This book introduces a series of new concepts such as the civil economy, the circle of accountability, and the capitalist manifesto that harness capitalism toward social purpose. NEWS STORY: Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, and UBS Report on Climate Risks and Opportunities for Investing Lehman Brothers and UBS agree climate change represents a market failure for neglecting to price carbon externalizations in valuations, while Citigroup makes specific stock picks. NEWS STORY: Business for Social Responsibility Fuses the Theoretical and Practical to Promote Sustainability SocialFunds.com speaks with Aron Cramer, CEO of Business for Social Responsibility, about past developments in corporate social responsibility and future trajectories of sustainability. NEWS STORY: The Gates Foundation and Mission Related Investing: Room for Alignment? An investigative report into the investment practices of the Gates Foundation has reinvigorated the debate over the obligation of foundations to align their missions with their investments. 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: Inaugural Report Card Grades College Sustainability on Endowment and Campus Efforts The Sustainable Endowments Institute study finds endowment sustainability lagging campus sustainability policies and initiatives. 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: From Competition to Cooperation: Companies Collaborate on Social and Environmental Issues Collaborative initiatives bring together companies, investors, and activists to address issues such as online freedom of expression, climate change, and labor rights in the global supply chain. 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: Study Links Options Backdating to Corporate Governance Weaknesses Harvard Professor Lucian Bebchuk and colleagues use a new method of identifying CEO and outside director manipulation of stock option timing and assert correlations to governance problems. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Make Poverty Business: Increase Profits and Reduce Risks by Engaging with the Poor The co-authors provide a blueprint for on-the-ground managers of multinational corporations to create sustainable profits and reduce country risk by helping alleviate poverty. NEWS STORY: Top Five Socially Responsible Investing News Stories of 2006 Green investing booms, microfinance pioneer wins Nobel Peace Prize, shareowner democracy increases, resolutions receive record votes, and UN launches Principles of Responsible Investment NEWS STORY: Launch of Three New Clean Tech Indexes Culminates Banner Year for Green Investing The three Jefferies Global Clean Technology Indexes join the half-dozen green indexes introduced this year. 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: Rainforest Action Network Seeks to Stem Flow of Financing to TXU Coal Project Part two of this two-part articles addresses how RAN sent a letter to 54 banks urging them to withhold funding from a TXU plan to build 11 pulverized coal-burning power plants in Texas. NEWS STORY: TXU Shareowners File Three Resolutions Questioning Wisdom of Pulverized Coal Plants Part one of this two-part article examines how shareowners are raising environmental and regulatory concerns over the TXU coal expansion plan, as well as environmentally preferable alternatives to coal such as energy efficiency. NEWS STORY: Swedish Government Facilitates Corporate Responsibility A SocialFunds.com interview with Elisabeth Dahlin, Ambassador, Head of Global Responsibility, Sweden. NEWS STORY: Institutional Investors in France Foresee Continuing Growth of Socially Responsible Investing A Novethic survey tells some of the story behind the numbers documented in the September 2006 Eurosif report on the growth of SRI in Europe. NEWS STORY: Retailers Improve on Keeping Violent Video Games Out of the Hands of Children An Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility report also identifies several areas where the seven companies examined stand to improve performance--predominantly on disclosure. NEWS STORY: Another Clean Energy Exchange Traded Fund to Launch First Trust Advisors is slated to introduce an ETF that tracks the NASDAQ Clean Edge US Liquid Series Index early next year. NEWS STORY: Marriott Combats Child Sexual Exploitation Shareowner engagement by Boston Common Asset Management and the First Swedish National Pension Fund prompts Marriott to explicitly address child sex tourism in its human rights policy. NEWS STORY: How to Do Sustainble Banking BankTrack, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations promoting social and environmental responsibility in the finance sector, issues a guide to best practices in sustainable banking. NEWS STORY: Eight Percent of Fortune 500 Taking EPA Challenge to Double Their Green Energy Use Fortune 500 companies are installing renewable energy generation on-site as well as purchasing green power directly or through renewable energy certificates. NEWS STORY: Pharma Companies Need to Keep Improving AIDS Response, Says ICCR and Nigerian Doctor Chukwumuanya Igboekwu of Physicians for Social Justice adds his own critiques to the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility study on pharmaceutical industry shortcomings in addressing AIDS. NEWS STORY: The Growth of Green Building Funds A new urban green real estate fund from Revival Fund Management exemplifies a budding trend toward private funds capitalized by accredited investors. NEWS STORY: Ecosystem Depletion Presents Businesses with Risks and Opportunities Four prominent environmental and business organizations report on the business risks and opportunities associated with ecosystem crises such as climate change and water scarcity. 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: New Exchange Traded Fund Tracks Domini 400 Social Index Barclays Global Investors launches the iShares KLD 400 Social Index ETF. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage The plethora of real-life examples of corporate environmental initiatives is where readers will find value in this book from two authors associated with Yale. NEWS STORY: Dear Sir or Madam: Stakeholder Letters Push Corporate Sustainability Improvements Letters remains an important mode for addressing environmental, social, and governance issues, encompassing a broader swath than simply communication between shareowners and companies. 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: Study Finds Corporate Political Donations Increase Share Price, But Ignores Potential Risks The academic paper documents up to six percent annual return increase when companies support more candidates, but it neglects to address rising legal risks of donations being defined as bribes. NEWS STORY: Merrill Lynch Uses CDFI Assessment and Ratings System on $93 Million Community Investment While many investors use the CARS ratings as secondary information in their community investment decisions, Merrill Lynch will use it as its primary underwriting tool. NEWS STORY: KLD Fills Gap in Socially Responsible Investing by Launching Equity Income Index The KLD Dividend Achievers Social Index, created in partnership with Mergent, provides a new option for passive investment vehicles in this previously underdeveloped asset allocation in SRI. 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: Two New ETFs Fight Climate Change: One Bridges Shift to Cleaner Energy, One Pushes Cleantech The PowerShares WilderHill Progressive Energy Portfolio and the PowerShares Cleantech Portfolio offer investors increasing choice for investing in climate change solutions. NEWS STORY: Pax World Drops Zero Tolerance Screens on Alcohol and Gambling SocialFunds.com speaks with Pax World CEO Joe Keefe about changes approved today, including the addition of governance, climate change, and human rights screens. NEWS STORY: Winslow Conservation Index Outperforms the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 Winslow Management Company back-tested five-year performance of 15 companies focused on conservation, an oft-overlooked component of the alternative energy equation. NEWS STORY: PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Get Cs on Report Card for Ten Percent Recycled Content in Bottles The report, conducted by the As You Sow (AYS) Foundation and the Container Recycling Institute, graded the ten other beverage companies D- and F on recycling. NEWS STORY: Votes for Social and Environmental Resolutions Rising, But Proxy Firm Support Still Lagging Over a quarter of social and environmental resolutions topped 15 percent support this proxy season, but proxy advisory firm recommendations supporting such proposals remain low. NEWS STORY: (PRODUCT) RED Combats HIV/AIDS by Funneling Portions of Sales to the Global Fund Gap Inc commits half of profits from its RED-branded product line to the Global Fund, exemplifying this new business model for generating sustainable funds for addressing the AIDS pandemic. NEWS STORY: Nobel Prize Links Microfinance to Peace The granting of the Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank breaks new ground by explicitly linking economic development to peace development. NEWS STORY: Blue Funds to Invest in Companies that Support Democrats The two new funds seek to capitalize on research that finds that Democrat-supporting companies significantly outperform Republican-supporting companies. 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: Microfinance Crosses Continental Divide with $100 Million Commitment from TIAA-CREF TIAA-CREF inaugurated its Global Microfinance Investment Program by purchasing from ProCredit Holdings $43 million in private equity shares, a new strategy in microfinance. 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: New Socially Responsible Investing Portfolios Offer Alternatives to SRI Mutual Funds Investment advisors can now offer retail clients separate accounts tracking seven different indexes, and a new index is geared toward high net worth individuals with Catholic values. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: The Business Case for Diversity DiversityInc presents compelling anecdotal evidence supporting the business case for diversity as well as copious empirical evidence, some of which is marred by editorial oversights. NEWS STORY: Why Aren't We Here Yesterday? A Conversation with Social Investment Forum CEO Lisa Woll SocialFunds.com speaks with Lisa Woll as well as SIF President Tim Smith about the new CEO position and the future direction of SIF and socially responsible investing generally. NEWS STORY: BP, John Deere, Goldman Sachs, and Allianz Among Renewable Energy Award Winners The third annual award ceremony, sponsored by Euromoney and Ernst and Young, took place during the Renewable Energy Finance Forum. NEWS STORY: Emerging Markets Emerging as Socially Responsible Investing Opportunities A report by the Ethical Investment Research Services examines 50 emerging market companies using various SRI screens, and finds a number of possible plays. 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: Pennsylvania Treasurer Keys into Clean Tech Investing and Green Screens Keystone Green Investment Strategy commits state to $40 million in green private investments, $50 million shifted to managers investing in clean tech, and environmental screening. 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: Academic Joins Shareowners in Advocating Corporate Lobbying Reform Yale University Professor Bob Repetto issues paper calling for companies to rapidly adopt best practice on corporate lobbying, including oversight and approval by independent directors. NEWS STORY: Court Affirms Shareowner Right to File Resolutions on Proxy Access for Nominating Directors The decision, which simply upholds existing rules that SEC practice had departed from, fills the void left when the SEC proposed then abandoned a rule on proxy access for nominating directors. 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: Barclays Files for Permission to Launch iShares ETF Tracking the Domini Social Index The exchange-traded fund will likely have a low expense ratio, but will not conduct shareowner engagement like the other fund tracking the DSI, the Green Century Equity Fund, does. NEWS STORY: The Ratio of Greed: Report Pierces Numbing Numbers of Executive Excess United for a Fair Economy and Institute for Policy Studies publish 13th annual study examining CEO compensation, which continues its upward trend while worker pay stagnates. NEWS STORY: Pax World and Citizens Announce Engagement The marriage would consolidate two leading socially responsible investing firms with primarily complementary offerings. NEWS STORY: Hydropower Stocks as an Alternative Energy Play Phaethon and Creative Investment Research recommend hydro to gain exposure to the energy boom, contending new technologies offer potential for reducing environmental impacts. NEWS STORY: Green Century Equity Fund Seeks Shareowner Okay to Continue Tracking Domini Social Index Green Century also announced its intention to lower the expense ratio for the fund with aim of enlarging the fund's investor base. NEWS STORY: How Insurers Are (and Are Not) Tackling Climate Risk in Underwriting, Investing, and Policies A new report from Ceres identifies almost 200 activities recently introduced by insurers to address climate change, but calls on the industry for further action. 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: Domini Shareowners Approve Shift from Index Tracking to Active Management The transition carries implications for investors, such as capital gains taxes, which Domini is strategically mitigating. NEWS STORY: EPA Workers Want SRI Funds in Retirement Plan, But Congress Drags Its Feet on Bill A 2005 survey finds almost all Environmental Protection Agency employees want socially responsible investing options, while a Bill adding a SRI option languishes two years in committee. NEWS STORY: ICCR Benchmarks Pharma Responses to AIDS and Diseases of Poverty in Emerging Markets The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility report assesses 15 pharmaceutical companies, and finds all of them falling short of best practice in most areas on AIDS and neglected diseases. NEWS STORY: Alternative Energy Revolution Fueled by New Fund Launches Despite Sector Downturn The launch of the Guinness Atkinson Alternative Energy Fund testifies to optimism about the sub-sector echoed by the launch of the first renewable energy hedge fund by Ardsley Partners. NEWS STORY: Calvert and Ford Foundations Help Launch Public Radio Fund to Democratize the Airwaves The foundations jointly seeded $4.5 million in the revolving loan fund administered by Denver-based Public Radio Capital to provide low-interest loans to public radio projects nationally. 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. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--International Documents on Corporate Responsibility A comprehensive compendium of important codes on corporate social responsibility. 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: Biofuels May Not Be Sustainability Panacea, According to Bank Sarasin Report The report identifies strengths and weaknesses of biofuels from social and environmental perspectives, as well as positing minimum sustainability criteria to qualify for investment. 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: First Socially Responsible Investing Portfolio Devoted to Diversity Launched Minority-owned Creative Investment Research conceived of the portfolio to promote corporate diversity while targeting women and minority investors for economic empowerment. NEWS STORY: The Pages of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility Books addressing climate change dominate the fourth annual SocialFunds.com Summer Reading List recommended by socially responsible investing and corporate social responsibility leaders. NEWS STORY: Nuns and Priests File Depleted Uranium Bunker Buster Resolution at Three Weapons Companies The resolution goes to vote next week at Alliant Techsystems, and already received more than double the support needed to re-file next year at Lockheed Martin and Textron. NEWS STORY: Survey Examines Nomenclature and Numbers Fueling SRI and Extra-Financial Research The fourth annual survey from Thomson Extel and the UK Social Investment Forum looks beyond the numbers to assess the role of language in promoting uptake of SRI research. NEWS STORY: Trillium Takes the Reins from Winslow in Managing the Green Century Balanced Fund The transition in portfolio managers has shifted the fund back to its roots as a core portfolio holding by reducing risk and diversifying holdings across the multi-cap space. NEWS STORY: Filing Resolutions at Mutual Funds: The Next Frontier for Shareowner Activism? Eight years after the Northwest Corporate Accountability Project first filed an environmental shareowner resolution, it will finally go to vote at the Merrill Lynch Global Allocation Fund. NEWS STORY: Parnassus Small Cap Fund Identifies Unique Sustainability Characteristics to Outperform Russell 2000 While the introduction of the Parnassus Workplace Fund a year ago piqued interest, the Parnassus Small Cap Fund unveiled at the same time is turning heads with strong financial performance. 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. NEWS STORY: Survey Reveals TIAA-CREF Investor Desire to Up Commitment to SRI TIAA-CREF promises to respond to participants, of whom over three-quarters prioritize social and environmental considerations in investing choices. 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: Revised Equator Principles Fall Short of International Best Practice for Project Finance While some observers praise the strengthening of labor rights, others decry the failure to implement adequate transparency, accountability, and governance mechanisms. 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: Missouri Farmers Union Credit Union Supports Sustainability in Low-Income Rural Areas The new credit union supports cooperative entrepreneurial models that advance social responsibility and environmental sustainability in low-income agricultural regions. NEWS STORY: Assessing Job Creation as a Social Indicator Correlating to Financial Performance A new study from Switzerland-based Pictet & Cie argues that job creation eclipses all other labor issues as a key indicator of corporate social responsibility, and measures its impact on returns. NEWS STORY: Recycling 1.2--Dell, HP, and Apple Upgrade Takeback Programs to Slouch Toward Sustainability The Computer TakeBack Campaign applauds the improvements while mapping the long road the computer industry still has to travel to attain true sustainability. NEWS STORY: Does Trucost Measurement of Corporate Carbon Footprints Reduce Environmental Impacts? Trucost ranks the carbon intensity in UK portfolios, arguing for overweighting companies with lower carbon footprints to reduce ecological impact while maintaining performance. NEWS STORY: Sending Funds Home to Mexico Just Got Cheaper for Latino Community Credit Union Members The Durham, North Carolina-based community development credit union will charge a flat $3 fee, use the exchange rate set by the Fed, and allow recipients to set up accounts in Mexico. NEWS STORY: Missouri Treasurer Implements Anti-Terrorism Screen on State Fund The screen excludes Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism, not necessarily as a genocidal regime, distinguishing this strategy from other Sudan-related state divestment strategies. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Shareholder Participation and the Corporation: A Fresh Inter-disciplinary Approach in Happiness Australian Law Professor James McConvill applies empirical research on happiness to corporations, specifically focusing on the case it makes for shareowner empowerment. NEWS STORY: Semantics and Semitics: Presbyterian Church Investment to Focus on Israeli-Palestinian Peace A recommendation approved by the church General Assembly apologizes to Jews and refines language while reaffirming commitment to corporate engagement with divestment as last resort. NEWS STORY: Correlating Proxy Advisory Firm Recommendations with Voting Results A look at the link between recommendations by Institutional Shareholder Services, Glass Lewis, and PROXYGovernance and voting results at Citigroup, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Wal-Mart. NEWS STORY: Norwegian Government Pension Fund Dumps Wal-Mart and Freeport on Ethical Exclusions The $230 billion global fund--one of the largest pension funds in the world--cited Wal-Mart for systematic human rights violations and Freeport for serious environmental damage. 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 NEWS STORY: Why Do Minorities Receive More Subprime Mortgages? Can You Say, Kickback? A new Center for Responsible Lending study shoots holes in industry rationale that bad credit histories of African-Americans and Latinos account for disproportionate subprime mortgages. NEWS STORY: Winslow and Jupiter Launch Global Green Fund Using Only Positive Environmental Criteria The Jupiter Green Investment Trust pioneers cross-continent collaboration and evolution from negative screening to positive sustainability criteria. NEWS STORY: Corporate Shenanigans: Companies Dis Shareowners at Annual Meetings Home Depot exemplifies a phenomenon of companies manipulating annual meeting protocols to disempower shareowners, following in the footsteps of Weyerhaeuser, Whole Foods, and others. 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: Bank of China International Investment Managers Launches First SRI Fund in China The fund combines quantitative screening with qualitative assessment on issues such as corporate governance and social responsibility, but it is unclear how it will handle human rights. NEWS STORY: The Numbers--and the Stories Behind Them--on Community Development Financial Institutions CDFI Data Project recently released the most comprehensive report on the CDFI industry, with statistics documenting CDFI growth and case studies illustrating positive social impacts. NEWS STORY: Wainwright Bank and Equal Exchange Partner to Offer the First Branded Certificate of Deposit This new branded CD model is particularly suited to socially responsible banks, companies, and investors, as the increased social returns can counterbalance the slightly higher financial risks. NEWS STORY: Survey Starts to Pry Open Black Box of University Endowment Holdings and Proxy Voting The survey, conducted by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, finds the vast majority of universities and colleges veiling their holdings and proxy voting records in secrecy. 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: Domini Fund to Shift from Indexing to Active Management Domini Social Investments proposes shifting the Domini Social Equity Fund from tracking the Domini 400 Social Index to being actively managed by Wellington Management. NEWS STORY: Listmania! Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility Lists Drive Improved Performance CSR lists take the old adage--what gets measured gets managed--one step further by spotlighting the ranking process, thereby encouraging better corporate social and environmental performance. NEWS STORY: Using the Same Tape Measure: MicroRate To Launch Tool for Rating Microfinance Funds The rating tool, a project supported by Gray Ghost Microfinance Fund, Omidyar Network, and Gates Foundation, is yet another step toward establishing microfinance as a distinct asset class. NEWS STORY: Ecological Community Loan Pool Directly Links Ecologically Minded Investors to Eco-Preneurs The portal created by Ecostructure Financial tweaks the community development financial institution model to allow investors to lend directly to startups solving environmental problems. NEWS STORY: Japanese Fund First to Track KLD Global Climate 100 Index The construction methodology of the Global Climate 100 distinguishes it from other clean energy indexes, and distinguishes this fund from other Japanese eco funds. NEWS STORY: Chemical Companies Unprepared to Reduce Toxicity for European REACH Regulations An Ethical Investment Research Service report finds on Akzo Nobel advanced in preparation for REACH, while an Innovest report debunks industry claims that the rules will cripple them. NEWS STORY: Amgen Recommends Support for Political Donations Resolution, Bolstering Broader Campaign The Center for Political Accountability, which coordinates the political contributions campaign, released a report on trade association contributions that previews its 2007 proxy season strategy. NEWS STORY: Hog Manure Fertilizes Improvements in Environmental Management at Smithfield Foods Fines for Clean Water Act violations and a lawsuit settlement spur Smithfield to clean up its act and move toward environmental leadership, but it still has a way to go to complete a turnaround. NEWS STORY: Digging for More than Gold: SRI Letter Asks Newmont to Address Western Shoshone Concerns The letter cites a recent decision by the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to support Western Shoshone claims. NEWS STORY: Another Clean Energy Index Launches to Capitalize on Transition from Dependence on Fossil Fuels The NASDAQ Clean Edge US Index joins several other recently launched clean energy indexes tracking solar photovoltaic, biofuel, wind, and fuel cell companies. NEWS STORY: Confirming the CalPERS Effect: Academic Study Links Shareowner Activism to Financial Gain Examining companies targeted for governance reform by the CalPERS Focus List, the study presents data correlating activism to increasing shareowner value as well as cautionary notes. NEWS STORY: Proxy Season Report Geared to Foundations Helps Others Navigate Proxy Landscape As You Sow Foundation and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors report allows for stepping back by providing a useful overview as well as an in-depth look at behind-the-scenes dialogue. NEWS STORY: Student-Managed Socially Responsible Investing Fund Outperforms the Market The faculty advisor to the Arnone-Lerer SRI Fund at Villanova University attributes a quarter of the outperformance to environmental, social, and governance factors. NEWS STORY: Investor Environmental Health Network Addresses Product Toxicity Through Safer Alternatives The network is coordinating 11 shareowner resolutions addressing product toxicity at companies such as Avon, Becton-Dickinson, CVS, Dow, DuPont, and Whole Foods Market, among others. 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. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Values-Driven Business: How to Change the World, Make Money, and Have Fun The first in the Social Venture Network book series provides loads of anecdotal advice on how to establish a values-driven business, but little on how to retain social responsibility in a buy-out. NEWS STORY: Voting Recommendations on Shareowner Resolutions Vary Widely at Proxy Advisory Firms Part one of this two-part article compares Institutional Shareholder Services, Glass Lewis, and PROXY Governance vote recommendations on resolutions at Citigroup and Chevron. NEWS STORY: Wal-Mart Discloses Equal Employment Opportunity Data The company joined six others in the S&P 100 that publicly disclose their EEO-1 report, but Wal-Mart still faces shareowner action on union-busting and selling gems mined in Burma. NEWS STORY: Enterprise Social Fund First to Tap Corporate Community for Community Investing The fund partners Enterprise Community Partners, which will manage the portfolio, with Deutsche Bank, which will seek investment from socially responsible companies and individuals. NEWS STORY: New Analysis of Sustainability Risks and Opportunities in Developing Asian Markets New report from ASrIA and IFC seeks to bring consideration of environmental, social, and governance factors into investment decisions in developing Asian markets. NEWS STORY: Is Contrarian Investing Consistent With or Contrary to Socially Responsible Investing? SRI practitioners say that the contrarian focus on long-term prospects and overall health of a company suggest yes, while its focus on timing suggests maybe no. NEWS STORY: Bush Administration Proposes Axing Equal Opportunity Survey The survey gathers tenure-track and compensation information by gender and race that is unavailable elsewhere, prompting socially responsible investors and others to oppose the move. NEWS STORY: Common Good Bank Advances One Branch of Community Investing Evolution The bank promotes the common good by distributing excess profits to the community and by making all lending and spending decisions through participatory democracy. NEWS STORY: Analysis Advocates Strategic Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility McKinsey Quarterly provides in-depth analysis of its January 2006 survey documenting increasing executive interest in CSR, a finding correlated by an American Society for Quality poll. 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: Corporate Action on Climate Change Improves Over Past Three Years, But Still Insufficient A report from Ceres benchmarks corporate governance on climate change, finding steady gains by leaders while some laggards leapfrog toward the top and other laggards stagnate at the bottom. NEWS STORY: White House and Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility Address Pediatric AIDS Bush Administration launches a new public-private partnership on Pediatric AIDS, an area where ICCR engages pharmaceutical companies in shareowner advocacy. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Responsible Investment An impressive and wide-ranging list of contributing writers advance a balance between elucidating the strengths of socially responsible investing while also exposing its weaknesses. NEWS STORY: Facing Campaign on Farm Working Conditions, McDonald's to Heed Independent Study Results The Coalition of Immokalee Workers urges McDonald's to improve farm working conditions, which the company is addressing through a study by the Center for Reflection, Education, and Action. NEWS STORY: Cost of Clean Energy Decreases to Compete with Its Dirtier Counterparts, According to Report The Clean Edge report surveys clean energy, documenting market growth, strong stock performance, and expansion of venture capital investment, as well as projecting future trends. NEWS STORY: Thirty Years and Counting: Cofounder Wayne Silby Recounts the Birth of Calvert To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Calvert, SocialFunds.com speaks with co-founder Wayne Silby about its genesis, development, and future. NEWS STORY: A Serendipitous Match: Davis Advisors Takes Over MMA Praxis Core Stock Fund The portfolio holding of Wal-Mart exemplifies (oddly enough) how both Davis Advisors and MMA Praxis emphasize the importance of stewardship and shareowner empowerment. NEWS STORY: FTSE4Good Semi-Annual Review Boots 16 US Companies on Environmental Criteria Of the 19 deletions, only one company was dropped due to human rights (instead of environmental) criteria, and all but three deletions were US-based companies. 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: Whole Foods Market Gags Shareowners at Annual Meeting A leader on corporate social responsibility, Whole Foods lags on corporate governance by stymieing shareowner democracy. NEWS STORY: Sudan Presents Investment Risk as Genocidal Regime and State Sponsor of Terrorism Socially responsible investing research provider IdealsWork Financial now offers data from Conflict Securities Advisory Group on corporate exposure to human rights abuses in Sudan. 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: SEC Forces Chevron, Dow, and CVS to Include Shareowner Resolutions on Their Proxies Part two of this two-part article examines no-action activity thus far in the 2006 proxy season, focusing on attempts to apply the personal grievance rule and expand a new risk assessment rule. NEWS STORY: Resolution Withdrawals Signal Success in Shareowner Advocacy Early in 2006 Proxy Season Part one of this two-part article examines withdrawal of resolutions on climate change, sexual orientation nondiscrimination, political contributions, and HIV/AIDS policies. 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. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders in a Global Environment The book maps the landscape of CSR, advocates a strategic approach taking global stakeholders into account, and presents a wealth of case studies to illustrate its points. NEWS STORY: State Laws Effectively Curb Predatory Lending Without Stifling Subprime Market, Study Finds The Center for Responsible Lending study rebuts opponents of state anti-predatory lending laws, and suggests significant implications for the two competing anti-predatory bills now in Congress. NEWS STORY: Bank Policies Fail to Meet International Social and Environmental Standards, Report Says The 39 banks assessed fall far short on global sustainability standards, and fail to disclose enough information on implementation to even be assessed by NGO coalition BankTrack. NEWS STORY: Evergreen Solar and Energy Conversion Devices Rated Outperformers in Piper Jaffray Solar Report The report continues a trend of mainstream equity research using socially responsible investing strategies, and SRI funds confirm this assessment through wide exposure to these two companies. NEWS STORY: Defining Corporate Complicity in Human Rights Abuses Business and Human Rights Seminar report maps the landscape of corporate complicity in human rights abuses, and addresses the dichotomy of mandatory laws versus voluntary codes. NEWS STORY: Opening the Umbrella of Socially Responsible Investing to Include Energy Efficient Mortgages Indigo Financial Group promotes energy efficient mortgages, which have long been available through a Fannie Mae program but have yet to reach their market potential. NEWS STORY: IT Company Collusion with Chinese Authorities to Repress Free Expression Shorts Shareowner Value Boston Common Asset Management submits testimony to congressional hearings asserting that protecting shareholder value and respecting human rights are not mutually exclusive mandates. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality & Insecurity The revised and updated edition of this text (originally published in 2000) examines how excessive executive compensation contributes to the widening gulf between rich and poor. 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: Two New Indexes Help Wean Us From Oil Addiction Via Clean Energy and Cleantech The WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index tracks clean energy companies internationally, while the Cleantech Index tracks cleantech companies in the US. NEWS STORY: Shareowner Action on Product Toxicity Shifts from Isolated Resolutions to Become a Campaign Fueling this development is the increasing visibility of product toxicity in the news, with the Environmental Protection Agency issuing record fines. NEWS STORY: KLD and ISS Offer Research Tools for Divesting from Sudanese Genocide and Terrorism The KLD tool focuses narrowly on the Illinois law mandating divestment from companies doing business with the Sudan; the ISS tool focuses beyond divestment and on other state sponsors of terrorism. NEWS STORY: Using Mutual Fund Proxy Voting Data to Promote More Conscientious Voting The final installment of this multi-part series steps back to consider the implications of the findings and how to harness them to push mutual funds to support corporate social responsibility. NEWS STORY: Two Sides of the Same Coin: Surveys Track Growth of Interest in CSR and SRI Part two of this two-part article focuses on a survey by McKinsey Quarterly on increasing interest from global corporate executives in corporate social responsibility. NEWS STORY: Two Sides of the Same Coin: Surveys Track Growth of Interest in SRI and CSR Part one of this two-part article focuses on a survey by Mercer Investment Consulting on increasing interest from institutional investors in socially responsible investing. 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: Social Investment Forum Trends Report Tracks Rises and Falls of Socially Responsible Investing The 2005 report documents increases since 2003 in assets overall in SRI, in SRI mutual funds, and in shareholder advocacy, but decreases in overall screened assets and in screened separate accounts. NEWS STORY: Eroding Support for Shareowner Resolutions on Climate Change Revealed by Unpublished Data In part three of this multi-part article, SocialFunds.com examines unpublished data associated with a recent report on mutual fund proxy voting from The Corporate Library, and finds decreasing support for climate change resolutions. NEWS STORY: In the Year of the Oil Boom, Some SRI Funds Look Elsewhere for Strong Performance in 2005 The top-performing socially responsible investing funds compared to their category peers (SRI and non-SRI alike) drew strong performance from pharma, tech, and financials. NEWS STORY: Whole Foods, FedEx Kinko's Snap up Renewable Energy Credits Renewable energy credits continue to gain ground in North America as FedEx Kinko's and organic supermarket chain Whole Foods Market each announce major new purchasing deals. NEWS STORY: Unpublished Data Clarifies SRI Proxy Voting on CSR Resolutions In part two in this multi-part series, SocialFunds.com examines unpublished data associated with a recent report from The Corporate Library, and finds that statistics are not always what they seem at first glance. NEWS STORY: The Corporate Library Report on Mutual Fund Proxy Voting Finds Stagnation and Even Retreat Part one of this multi-part series discusses the report findings on decreasing mainstream fund support for CSR resolutions; subsequent articles examine unpublished data from the research. NEWS STORY: GE Comes Clean, Disclosing Costs Related to PCB Cleanup on the Hudson The move prompts the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment, which characterized some of these expenditures as delay tactics, to withdraw its shareowner resolution requesting this information. NEWS STORY: Majority-Vote Director Election Shareowner Resolutions To Top 100, Dominate Proxy Season A memo from corporate law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz opines that majority-vote elections will become universal, but shareowners still seek proxy access to nominate directors. NEWS STORY: Wal-Mart Faces Host of Shareowner Resolutions, From Union-Busting to Sustainability Reporting The broad range of resolutions suggests that the sustainability commitments announced by Wal-Mart last year did not convince shareowners that the company has solved all its challenges. 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: Alien Tort Claims Act Lawsuit Alleges Slavery and Child Labor on Liberian Firestone Plantation The International Labor Rights Fund calls this its strongest ATCA case yet because the evidence of forced labor is so clear and Firestone owns and operates the plantation. NEWS STORY: Socially Responsible Property Investment Still on the Drafting Table A blueprint of the fledgling field of socially responsible real estate investment. NEWS STORY: Are European Finance Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives Adequate? A report from a recent EU conference on CSR suggest so, while a Corporate Responsibility Coalition report says voluntary CSR initiatives and current regulation fall short. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism The newest in the Megatrends series advances a framework for conscious capitalism that highlights socially responsible investing. NEWS STORY: Verite Report Identifies Exploitation of Foreign Contract Laborers in Asia and the Middle East The report uncovers placement fees that exceed legal limits, forced overtime, loans with interest rates of up to 60 percent, and so-called runaway insurance deposits that are not refunded. NEWS STORY: EPA Tries to Pull a Disappearing Act on the Toxics Release Inventory In response to the Environmental Protection Agency proposal to dilute TRI, the socially responsible investing community launches the SaveTRI.org website. NEWS STORY: Solar Energy Helps Fuel Socially Responsible Investing Managers from Winslow Green Growth Fund, New Alternatives Fund, and Portfolio 21 discuss the opportunities and challenges of investing in solar power. NEWS STORY: SRI Community Releases Retailer Guidelines to Avoid Violent Video Game Sales to Kids The Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility guidelines address underage exposure to graphic violence, strong sexual content, and racist themes, as well as impact on shareholder value. NEWS STORY: Tool for Tracking Greenhouse Gas Reductions Launched at UN Climate Change Conference The World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World Resources Institute release a GHG accounting tool for projects to complement their existing corporate-wide tool. NEWS STORY: Socially Responsible Investing Advances Anti-Racism in Helping Rebuild New Orleans In addition to supporting community investment and leveraging influence through shareowner advocacy, social investors can help rebuild in the aftermath of Katrina by naming root problems. 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: Australian Report on Globalization of the Mainstreaming of Socially Responsible Investing New report examines how governments worldwide promote the mainstreaming of SRI, focusing on Australian policy options in a way that exemplifies issues facing other governments. NEWS STORY: PROXY Governance Diversifies Proxy Advisory Choice The new proxy advisory firm expands options for fiduciaries. NEWS STORY: First Steps: Corporate Engagement on HIV/AIDS Improves Since Last World AIDS Day Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS Best Practice AIDS Standard represents an important step forward, and companies such as Intel are responding to shareowner dialogue with ICCR. 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: Calvert World Values Fund Tackles Challenges of International Socially Responsible Investing The fund delivers double-digit three-year returns for shareholders while screening for corporate environmental, social, and governance performance in international and emerging markets. NEWS STORY: New International Finance Corporation Sustainability Standards: Watershed or Watered Down? A group of socially responsible investors express concern over perceived shortcomings in the proposed IFC policy revisions, while the IFC points out where the policies break new ground. 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: Fonkoze Helps Transform Microfinance to Reach the Poorest of the Poor in Haiti After convening a summit on how to modify microfinance to serve the extreme poor, Fonkoze adapts a model pioneered by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. NEWS STORY: Radical/Conservative: Innovest Integrates Sustainability Factors into Financial Analysis Innovest Strategic Value Advisors reconciles socially responsible investing research with traditional investment research by fusing social, environmental, and financial considerations. NEWS STORY: Shareowner Empowerment Is Alive and Well: a Preview of the 2006 Proxy Season Part two of this two-part article examines the developing trends in shareowner activism as resolutions are filed for the upcoming proxy season. NEWS STORY: Forging Ahead from the Crossroads: Reviewing the 2005 Proxy Season Part one of this two-part article looks back at this year's proxy season, which was highlighted by majority vote director election proposals while part two previews the upcoming proxy season. 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: Consortium Advances Microfinance as an Emerging New Asset Class The Global Commercial Microfinance Consortium, with its $75 million fund, links mainstream financial institutions to socially responsible investment practitioners with microfinance experience. NEWS STORY: Tearing Down the Great Firewall Social investors issue a statement holding information technology companies accountable for collusion with repressive regimes such as China that stifle dissent expressed on the Internet. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The Challenge to Power: Money, Investing, and Democracy John Harrington compiles voluminous evidence to diagnose what ails modern corporatocracy, and prescribes a comprehensive cure with socially responsible investing playing a key role. 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: Counting Stars: Top Morningstar Ratings Bespeak Strong Performance for SRI Funds Of the 60-odd broadly-screened socially responsible investing funds tracked by SocialFunds.com, three earn 5-star ratings and 12 earn 4-star ratings from Morningstar. 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: Transforming the Myth of Democratic Shareholder Power into a Reality A new paper by Harvard Professor Lucian Bebchuk debunks the myth of shareholder power to replace directors, and recommends reforms that could jumpstart the stalled SEC proxy access rule. NEWS STORY: Wal-Mart Embraces Sustainability: Does the SRI Community Buy It? Socially responsible investors cautiously applaud Wal-Mart for committing to social and environmental sustainability, but remain highly skeptical about actual implementation. NEWS STORY: Community Development Financial Institutions Spread Like Wild Grass in Indian Country First Nations Oweesta Corporation serves as a national umbrella organization providing the structural framework and organizational support to fuel current exponential Native CDFI growth. 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: New Index and Exchange Traded Fund Expose Risks and Potentials in Nanotech The Innovest Nanotech Index assesses social and environmental risks, while the PowerShares Lux Nanotech Portfolio focuses more on investment opportunities. NEWS STORY: Scaling Community Investment: Report Addresses Growth in Community Development Finance An Aspen Institute report serves as the basis of a series of conferences at regional federal reserve banks on how to best scale up community investment. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The False Promise of Pay for Performance: Embracing a Positive Model of the Company Executive According to James McConvill, the problem with perverse executive compensation is not managerial power, as an earlier book suggests, but rather the very pay for performance system. NEWS STORY: Rising Oil Prices Fuel Investment Returns in Renewable Energy for New Alternatives Fund The first environmental mutual fund is also globalizing its reach to capitalize on innovative developments in alternative energies in other countries. NEWS STORY: Moskowitz Prize Winning Study Correlates Corporate Eco-Efficiency and Financial Outperformance The paper finds a significant and positive relationship between Innovest eco-efficiency ratings and both market-based and accounting-based financial performance metrics. NEWS STORY: Divining the Future of Socially Responsible Investing A study commissioned by Vancity Credit Union surveys 42 SRI thought leaders to identify trends, opportunities, and obstacles, as well as potential developments that defy prediction. 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: Changing of the Guard: Vanguard Pulls a Switcheroo on SRI Index Providers Vanguard is swapping the benchmark for its socially responsible investing index fund from the Calvert Social Index to the FTSE4Good US Select Index. NEWS STORY: Spreading SRI: Goldman Sachs Adds Its Own Twist in Social and Environmental Assessment As socially responsible investment strategies migrate into the mainstream, mainstream analysts apply social and environmental considerations in innovative ways. NEWS STORY: ICCR Online Database Eases Access to Information on Shareowner Resolutions EthVest, the new web-based tool from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, provides access to 2,000-plus shareowner resolutions and 12-plus years of shareowner action. 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: GAO Finds Federal Corporate Social Responsibility Programs Widespread But Uncoordinated The Congressional Human Rights Caucus convenes a briefing today to discuss the findings of a Government Accountability Office report on US government initiatives on CSR. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review---An Unreasonable Woman: The True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas Shrimper-turned-grassroots environmental activist Diane Wilson transforms her experience fighting corporate toxic emissions into a literary work of art imbued with the rugged beauty of the Texas coast. 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: Domini Goes Abroad with New European Fund The fund allows US social investors to diversify their portfolios into a region with attractive investment opportunities and corporations with strong sustainability commitments. 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: Community Investment Bridges the Gap from Destitution to Restitution After Hurricane Katrina Predominantly low-income African Americans were barred from crossing the bridge out of New Orleans, but now community development bridge loans are spanning the gulf back to stability. 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: Business Impacts on Millennium Development Goals: A Virtuous Cycle or a Coin Toss? A new World Business Council for Sustainable Development report profiles corporate initiatives to alleviate poverty, but focuses less attention on how business may confound such goals. NEWS STORY: A Next Generation SRI Strategy: The Henderson Industries of the Future Fund By extending to its entire portfolio a focus on ten sustainability industries, Henderson has conceived of a novel approach to socially responsible investing. NEWS STORY: A Semantic Hermeneutics of SRI KLD Research & Analytics Founding President Peter Kinder examines limitations of the term socially responsible investing, and identifies both overemphasized and overlooked distinctions. 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: Blogging SRI SRI Notes and SRI-Extra harness the strengths of weblogs to comment candidly on developments in socially responsible investment as they happen. NEWS STORY: Labor Day List Celebrates Corporate-Union Collaboration The inaugural list launched by American Rights at Work spotlights positive relationships between companies and their workers. NEWS STORY: War Millionaires: Defense Contractor CEO Pay Up 200 Percent Since 9/11 The ratio between CEO and worker pay across the market climbs to 431 : 1, up from 301 : 1 last year, according to a new CEO pay study from United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility David Vogel scrutinizes the business case for CSR and finds no causal link between corporate virtue and profitability, but rather finds a robust niche market for it. NEWS STORY: Toxic 100 Uses Enhanced Toxics Release Inventory Data to List Top Corporate Polluters The Toxic 100 aggregates facility-level TRI data to compute company-wide toxic emissions performance. NEWS STORY: Shareowner Resolution Asks Monsanto to Create Ethics Oversight Committee The company stonewalls inquiries related to the resolution, which springs from a $1.5 million settlement with the SEC and DOJ earlier this year regarding a bribe Monstanto paid in Indonesia. NEWS STORY: Human Rights Site Spotlights Bank Investment in Chinese Manufacturer Linked to Forced Labor The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre posts an article alleging Chinese firm Henan Rebecca uses forced labor, as well as responses from banks implicated through investment for their clients. NEWS STORY: World Bank and IMF: Indicators of Investor Opportunity or Red Flags of Investor Risk? Two academic papers produce empirical evidence that World Bank and International Monetary Fund loan conditions stipulating market reform may prove counterproductive and fuel backlash. NEWS STORY: Social(k) Allows Socially Responsible Investment Retirement Portfolios to More Fully Diversify ExpertPlan administers a 401(k) platform that solves the problem of limited asset class diversification by offering 25 SRI funds from nine fund families than span the spectrum. NEWS STORY: Generation Gap: Young Sell-Side Analysts Fail to Fill Void in Sustainability Research A survey expecting to find the upcoming generation of securities analysts eagerly assessing environmental, social, and governance issues in their recommendations discovers the exact opposite. NEWS STORY: Lack of Human Rights Policy Concerns Chevron Shareowners in Light of Unocal Merger Part two of this two-part article examines the implications of the delay in adopting a human rights policy given the inheritance of Unocal holdings in Burma and Alien Tort Claims Act cases. NEWS STORY: New Document Alleges Tie Between Chevron and Human Rights Abuses in Nigeria Identified in the discovery phase of a case proceeding at state and federal levels, the invoice and receipt indicate Chevron paid Nigerian soldiers for services on a day several villagers were allegedly killed (part one of a two-part article.) 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: CalSTRS Follows Calvert Blueprint to Capitalize on Money Manager Diversity Both CalSTRS and Calvert see efforts to identify emerging money managers as smart business and socially responsible as well. NEWS STORY: Power to the People: Amnesty Launches Grassroots Shareowner Advocacy Program The SharePower program encourages ordinary people to tell institutional investors holding shares in their name to vote for shareowner resolutions supporting human rights. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Profitable Socially Responsible Investing?: An Institutional Investor's Guide An invaluable tool for fiduciaries considering SRI, the book advances original research finding competitive financial performance for positive screening. NEWS STORY: Winslow Green Growth Fund: On the Rise Again Following up on its stellar 2003 performance, the environmentally-focused fund is again significantly outperforming its peers and benchmark. NEWS STORY: Retirement Plans, Fiduciary Duty, and SRI: Complicated But Compatible A paper published in a professional journal establishes the validity of employing socially responsible investing in retirement plans while also outlining the complexities of the practice. 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: Shell Doubles Cost Projections of Sakhalin II, Project Critics Redouble Opposition The largest oil and gas project in the world meets resistance over concerns about its social and environmental impacts, as well as its economic sustainability. NEWS STORY: Oneida Nation Loan to Lakota Fund Marks First Intertribal Community Development Financing While the World Bank Global Fund for Indigenous Peoples covers only developing nations and socially responsible investors have yet to support the Lakota Fund, a fellow tribe fills gap. 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: TIAA-CREF Creates New Director of Social Investing Post But Refrains From Some SRI Strategies TIAA-CREF enhances its proxy voting and practices some community investment, but finds obstacles to supporting community development financial institutions and SRI venture capital. 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: Thinking Outside the Big-Box: Report Suggests Smart Growth for Retailer Siting Decisions Domini Social Investments and Christian Brothers Investment Services provide retailers nine recommendations, examples of best practice and cautionary tales, and helpful resources. NEWS STORY: Appalachian Federal Credit Union Celebrates Silver Anniversary With New HQ With $16 million in assets, AFCU helps counteract poverty in one of the poorest regions of the US by providing fairly priced loans to low-income earners, even those with bad credit histories. NEWS STORY: French Pension Reserve Fund Commits 600 Million Euros to Socially Responsible Investment The fund seeks to drive innovation and best practice through this significant infusion of cash into the European SRI asset management community. 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: New KLD Index Benchmarks 100 Global Companies Proactively Addressing Climate Change While the G8 agreement on climate change may amount to hot air, the KLD Global Climate 100 Index will allow investors to support high-profile large-cap companies as well as little-known small caps actively mitigating climate change. NEWS STORY: Chicago Climate Exchange Prepares 4-year Extension There are now over 100 members in the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). NEWS STORY: Sustainable Summer Reading Experts in the SRI and CSR arenas offer their recommendations for books to take on vacation this summer. NEWS STORY: Annual LOHAS Survey Finds High Consumer Interest in Corporate Responsibility LOHAS represents a quarter of the US population, according to surveyor Natural Marketing Institute. NEWS STORY: The Calvert Group Funds Film on Social Entrepreneurs Airing on Public Broadcasting System One segment of the film profiles Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered the microcredit model promoted by Calvert Foundation and other community investment advocates. NEWS STORY: Panning for Gold: Principle Profits Applies Socially Responsible Investing to Microcaps Massachusetts firm examines financial, social, and environmental performance to identify future winners. 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: Women's Equity Mutual Fund Supports Businesswomen Through Screening and Now Microfinance Subadvisor Walden Asset Management provides research on how companies treat women, and Blue Orchard Finance provides a new securitized product supporting microfinance institutions. NEWS STORY: The Power of Three: SJF Ventures Sets Precedent in Community Development Venture Capital SJF and its partners won all three award categories at the annual conference of the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance, which promotes economic, social, and environmental advancement. 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: Mount Holyoke First US College to Dedicate Fund Exclusively to Community Investment While other schools have devoted some funds to community investment, this move by the Massachusetts-based women's college sets precedent and may lead to its use of other SRI strategies. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The Next Sustainability Wave: Building Boardroom Buy-In Longtime IBM Canada executive authors a sequel book, adding new sustainability drivers and providing a comprehensive tool for convincing management to consider sustainability. NEWS STORY: Nuclear Power: Still an Environmental Scourge or Now a Climate Change Mitigator? Despite prominent environmentalist opinions that low greenhouse gas emissions of nuclear power eclipse its problems, socially responsible investment funds still screen nukes out. 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: Gabelli Asset Management Launches SRI Hedge Fund Focused on Catholic Values The fund uses short-selling and merger arbitrage strategies, and screens out companies involved in abortion, contraception, stem cells, and pornography, as well as the top 50 defense contractors. NEWS STORY: Report Equips Investors With Tools To Analyze Climate Risk in Uncertain Policy Atmosphere Investor Network on Climate Risk and World Resources Institute team up on a report that provides a framework for valuating climate risk in the absence of regulatory clarity. NEWS STORY: As HIV/AIDS Migrates Beyond Africa to Other Emerging Markets, So Too Do Business Risks Concern over HIV/AIDS-related business risks is also shifting from the socially responsible investment community to the mainstream investment community. NEWS STORY: Students and States Seek to End Genocide in Sudan Through Divestment Campaigns Students urge Stanford University to follow in the footsteps of Harvard University by divesting, and urge California senators to pass legislation like Illinois did. NEWS STORY: Sustainable Asset Management Signs On to Eurosif Transparency Guidelines Although SAM already practices comprehensive disclosure, its fulfillment of the European Social Investment Forum guidelines reveals the strengths and weaknesses of standardization. NEWS STORY: Microfinance and Donor-Advised Fund Provide Tsunami Relief A Grameen Foundation USA report examines barriers and opportunities for using microfinance as tsunami relief, and the Calvert Foundation funnels donations to tsunami-ravaged Sri Lanka. NEWS STORY: The Ghost of a Shareholder Resolution Haunts ExxonMobil Annual Meeting Despite an unprecedented 28 percent vote for a first-year climate change resolution and strong support for seven others, the censoring of a resolution quashes shareholder democracy. 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: Catching a Rising Knife: Sophia Collier Manages the Citizens Value Fund Whereas former portfolio manager Shelly Meyers tried to catch falling knives, Ms. Collier shifted to a more conservative strategy that has generated much better returns. NEWS STORY: LISC Commits $300 Million to Preserve Affordable Housing for Low-Income Earners The Local Initiatives Support Corporation will work with its affiliates, the National Equity Fund and the Community Development Trust, to counteract expiration of affordable housing subsidies. 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: IFC Urged to Include Corporate Screens and Address Climate Change in New Standards A group of socially responsible investment practitioners recommends revisions to new International Finance Corporation social and environmental sustainability standards. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The Bhopal Reader: Remembering Twenty Years of the World's Worst Industrial Disaster A collection of primary and secondary sources spanning the twenty-year quest for corporate accountability from Union Carbide and now Dow for the 1984 chemical leak that killed thousands upon thousands. 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: Virgin Trees in Kleenex: Greenpeace Lambasts Kimberly-Clark Fiber Sourcing Between 15 and 30 percent of K-C tissue products fiber originates from the Canadian Boreal Forest, according to a Greenpeace report, and only 19 percent of its fiber is recycled. NEWS STORY: Long-term Performance of 15 Year-Old Domini 400 Social Index Helps Validate SRI Since its 1990 inception, the DSI has outperformed the S&P 500, helping quash the widespread perception that socially responsible investing automatically underperforms. NEWS STORY: Report Asserts Shareholders Have The Right To Know More About DuPont PFOA Liabilities The report documents information on perfluorooctanoic acid, a Teflon ingredient associated with human health hazards, which DuPont withheld from federal regulators and investors alike. NEWS STORY: Newly-Launched Funds Advance the Maturation of Socially Responsible Investment Calvert launches two fund of funds comprised of existing Calvert funds across a range of asset classes; Domini releases load-share clone of flagship fund for use by commission-based brokers. NEWS STORY: JPMorgan Chase Environmental Policy Triggers Tipping Point for US Bank Sustainability The JPMC policy surpasses environmental best practice established by Citigroup and Bank of America in some areas, but also lags these sustainability leaders in others. NEWS STORY: Parnassus Workplace Fund Launches Today, Along With New Small- and Mid-Cap SRI Funds While many socially responsible investment funds assess workplace criteria, the Parnassus fund is the first to lead with this issue. 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: Study Argues Less is More in Socially Responsible Investment Research The proposed method may correlate environmental sustainability to financial performance well, but the radical reductionism seems ill-suited to a field that thrives on diversity of approaches. NEWS STORY: Measuring Social Returns on Community Development Venture Capital Investment The Community Development Venture Capital Alliance releases the Measuring Impacts Toolkit, which attempts to quantify social returns from community investments. NEWS STORY: Weyerhaeuser To Screen Shareholder Questions at Annual Meeting Tomorrow Shifting from the standard open-mic Question and Answer format, the CEO will act as gatekeeper for shareholder questions, a practice viewed by shareholders as restricting their rights. NEWS STORY: CARS Hits the Road: First Seven Community Development Financial Institutions Rated The National Community Capital Association CDFI Assessment and Rating System has another 11 ratings in the works, and expects to by fully operational by 2007. NEWS STORY: Vermont Issues Call to Investment Managers for Environmentally Sustainable Portfolio Request for Information asks investment managers about their positive and negative screening practices as well as financial performance, particularly of environmentally sustainable portfolios. NEWS STORY: SRI Funds Vote Proxies More Conscientiously Than Conventional Funds on Corporate Governance A study on proxy voting by socially responsible investment and conventional funds finds SRI funds voting against management more often on social, environmental, and governance issues. NEWS STORY: Ecuadorian Attorney General Tells ChevronTexaco Shareholders Remediation Agreement May Be Invalid The questionable validity of the remediation agreement indemnifying ChevronTexaco could carry implications for the lawsuit and beyond (part three of a multipart article). NEWS STORY: Asphalt Jungle: Did Oil Drilling by Texaco Create Environmental and Social Harm in Ecuador? Both ChevronTexaco and lawsuit plaintiffs are finding evidence of contamination during judicial site inspections: the question is, does it pose human health or environmental risks? (part two of a multi-part article.) NEWS STORY: Oil Spread Upon the Waters of Ecuador May Return Harm for ChevronTexaco Shareholders A shareholder delegation surveys the environmental and social impact of oil operations, assessing potential risk from a twelve-year old lawsuit in its judicial inspection phase (part one of a multi-part article). NEWS STORY: Globalizing Corporate Citizenship: An Interview with Center for Corporate Citizenship Executive Director Bradley Googins At the recent CCC annual conference in Boston, SocialFunds sat down with Dr. Googins to survey the roadmap for increasing the uptake of corporate citizenship. NEWS STORY: New SRI Managed Account Uses Options to Capitalize on Market Ups-and-Downs The socially responsible investment team at Piper Jaffray screens the new Redwood Account, which applies the covered options strategy of Kelmoore Investment Company. NEWS STORY: Campus Activists and Alumni Donors Want Proxy Voting and Endowment Holdings Disclosure While some US colleges and universities are enhancing endowment transparency and engaging in socially responsible investment, most oppose disclosure and are also retreating from SRI. NEWS STORY: To Screen Or Not To Screen?: That May Not Be The Question For Fiduciaries Part two of this two-part article examines the opportunities and limitations that social and environmental sustainability screens present to pension funds and other institutional investors. NEWS STORY: Shareowner Activists on Sustainability Take Baby Steps Into Sustainability Screening Part one of this two-part article surveys the landscape of US public pension fund screening of corporate social and environmental sustainability. NEWS STORY: Caterpillar Bulldozes Shareowner Concern Over Aiding Alleged Israeli War Crimes Caterpillar faces a shareowner resolution as well as a lawsuit filed by the family of peace activist Rachel Corrie that cites the Nuremberg Tribunal as precedent in alleging war crime complicity. NEWS STORY: Coffee, Tea, or . . . Liqueur? Pax World Alcohol Screen Forces Reluctant Divestment from Starbucks While Pax World applies a zero tolerance alcohol screen, other socially responsible investment firms set thresholds for retailers based on the percentage of revenues derived from alcohol sales. NEWS STORY: Faith-Based and Environmentalist Shareowners Withdraw Climate Change Resolutions at Six Companies The six oil and gas companies commit to measure, mitigate, and disclose data related to global warming, and evangelicals join their faith-based compatriots in concern over climate change. NEWS STORY: Wanted: Socially Responsible Real Estate Investments An academician searches for socially responsible real estate investment trusts, finding few that fit the definition, as well as disagreement over what criteria define SRI REITs. NEWS STORY: EPA Expands Program Recognizing Corporate Environmental Performance Environmental Protection Agency Performance Track Program certifies a new crop of company facilities, honors company-wide performance, and serves as an indicator for SRI research. 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: US Representatives Introduce Anti-Predatory Mortgage Lending Bill The bill, based on an effective North Carolina anti- predatory lending law, and is supported by anti-predatory lending activists such as the Center for Responsible Lending and Fair Finance Watch. NEWS STORY: A Mainstream Investment Strategist Comes Home to Socially Responsible Investment Adam Seitchik views his move from Deutsche Asset Management, where his team managed $60 billion in assets, to Trillium Asset Management, which manages around $1 billion, as upward mobility. NEWS STORY: Biting the Hand That Feeds: Mutual Fund Ties to Corporate Clients Can Affect Proxy Voting Study reveals that individual mutual fund firms do not alter proxy voting whether companies are clients or non-clients, but fund firms with more clients tend to vote and adopt voting policies favoring management. NEWS STORY: Taco Bell Agrees to Pay Florida Tomato Pickers A Penny More Per Pound to End Boycott Shareowner activists will also withdraw their resolution if parent company Yum! Brands agrees to join agricultural supply chain working group to address industry-wide reform. NEWS STORY: Comparing Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase Policies: Which Stems Illegal Logging in Indonesia? Before providing funding, financial institution policies requiring documentation certifying legitimate timber sourcing may help promote sustainable logging in Southeast Asia. NEWS STORY: Campaign to Enhance Pharma Industry Accountability Broadens Shareowner Action The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility sent letters to over 2,750 institutional investors seeking support for three resolutions filed at nine pharmaceutical companies. NEWS STORY: Community Credit Union Brings Hope to Low-Income Residents of the Mississippi Delta Hope Community Credit Union launched a $15 million initiative supported by corporate investment and New Markets Tax Credits to promote economic justice in the Mid-South. NEWS STORY: Carrots and Sweets: Tying Executive Remuneration to Extra-Financial Performance Indicators A report from Henderson Global Investors and Universities Superannuation Scheme finds incentives for extra-financial performance tied to short-term instead of long-term indicators. NEWS STORY: MMA Praxis International Fund Buoyed by Strong Performance in Global Markets Growth is concentrated in sectors and companies that are excluded by social and environmental screens. 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. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Corporations and the Public Interest: Guiding the Invisible Hand Steve Lydenberg eloquently describes corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investment, fields in which he is an expert, and recommends mechanisms to fuel their trajectories. NEWS STORY: Binding Resolutions and Coordination Circumvent Structural Limitations of Shareowner Action A preview of the 2005 proxy season reveals tactics that challenge the systemic imbalance of power favoring corporate management and directors over shareowners. NEWS STORY: Deafening Silence: Corporate Political Contribution Non-Disclosure Impacts Shareowner Value A Center for Political Accountability report documents corporate secrecy on political donations, and a Common Cause report reveals how mutual funds fail to support contribution transparency. NEWS STORY: Bush Budget Ghettoizes 18 Community Development Programs, Slashing Their Funds Community development advocates criticize the proposed budget for fiscal year 2006, as the consolidated programs will have to compete with one another for a smaller pool of funds. NEWS STORY: First Australian and Israeli Socially Responsible Investing Indexes Launched The Maala SRI Index goes live on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and both the Australian SAM Sustainability Index and the RepuTex SRI Index will launch imminently down under. NEWS STORY: Mixed Messages and Flip-Flops as the SEC Director Nomination Rule Stagnates While the SEC retracts its promise to allow shareowners to file director nomination resolutions, lawsuits secure shareowner rights to nominate directors. NEWS STORY: Benchmarking Corporate Governance on Product Toxicity and Safer Alternatives The benchmark, released by the Rose Foundation today, addresses the scientific uncertainty of product toxicity through risk assessment and opportunity identification instead of inaction. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Cause for Success: 10 Companies that Put Profits Second and Came in First The profiles present a wealth of information supporting the claim that corporate social responsibility can enhance profitability, but little information critiquing this claim. NEWS STORY: Academic Study Links Predatory Lending to Increased Risk of Foreclosure Prepayment penalties increase the risk of foreclosure by 20 percent, while balloon payments raise the risk to almost 50 percent, according to the University of North Carolina study. NEWS STORY: Speaking From Both Sides of the Mouth: The Art and Science of Corporate Tax Avoidance Three reports--by a US tax watchdog, a pair of US academics, and a UK socially responsible investment firm--find troubling trends in corporate tax strategies. NEWS STORY: Community Investment Surpasses the $1 Billion Mark at The Rock The Prudential Financial Social Investment Program, one of the oldest community investment programs in the country, has distributed more than $1 billion before its 30th anniversary. NEWS STORY: List of Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies Highlights Alcoa, BP, and Toyota Canadian corporate social responsibility magazine Corporate Knights sponsored the list, which is based on sustainability ratings from Innovest Strategic Value Advisors. NEWS STORY: Two Socially Responsible Investment Exchange Traded Funds Launch The iShares KLD Select Social Index Fund seeks broad diversification and low risk, while the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio ETF invests in renewable energy companies. NEWS STORY: Reigning In Raines on Bonuses Based on Earnings Before Restatements With restatements of financial earnings reaching record levels in 2004, the question arises whether executive bonuses based on incorrect earnings statements should be recalculated. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Faith and Fortune: The Quiet Revolution to Reform American Business Fortune magazine writer Marc Gunther documents the growing link between spiritual values, which he defines broadly to include sustainability, and business conduct. NEWS STORY: Pax World Tells Its Shareowners That Market Timers Hit Its High Yield Fund in 2003 In a letter to shareowners, Pax said it believes the market timing differed from the abusive forms associated with the mutual funds scandal and that shareowners did not suffer any material losses. NEWS STORY: World Economic Forum Report Finds Decreasing Corporate Awareness and Response to AIDS The report also finds an increase in companies adopting HIV/AIDS policies, a trend confirmed by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS. NEWS STORY: Monsanto $1.5 Million Fines for Genetic Engineering Bribe Illustrates Risks of GE Strategy The penalties, levied by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, may lend credence to a shareowner resolution asking Monsanto to report on GE risks. NEWS STORY: Enhanced Analytics Initiative Picks Sell-Side Brokerage Houses with Best Intangibles Research EAI awards seven firms and three runners-up for outstanding sell-side analysis of corporate social and environmental issues. NEWS STORY: World Economic Forum and AccountAbility Report on Mainstreaming Responsible Investment The report, based on three roundtables convened by the report sponsors, is particularly illuminating in representing attitudes and perceptions toward social and environmental issues of roundtable participants from the mainstream investment community. NEWS STORY: ConocoPhillips Bows Out of Arctic Power, Green Century Withdraws ANWR Resolution The oil company left the group lobbying to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a year ago and neglected to inform resolution filers, who were nonetheless pleased with the development. NEWS STORY: Top Five Socially Responsible Investing News Stories of 2004 Shareowner engagement shifted from confrontational to collaborative, sustainability analysis fused with financial analysis, and fiduciary duty expanded to include social and environmental issues. NEWS STORY: Addressing the Israel-Palestine Conflict Through Shareowner Action and Selective Divestment Part two of this two-part article examines the Presbyterian Church USA's policy of "phased, selective divestment" and the Episcopal Church's decision to study the issue before responding. NEWS STORY: To Divest or Not to Divest: Ethical Considerations of Addressing the Israel-Palestine Conflict Part one of this two-part article examines across-the-board divestment from companies profiting off Israeli policies that harm Palestinians, and the case against divestment. 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: Dell and Starbucks First Companies to Endorse Calvert Women's Principles The two companies publicly commit to implement the code in their business practices, setting a precedent for other companies to follow in promoting parity for women in business. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Capitalism at the Crossroads: The Unlimited Business Opportunities in Solving the World's Most Difficult Problems According to author Stuart Hart, sustainable global enterprise holds the key to reducing poverty, reversing environmental destruction, and even counteracting terrorism. 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: Unocal Alien Tort Claims Act Case Settlement Boosts Corporate Accountability Some interpret the settlement between the energy company and Burmese villagers as setting a practical precedent for holding companies responsible for indirect human rights abuses. NEWS STORY: New Indexes Seek to Link Corporate Governance and Diversity to Financial Performance A DiversityInc index and joint FTSE-ISS indexes try to answer if diversity and corporate governance, respectively, correlate to financial outperformance. NEWS STORY: Divesting from Genocide: More Conversation with Eric Reeves of the Divest Sudan Campaign In part two of this two-part interview, Mr. Reeves discusses the significance of actions by the investment and legislative communities to address the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. NEWS STORY: Divesting From Genocide: A Conversation with Eric Reeves of the Divest Sudan Campaign In part one of this two-part interview, Mr. Reeves explains why shareowner action and direct dialogue with companies operating in Sudan is not an option in the context of genocide. NEWS STORY: Corporations Fight to Keep Political Contributions in the Closet The Center for Political Accountability expands its campaign by advancing shareowner resolutions asking companies to disclose political donations and to provide a business rationale for them. NEWS STORY: Two Reports Reveal Proxy Votes Rubber-Stamp Management Recommendations One finds the majority of top US mutual funds voting against climate change resolutions, the other finds contradictory proxy by Canadian pension fund managers. NEWS STORY: Ford HIV Report Exemplifies New Shareowner Action Strategy Ford joins Coca-Cola, Cinergy, and others heeding shareowner resolutions requesting reporting on social and environmental issues, but it remains to be seen how far the strategy will extend. NEWS STORY: Bhopal, Climate Change Require Shift From Legal Liability to Moral Accountability A report by SustainAbility examines how increasing legal liabilities are blending into moral liabilities, forcing companies to face social and environmental accountability. NEWS STORY: Gap-Verite Collaboration Exemplifies Award-Winning Practice on Social Responsibility Verite wins a Social Capitalist Award for labor standards monitoring such as its work with the Gap, whose Social Responsibility Report earns a Social Reporting Award. NEWS STORY: ICCR Spends World AIDS Day Preparing Shareowner Resolutions for Upcoming Proxy Season This year's resolution has expanded to cover operations in India and China as well as Africa, and ICCR is campaigning for pharma companies to provide better access to medicines for children. NEWS STORY: FTSE4Good Raises the Bar With New Supply Chain Labor Standards Criteria Launched last week, the new criteria allow companies already in FTSE4Good indexes limited time to implement policies, systems, and eventually reporting on supply chain labor standards. NEWS STORY: Enhanced Analytics Initiative Offers Sell-Side Analysts Cash to Cover Intangibles A group of European institutional investors launched EAI to encourage mainstream investment analysts to include issues such as corporate governance and climate change in their research. 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: European Socially Responsible Investment Firms Let the Sun Shine In The European Social Investment Forum releases transparency guidelines covering seventeen socially responsible investment practitioners. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits C. K. Prahalad seeks to solve global poverty by turning the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid from victims of globalization into its beneficiaries through consumerism. NEWS STORY: Integrating Sustainability at Xerox: A Talk with VP for Environment, Health, and Safety Jack Azar In part two of this two-part interview, Mr. Azar discusses how Xerox integrates sustainability into its policies and practices. NEWS STORY: Zero Waste and Industrial Ecology: A Talk with Xerox VP for Environment, Health, and Safety Jack Azar In part one of this two-part interview, Mr. Azar discusses the history of waste-free policies and practices at Xerox. NEWS STORY: Al Gore and David Blood Graft Sustainability Research into Traditional Investing Analysis The former US vice president and the former Goldman Sachs CEO launch a new investment firm whose research team fully integrates sustainability with fundamentals. 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: Paul Hawken Critiques Socially Responsible Investment: Is He On Target or Off Base? A Natural Capital Institute report criticizes SRI for lack of standards and transparency on screening and holdings for shareowner action. NEWS STORY: Graphing Graft: Transparency International Finds Rampant Corruption in 60 Countries The tenth annual Corruption Perceptions Index highlights the acute problem of corruption in oil-rich countries. NEWS STORY: How to Open Your Own Socially Responsible Investment Retirement Portfolio In this real-life profile, an SRI-oriented financial planner advises a 34 year-old woman how to transfer her non-SRI retirement account into a portfolio of SRI mutual funds. NEWS STORY: Is CRA the Right Remedy for Race-Based Disparity in Mortgage Lending? A new study finds significant disparity between lending to minorities versus whites, but a Community Reinvestment Act expert questions the focus on CRA as the cure. 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: SEC Decision on Shareowner Nomination of Corporate Board Directors Still Pending Supporters and opponents of the proposed SEC rule granting shareowner access to the proxy to nominate directors advance their causes while the rule languishes in limbo. NEWS STORY: Moskowitz Prize Study Removes Doubt Over Link Between Strong Corporate Social and Financial Performance The study analyzes over 50 published studies on corporate social performance and corporate financial performance, and finds an unambiguous positive relationship. NEWS STORY: Fonkoze Partners With Zanmi Lasante to Link Microfinance and Health in Haiti The largest microfinance institution in Haiti teams with a renowned community health provider to launch a new bank and hospital in a rural village. NEWS STORY: Socially Responsible Investment Assets On the Up and Up Down Under The Ethical Investment Association in Australia reports that SRI assets have doubled in the three years it has been producing benchmarking surveys. NEWS STORY: Are Electronic Components Producers Ready for Environmental Regulation? A Citizens Advisors study surveys 26 electronics components companies, and projects that many of them will be unprepared for European Union laws taking effect in 2006. NEWS STORY: FDIC Proposes Rule Watering Down Community Reinvestment Act Requirements The SaveCRA.org website promotes opposition to the rule change, posting information and a sample letter to file with the FDIC before the end of the comment period tomorrow. NEWS STORY: Abortion, Sexual Orientation Reveal Diversity of Socially Responsible Investment The umbrella of socially responsible investment encompasses a wide diversity of values, running the gamut from social progressivism to cultural conservatism. NEWS STORY: Book Inspires Symposium on How Governance Codifies Excessive Executive Pay The book is written by Harvard Law Professor Lucian Bebchuk and Berkeley Law Professor Jesse Fried, and the Symposium is hosted by Columbia Law School. 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: Calvert Fills Gap in Small- and Mid-Cap SRI Value Categories With Two New Funds The two new funds add diversification options to the socially responsible investment (SRI) palate. NEWS STORY: Morningstar Grades Mutual Fund Governance, SRI Funds Rate Well Morningstar Fiduciary Grades find relatively few areas of weak performance for those socially responsible investment mutual funds rated. 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: Global Survey of Socially Responsible Investment Finds Information Lacking Questionnaire respondents express frustration over the reliability of social and environmental information on their SRI holdings, and financial planner ignorance of SRI. NEWS STORY: Disclosure: How SEC Proxy Voting Rules May Shift the Definition of Fiduciary Duty Will mandatory disclosure of mutual fund proxy voting records drive change in the general definition of fiduciary duty, or will the principle of undivided loyalty prevent this development? Part two of a two-part article. NEWS STORY: Fiduciary Duty, Undivided Loyalty, and Socially Responsible Investment Performance Does the principle of undivided loyalty preclude fiduciaries from practicing SRI, or will competitive SRI financial performance shift the definition of fiduciary Duty? Part one of a two-part article. NEWS STORY: Apple Added, Time Warner and Petro-Canada Deleted from FTSE4Good Index Series The biannual review of FTSE4Good constituents resulted in the addition of 79 companies and the deletion of 23. NEWS STORY: Blueberries, Bats, and Barns: How Community Investing Aids Small Family Farms The Community Investing Program of the Social Investment Forum and Co-op America honors nine community investment organizations for assisting small family farms. NEWS STORY: Material Risks of Genetic Engineering Undisclosed by Food Companies, Report Says A survey of the 35 largest food processors finds only two mentioning genetic engineering risks in their annual reports, and none analyzing these risks. NEWS STORY: Institutional Investors Can Now Hedge Climate Risk With New Investment Strategy The strategy combines the investment algorithms of State Street Global Advisors with an environmental overlay from Innovest Strategic Value Advisors. NEWS STORY: As Socially Responsible Investment Grows in Japan, FTSE4Good Launches New Index Following on the introduction of the first SRI index by Morningstar Japan last year, FTSE4Good unveils the second SRI index covering the Japanese market exclusively. 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: SEC Asked to Let the Sun Shine on Corporate Political Contributions A group of state and city treasurers and a watchdog group sent letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission requesting mandatory political contributions disclosure. 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: About Face: Cintas Settles Lawsuit and Supports Vendor Standards Resolution In his apology, Tim Smith of Walden Asset Management highlights the need for accurate information, which Cintas promises to supply in the report requested by the resolution. NEWS STORY: Conference Promotes Sustainability Through Corporate Collaboration The Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) Business Innovation for Sustainability Forum calls for cooperation amongst companies as well as with stakeholders. NEWS STORY: New Web Tool Identifies Climate Risk and Opportunity in 24 Biggest Mutual Funds KLD Research & Analytics information reveals both positive and negative corporate performance on climate change, allowing retail investors to lobby their mutual funds. NEWS STORY: First Alternative Energy Index Spawns Exchange Traded Fund The WilderHill Clean Energy Index, published by the American Stock Exchange, will serve as the basis for an exchange traded fund from PowerShares Capital Management. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Corporate Social Opportunity: Seven Steps to Make Corporate Social Responsibility Work for Your Business Book provides extensive real-world examples and hypothetical scenarios to help business people transform corporate responsibility from risks to opportunities. NEWS STORY: As Mutual Funds Prepare to Reveal Proxy Votes, Guideline Disclosure Acts as Acid Test Investor-friendly website accessibility to mutual funds' proxy voting guidelines may signal proxy voting record accessibility and investor-friendly proxy voting. NEWS STORY: Got Water? Report Recommends Solutions for Businesses To Address Water Scarcity A new Pacific Institute report outlines the impacts on business of water scarcity, and offers ten steps companies can take to help solve these problems. NEWS STORY: Tax Cuts Slash Google IPO Capital Gains Payments to $11 Million A new report uses the Google initial public offering to illustrate how tax cuts reward individuals while robbing programs supported by taxes that incubate business success. NEWS STORY: US Banks Criticized for Involvement in China State Bank Bonds Nongovernmental organizations and socially responsible investing firms criticize US banks for selling Chinese bonds that fund socially and environmentally problematic projects. NEWS STORY: First and Largest International Microfinance Bond Issued Grameen Foundation USA joins forces with two socially responsible investment firms to issue a $40 million bond to support microfinance institutions in nine developing nations. NEWS STORY: Handbook Reports on Sustainability Practice in South Africa Trialogue and the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship join forces to create a comprehensive text placing South African sustainability practice in a global context. NEWS STORY: How Do SRI Firms Walk Their Talk When It Comes to Corporate Social Responsibility? Socially responsible investment firms take particulars such as scale and sector into account in their CSR expectations at the companies they own and in their own operations. NEWS STORY: Accuracy of Dow Chemical Statements and SEC Filings Questioned On behalf of two socially responsible investment firms, an environmental attorney asks the SEC to probe the factuality of public statements and filings made by Dow Chemical. NEWS STORY: The Value of Transformation: The Catholic Equity Fund After transforming itself from three actively managed funds into one index fund, the Catholic Equity Fund works to transform corporate practice through shareowner advocacy. NEWS STORY: CRAFund Goes Retail Formerly available only to institutional investors, the Community Reinvestment Act Qualified Investment Fund is now available to individuals through Charles Schwab. NEWS STORY: Climate Change a Nuisance? Nine State and City Attorneys General Bet a Lawsuit On It The first climate change lawsuit against corporations, aimed at the top five US carbon dioxide emitters in the utility industry, cites federal common law on public nuisance. NEWS STORY: Microcredit Development Fund Helps Transform Household Scraps into Sustainable Entrepreneurship The Deutsche Bank Microcredit Development Fund seeks to alleviate poverty worldwide by helping microfinance institutions grow to scale and achieve sustainability. NEWS STORY: Can Corporate Social Responsibility Put the Brakes on HIV in Africa? A field report from Africa by Dan Rosan of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. 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: Keeping Score: The Mathematics and Linguistics of the World Bank Extractive Industries Review World Bank Group management and socially responsible investors interpret EIR recommendations differently. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Raising the Bar: Creating Value with the United Nations Global Compact Primarily a guidebook for companies to navigate Global Compact participation, the book also reports on a study suggesting a Global Compact market premium. NEWS STORY: Sell-Side Analysts Confirm the Materiality of Sustainability Issues in UN Report A United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative report documents belief in the materiality of corporate social responsibility issues by 11 brokerage houses. NEWS STORY: House Votes to Kill Mandatory Expensing of All Stock Options, Sending Bill to Senate The House's passage of the Stock Option Accounting Reform Act reverses Sarbanes-Oxley's commitment to protect independence of FASB as the arbiter of accounting rules. NEWS STORY: Two Socially Responsible Investing Funds Generate Double-Digit Year-to-Date Returns The Ariel Fund and the Pax World Growth Fund perform well in the first half of this year. NEWS STORY: Assets in CDFIs Grew Twice as Fast as Those in Commercial US Banks A new study of community development financial institutions highlights several key distinctions between CDFIs and mainstream financial institutions. NEWS STORY: Senate Calls on the SEC to Enforce Environmental Disclosure Regulations A series of reports issued at a Senate symposium detail how insufficient disclosure of environmental liabilities results from lack of SEC enforcement. NEWS STORY: Harvard Study Correlates Staggered Boards With Lower Shareowner Value Evidence presented in the study suggests that staggered boards do not simply reflect lower firm value, but rather that they bring about lower firm value. NEWS STORY: How HIV/AIDS Impacts Corporations, and How Corporations Can Impact HIV/AIDS The World Economic Forum and the International Labor Organization report on the impact of HIV/AIDS on business, but will companies respond by addressing HIV/AIDS? BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Smart Alliance: How a Global Corporation and Environmental Activists Transformed a Tarnished Brand The in-depth story of how the Rainforest Alliance partnered with Chiquita to improve the company’s social and environmental performance through certification. NEWS STORY: The Responsible Summer Reading List Fifteen recommended books on corporate sustainability and our general welfare 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: Does Supreme Court Validation of Alien Tort Claims Act Apply to Corporations? Human rights organizations say yes, lawyers representing corporations in ATCA cases say no, but the Supreme Court opinion itself remains vague on the issue. NEWS STORY: How Sustainable Is the Asia Pulp & Paper Sustainability Action Plan? WWF Indonesia calls off its partnership with Asia Pulp & Paper after the company fails to implement commitments to end sourcing of illegal timber (part three of a three-part article.) NEWS STORY: Calvert Group Launches Code for Corporations to Profit by Promoting Gender Equality Calvert links equality for women to sustainable development, making the ethical and business cases for implementing its corporate code of conduct for empowering women. NEWS STORY: Community Investment Benefits Middle Income Earners in Los Angeles The Genesis Workforce Housing Fund develops the first institutional investor-backed project promoting home-ownership for middle-income earners in the US. NEWS STORY: Indonesian Forestry and International Finance Move Toward Sustainability A profile of Asia Pulp and Paper and ABN AMRO focusing on their efforts to reverse environmental, social, and financial devastation through sustainable practices (part two of a three-part article). NEWS STORY: How Unsustainable Forestry Practices in Indonesia Impact Sustainable Practice in the US Part one of a three-part article exploring the complex global relationship between sustainable and unsustainable forestry practices. NEWS STORY: Auditing Sustainability Reporting As sustainability reporting increases in significance, so too does the auditing of it. NEWS STORY: Report Finds CSR Policies on the Rise in Asia, Europe, and North America University of Hong Kong survey overturns some assumptions about the development and prevalence of corporate social responsibility policies. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--Profits With Principles: Seven Strategies for Delivering Value with Values Pertinent case studies that illustrate corporate social responsibility best practice abound in this well-structured and well-written book. NEWS STORY: Community Investment Institutions Managed By and Benefiting African Americans Generations Community Credit Union, Carver Bancorp, and UrbanAmerica are three African American managed community investment institutions. NEWS STORY: Rule Proposal Requires Canadian Mutual Funds To Disclose Proxy Votes and Guidelines New Canadian Securities Administrators rule closely resembles the US Securities and Exchange rule. NEWS STORY: The Emergence Story Behind Indigenous Peoples Rights Screens Socially responsible investment firms also engage in shareowner action on indigenous peoples rights issues. NEWS STORY: Governance Overhaul: An Interview with Tyco Corporate Governance VP Eric Pillmore Mr. Pillmore speaks candidly with SocialFunds.com about rebuilding reputation and trust, engaging stakeholders, and increasing transparency. NEWS STORY: US Socially Responsible Investment Indexes Diverse in Style, Study Says A study presented at a recent socially responsible investment conference finds variability in US SRI index construction. NEWS STORY: Are the Equator Principles Sincere or Spin? A report calls into question whether signatory banks are complying with the Equator Principles. NEWS STORY: Sarona Supports Microfinance To Help Alleviate Poverty in Developing Regions The Sarona Global Investment Fund finances starch processing in Paraguay, a foundation supporting small enterprises in Romania, and a savings and loan cooperative in Haiti. NEWS STORY: New SRI Index Optimizes Social and Environmental Performance and Controls Risk The KLD Select Social Index caters to institutional investors by underweighting companies with weak social and environmental performance instead of excluding them. 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: ExxonMobil Mocks Climate Change, Maine Treasurer Finds It No Laughing Matter Senior management remains resolute in its disbelief of climate change risk. NEWS STORY: New Bank of America Policy Sets Best Practice on Climate Change in US Bank Sector Environmentalist organization Rainforest Action Network helps usher Bank of America into the vanguard of US banks improving their environmental responsibility. NEWS STORY: Baker & McKenzie Paper Concludes Social Investing Consistent with Fiduciary Duty The opinion of a major US corporate law firm sets the bar for the fiduciary case for SRI. 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: Matchmaker Boosts FDIC Limit to $5 Million for Community Development Banks A new system allows community development banks to trade portions of deposits, upping the amount covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to $5 million. 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: Dell First US Computer Company to Commit to a Global Recycling Goal In its 2004 Sustainability Report, Dell commits to increase its fiscal year 2005 computer recycling 50 percent over fiscal year 2004 levels. NEWS STORY: ChevronTexaco Faces Class-Action Lawsuit in Ecuador Over Environmental Damage A resolution asking ChevronTexaco to report on new initiatives to address its legacy of environmental damage in Ecuador gained nine percent support from shareowners. NEWS STORY: Daiwa Launches Japan's Newest Socially Responsible Investment Fund The new Daiwa SRI Fund will focus not only social and environmental issues, but also corporate integrity, ethics compliance, and transparency. NEWS STORY: Avon Shareowners Withdraw Two Resolutions Before Annual Meeting Avon agreed to hold annual board of director elections and to phase out phthalates from its products, prompting shareowners to withdraw their resolutions on these two issues. NEWS STORY: Three More Companies Address Climate Risk, So Shareowners Withdraw Resolutions Shareowners withdrew climate change resolutions at Southern Company and TXU, which agreed to issue reports, and at Reliant, which agreed to expand disclosure. NEWS STORY: Jewish Institutional Investors Form Shareholder Engagement Network The Jewish Shareholder Engagement Network is based on the notion that Jewish tradition supports such shareowner action as active proxy voting and dialogue with companies. NEWS STORY: First-Year Resolution on HIV/AIDS Garners Significant Support at Pharmaceuticals The HIV/AIDS pandemic threatens human life and shareowner value, according to a shareowner resolution filed at companies in the pharmaceutical, oil, and beverage sectors. 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: The Diversity of Diversity Best Performance Rankings A comparison of the DiversityInc list of the top 50 companies for diversity and a report from Diversity Best Practice and Business Women's Network that reviews 45 such lists. NEWS STORY: Community Foundations and Community Investment: An Obvious But Underused Link The Vermont Community Foundation recently broke new ground by launching a first-of-its-kind community investment program with the support of the Calvert Foundation. NEWS STORY: Forget Sit Ins: Student Activists Now Promote Socially Responsible Investment Students and alumni from 22 prestigious colleges and universities launch the Responsible Endowment Coalition to urge schools to practice socially responsible investing. NEWS STORY: Tyco Recommends Vote in Favor of Shareowner Resolution, Joining Three Others While companies routinely recommend voting against shareowner resolutions, four companies so far this proxy season have bucked this standard approach. NEWS STORY: Women Directors Rare Even in Developed Economies, According to First Global Study A UK-based socially responsible investment research firm study of companies in global developed economies finds only seven percent of board seats occupied by women. NEWS STORY: Thirteen Pension Funds Call on SEC to Require Disclosure on Climate Change Risk Institutional investors ask the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a clarification that climate change is a material risk which must be disclosed in filings. 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: Stock Option Dilution Rose But Granting Slowed in 2003, Anticipating Mandatory Expensing Right after the Financial Accounting Standards Board called for mandatory option expensing, the Investor Responsibility Research Center released its yearly dilution study. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The Best Business Stories of the Year: 2004 Edition Ethics, disclosure, labor relations, executive compensation, and insider trading are among the topics related to socially responsible investment in this collection of business articles. NEWS STORY: Social and Environmental Best Practice Linked to Financial Outperformance in Electric Sector Innovest releases another sector report correlating progressive social, environmental, and governance practices and policies with financial outperformance. NEWS STORY: Socially Responsible Investment Runs the Gamut on Animal Welfare and Testing Investors who prioritize respect for animals have a range of options, from funds that use shareowner action alone to specialty SRI firms with stringent animal welfare screens. NEWS STORY: Nuke Producer GE Energy Buys Solar Producer AstroPower The GE Energy buyout of AstroPower represents a Catch 22 for social investors, who generally seek to support renewable energy but screen GE for its nuclear production. NEWS STORY: Diversifying Asset Allocation in Socially Responsible Individual Retirement Accounts Diversifying in SRI IRAs can be challenging, as asset allocation in retirement accounts has few steadfast guidelines. NEWS STORY: Into Africa: The Paradox of Socially Responsible Investing in the Developing Continent To support sustainability in Africa, social investors can invest directly outside the SRI community, or else they can pursue community investment and shareowner action. 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: A Passage to India: Report Asks If BT Offshoring Is Socially Responsible A recent report by SustainAbility assesses whether offshoring and corporate social responsibility are compatible, focusing on the case of British Telecom. NEWS STORY: Philips Extends Sustainability Expectations to Suppliers, Including Child Labor Ban In its 2003 Sustainability Report, Philips Electronics introduced provisions requiring its 50,000 suppliers worldwide to practice social and environmental sustainability. NEWS STORY: Business Group Links Social and Environmental Performance with Shareowner Value A recent Global Environmental Management Initiative report adds to the growing body of evidence correlating social and environmental performance with shareowner value. NEWS STORY: Social Investors Urge World Bank to Adopt Extractive Industries Review Proposals If adopted by the World Bank, EIR recommendations could serve as a social and environmental best practice benchmark for oil, gas, and mining companies. NEWS STORY: Corporate Social and Environmental Performance Varies Widely Across Far-East Asia A Kingsway survey finds differences in cultural norms and government policies in East Asian countries dictate diverse corporate social and environmental performance. NEWS STORY: Starbucks Provides Loan Capital for Coffee Farmers Starbucks is providing a $1 million loan to the Calvert Foundation to support microfinance to Latin American coffee farmers, and it answers critics of its Fair Trade commitment. NEWS STORY: Corporate Responsibility Index Launched in Australia A coalition of nonprofit, media, and accounting organizations recently introduced the first index to measure corporate social responsibility in Australia. NEWS STORY: Disney Vote and California Bill May Affect SEC Shareowner Director Nomination Rule The significant withhold vote at Disney and a bill being considered by the California State Legislature may have a bearing on the SEC's proposed rule on shareowner director nominations. 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. NEWS STORY: Report Urges Foundations to Vote Their Proxies Surprisingly few foundations regularly vote their proxies, according to a new report written by the As You Sow Foundation, an advocate of active proxy voting. NEWS STORY: Students Call for More Disclosure on University Hedge Fund Investments Frustrated by the opacity of universities' hedge fund investments in terms of their social and environmental impacts, students request dialogue with hedge fund firm. NEWS STORY: Piper Jaffray Consulting Division Marries Best Asset Managers with Customized Social Screening Socially responsible investment consultant can apply social screens to best asset managers, even if they do not usually practice SRI. NEWS STORY: Critics Challenge Christian Aid Report as Biased, Cynical, and Inaccurate Part two of this two-part article considers defenses of corporate social responsibility against attack by a recent Christian Aid report. NEWS STORY: Report Favors International Regulation Over Voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility A recent report by Christian Aid argues against the voluntary aspect of CSR and for international regulation. Part one of this two-part article discusses support for the report; part two presents criticism of the report. NEWS STORY: Moving From the Business Case for SRI and CSR to the Fiduciary Case The business case for socially responsible investing and corporate social responsibility may not drive individual investors, but the fiduciary case engages institutional investors. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--What Matters Most: How a Small Group of Pioneers is Teaching Social Responsibility to Big Business, and Why Big Business is Listening Seventh Generation CEO Jeffrey Hollender relates the historical development of socially responsible business, revealing its interconnections and assessing its pros and cons. NEWS STORY: Cintas Defamation Suit Challenges Shareowner Free Speech Rights Cintas files a defamation lawsuit against Tim Smith of Walden Asset Management for alleging that the company uses sweatshop labor in Haiti. NEWS STORY: ExxonMobil Contributed Five Percent of Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Last 120 Years Friends of the Earth releases two studies that attribute one twentieth of global climate change to ExxonMobil. The company questions these findings, as it questions climate change. NEWS STORY: French SRI Assets and Funds Grow in 2003 Novethic documents growth in the number of socially responsible investing funds available in France, as well as the amount of SRI assets under management. NEWS STORY: Study Dissects SRI Performance by Different Social and Environmental Factors A Pictet study correlates financial performance with specific aspects of socially responsible investment, such as corporate governance and stakeholder relations. NEWS STORY: Restatements of Annual Filings Continue to Rise While restatements of annual filings are still increasing, overall restatements, including quarterlies, are starting to taper off, according a summary report by Huron Consulting. NEWS STORY: Community Investment Advocates Question Bank of America/FleetBoston Merger Bank of America is responding to critics of its proposed merger with FleetBoston. 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: Sarbanes-Oxley Fails to Kill Corporate Insider Loans, Some of Which Pay Posthumously A new study from The Corporate Library documents the prevalence of insider loans, and the persistence of benefits beyond the grave. 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: Gazing in the Crystal Ball: 2004 Preview of Socially Responsible Investing Performance An overview of the trends that may affect SRI performance in the year ahead, among other issues to mull over when considering socially responsible investment. NEWS STORY: SRI Domestic Equity Funds Edged Out By Their Non-SRI Counterparts in 2003 Socially responsible investment domestic equity mutual funds slightly lagged their non-SRI counterparts, while the Calvert Social Index outpaced the S&P 500 for the year. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--True to Our Roots: Fermenting a Business Revolution Paul Dolan, president of Fetzer Vineyards, promotes sustainable business practices by relating his personal transformation committing to organic growing practices. NEWS STORY: World Economic Forum Survey Projects Mainstreaming of Corporate Citizenship The report credits socially responsible investing, among other trends, for influencing mainstream investors to take corporate citizenship more seriously. NEWS STORY: Robert Zevin, a Father of Socially Responsible Investing Robert Zevin helped establish socially responsible investing by fusing traditional investment theory with social justice advocacy, among many other achievements. NEWS STORY: Shareowner Resolution Calls Costco on Cultural Crimes in Mexican Site Development Shareowners express concern that Costco, which demolished a culturally significant site in Mexico to build a store, may be demolishing its reputation in the process. 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: Many Companies Cannot Verify Whether Their Palm Oil Is Produced Sustainably An ISIS Asset Management report finds that few companies can trace the source of their palm oil up their supply chain to confirm whether or not it is produced sustainably. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea This new book betrays the promises of its title except in its brevity, according to Peter Kinder, president of KLD Research and Analytics. NEWS STORY: The Evolution of Business for Social Responsibility: A Talk with BSR CEO Robert Dunn In a SocialFunds interview, Business for Social Responsibility CEO Robert Dunn discusses how BSR has evolved while CSR has matured over the past decade. 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: Top Five Social Investing News Stories of 2003 The major social investing news stories of the year include SEC reforms, stock exchanges mandating social, environmental, and corporate governance practices, and climate risk assessment defined as a fiduciary duty. NEWS STORY: 2004 Proxy Season Glimpse: HIV/AIDS Shareowner Campaign Shifts from Conflict to Collaboration The 2004 proxy season has commenced with an instance of cooperation between a company and its shareowners (Part two of a two-part article.) NEWS STORY: 2003 Proxy Season Roundup: Shareowner Action Success Measured On and Off the Record While the 2003 proxy season produced some impressive numbers, shareowner advocates also define success in ways that are not easily quantifiable (Part one of a two-part article.) NEWS STORY: Board Pay, Board Say Two new reports assess the past year for directors of corporate boards, examining issues such as director pay, workload, and independence. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--How Does it Pay to Be Green? An empirical study finds a positive relationship between environmental and economic performance when environmental strategies are factored into business decisions. NEWS STORY: Women Sit in Less Than a Seventh of Fortune 500 Board of Director Seats According to a new Catalyst report, women will inhabit less than a quarter of Fortune 500 board director seats by 2023, though regulations and shareowner action may change this. NEWS STORY: Morgan Stanley Study Correlates Sustainability with Financial Outperformance Morgan Stanley's joint study with Oekom Research finds that sustainability leaders in the MCSI World Index financially outperformed sustainability laggards over the past four years. NEWS STORY: From Pallet Shacks to Cinderblock Homes: Microfinance Loans on the Mexican Border CHF/Mexico addresses an acute housing shortage by providing technical assistance and affordable loans to low-income families. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The Sustainable Company: How to Create Lasting Value Through Social And Environmental Performance A new book makes the business case as well as the moral case for sustainability through socially and environmentally responsible business practices. NEWS STORY: UN Institutional Investor Summit Considers Opportunities of Addressing Climate Change Institutional investors make the business case and investment case for assessing, reporting, and mitigating climate change in a summit at the UN (part two of a two-part article). NEWS STORY: Institutional Investors Send Wall Street Wake-Up Call to Address Climate Risk At a UN Summit, state treasurers and other institutional investors issue a ten-point call for action for companies, investment analysts, and fiduciaries to address climate risk (part one of a two-part article). NEWS STORY: Carmakers and Carbon Constraints: Who Will Capitalize and Who Will Cave? A new report assesses ten auto companies’ relative readiness for reduced carbon emissions and increased fuel efficiency regulations in Japan, the EU, and the US. NEWS STORY: Australian SRI Funds Outperform Their Benchmark Over the Short- and Long-Term A new AMP Henderson report finds Australian socially responsible investing outperforms the S&P/ASX 200 over one-, two-, three-, and five-year periods. NEWS STORY: Johannesburg Securities Exchange to Introduce Socially Responsible Investing Index In addition to requiring listed companies to comply with King II codes, JSE is also launching an SRI index based on triple bottom line and corporate governance practices. 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: Socially Responsible Investments Remain Largely Untouched by Late Trading Scandals The SRI industry's long-term investment horizons and ethical underpinnings insulate it from the market timing debacle, though it may be impossible to escape all its effects. NEWS STORY: Innovest’s Eco-Enhanced Portfolios Outperform Their Benchmarks Contra Costa County Employees’ Retirement Association achieves both actual and simulated out-performance by tilting its portfolios using Innovest’s EcoValue21 ratings. NEWS STORY: As, Bs, and Cs: New Rating Tool Grades Community Development Financial Institutions The National Community Capital Association launches CARS: the CDFI Assessment and Ratings System. NEWS STORY: British American Tobacco Reluctantly Exits Myanmar Bowing to pressure from activists and the UK government, BAT sold its interest in its Myanmar operation, though it will continue to license its cigarette brands there. NEWS STORY: European Socially Responsible Investment Retail Funds Increase in Number, Decrease in Assets A recent study reports that the number of European SRI retail mutual funds increased since the end of 2001 while the amounts of assets held by them decreased. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The Soul of Capitalism: Opening a Path to a Moral Economy William Greider’s new book seeks to explain the contradictions between capitalism and social responsibility, and then seeks to reconcile these differences. NEWS STORY: Moskowitz Prize-Winning Study Correlates Lower Corruption With Higher Shareowner Value The Social Investment Forum awards its annual Moskowitz Prize to a study that correlates lower political corruption with higher corporate value in international markets. NEWS STORY: Emerging Markets Represent Underdeveloped Opportunities for SRI, Study Says An International Finance Corporation report on socially responsible investing in emerging markets finds obstacles and opportunities. NEWS STORY: SRI Short Selling: an Oxymoron, or Mutually Reinforcing Strategies? Socially responsible investing strategies rarely include short selling, though this tactic may in fact eclipse other SRI strategies in its ability to effect change. NEWS STORY: Coordinate US Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, Kenan Institute Study Group Says A study group convened by the Kenan Institute recommends synchronizing US public policy on CSR and asking the SEC to consider requiring triple bottom line reporting. NEWS STORY: American Library Association Takes a Pass on Socially Responsible Investing The ALA recently decided not to employ SRI on its endowment, though it may allow portions of its portfolios to be invested in SRI mutual funds. NEWS STORY: SRI Growing Amongst European Institutional Investors and in Asian Emerging Markets Two new reports document the status and prospects of sustainable and responsible investment in Asian emerging markets and with European institutional investors. NEWS STORY: Give Peace a Chance: Support Women in Business The Business Council for Peace helps women create sustainable businesses by providing the technology for them to train in computer and entrepreneurial skills. NEWS STORY: Is Molina Healthcare a Socially Responsible Investment? Don't Ask The Company The president and chairman of Molina Healthcare leaves it up to investors to decide for themselves if the company is a socially responsible investment. NEWS STORY: Socially Responsible Investment Through 401k Plans Comes of Age Since the late 1990s, there has been a boom in socially responsible investment through 401k retirement plans. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business In making the business case for corporate transparency, a new book cites studies on the competitive performance of socially responsible investment. NEWS STORY: European Smallcap SRI Index Launches Kempen Capital Management and SNS Asset Management fill a market gap with what they call the first SRI index in the world to focus on small capitalization companies. NEWS STORY: Dow, GM, and Johnson & Johnson Lead the Charge to Green Power The 12 members of the Green Power Market Development Group have purchased almost 100 megawatts of green power from renewable resources since last summer. NEWS STORY: Sustainable Computer Producers Perform Better than Less Sustainable Counterparts Innovest adds social considerations to its environmental assessment in its recent computer industry report, and sustainability still outperforms business-as-usual. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--24 Days: How Two Wall Street Journal Reporters Uncovered the Lies that Destroyed Faith in Corporate America A new book tells the behind-the-scenes story of Enron's demise and the detective work that revealed the chicanery in Enron's corporate practices and culture. NEWS STORY: FTSE4Good Indexes Add Bank of America, Delete Molson and ConocoPhillips As a result of its semiannual review, FTSE4Good adds Bank of America, a company deleted by DJSI, demonstrating yet another distinction between the indexes. NEWS STORY: The Implications of the Nike and Kasky Settlement on CSR Reporting Although Nike reached an agreement with Marc Kasky to end his lawsuit, the settlement's effect on corporate social responsibility reporting remains to be seen. NEWS STORY: Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes Add Toyota, HP, Eject DaimlerChrysler, Bank of America After its annual review, DJSI adds companies it deems as having strong sustainability performance to its index universe, and deletes companies that lag in sustainability practice. NEWS STORY: Influential Institutional Investors to Form National Coalition for Corporate Reform The National Coalition for Corporate Reform, championed by state treasurers and pension funds, seeks to restore investor confidence through better corporate governance. NEWS STORY: Community Investment Bond Helps House the Learning Disabled in the UK The UK arm of Triodos Bank issues a bond that supports Golden Lane Housing, a UK charity that provides housing to people with learning disabilities. NEWS STORY: New Proxy Voting Recommendation Service Provides Choice, Objectivity Investor Responsibility Research Center teams with Glass, Lewis & Co. to provide proxy voting recommendations and voting services to institutional investors. NEWS STORY: Environmental Best Practice Tied to Financial Outperformance in Food Retail Industry Innovest's latest report shows that environmental leaders in the global food and drug sector financially outperform the sector's environmental laggards. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The Planetary Bargain: Corporate Social Responsibility Matters Author Michael Hopkins' ideas about the global spread of corporate social responsibility are obscured by a lack of precision in revising and updating this book that was originally published five years ago. NEWS STORY: Morningstar Japan Launches First SRI Index Covering Japanese Market Exclusively The introduction of an socially responsible investing index by Morningstar Japan represents a significant milestone in the development of SRI in Japan. NEWS STORY: Quakers and Socially Responsible Investing: A Natural Match The Friends Fiduciary Corporation practices both positive and negative screening, in keeping with Quaker values that prioritize social justice and non-violence. NEWS STORY: UN to Hold Corporations More Responsible for Human Rights and the Environment A UN sub-commission adopted a resolution calling for transnational corporations to be held more accountable for human rights protection and environmental stewardship. NEWS STORY: Institutional Investor Practices SRI Through Shareowner Action The Nathan Cummings Foundation prioritizes shareowner action by actively voting its proxies, filing shareowner resolutions, and dialoguing with companies on social issues. NEWS STORY: Will Ford's Transparency Affect Its Performance? While lauding the transparency of Ford's 2002 Corporate Citizenship Report, analysts caution that it remains to be seen whether such reports and the Global Reporting Initiative reporting guidelines will help improve corporate performance (part two of a two-part article). NEWS STORY: Report Finds Oil Companies' Social and Environmental Practices Unsustainable Oekom Research's report criticizes the oil industry's uneven progress in sustainable development, but those in the industry question the report's findings. NEWS STORY: The Needmor Fund Utilizes a Muscular Definition of Fiduciary Responsibility Susan Stranahan, treasurer of the Needmor Fund, discusses socially responsible investing as a fiduciary duty and tier A money managers who have a social mission. NEWS STORY: Critics Find Study of SRI Underperformance Fundamentally Flawed A recent Wharton School study that finds underperformance by socially responsible investment mutual funds is based on an unsound research design, according to critics. NEWS STORY: The ABCs of SRI Mutual Fund Share Classes The complexities of different share classes, or fund loads, can confuse investors--brokers and finance writers can either help clarify and further obfuscate. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review--The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century A Yale economist proposes innovative ways to use risk management as a tool to counteract economic inequality and livelihood uncertainties, among other things. NEWS STORY: Survey Finds SRI Fund Managers See Bright Future in Europe A recent survey of fund managers conducted by UK Social Investment Forum and Thomson Extel reveals high expectations for significant SRI growth in Europe. Those surveyed also ranked top SRI firms and analysts. NEWS STORY: ACCION Creates Self-Sufficiency by Providing Microfinance to Microenterprises Social investors can support ACCION's international and national microlending initiatives, which seek to break the cycle of poverty through several mechanisms. NEWS STORY: Climate Change Litigation Could Affect Companies’ Market Value In the near future companies could face the risk of being on the receiving end of climate change lawsuits, a development that stands to impact shareowner value. NEWS STORY: Foundation Begins to Reconcile Investments with Programs The Fetzer Institute uses screens and community investment to align a small portion of its assets with its social and environmental goals. NEWS STORY: SEC Report on Shareowner Nomination of Directors Opens Some Doors, But May Close Others A recent SEC report recommends several solutions for allowing shareowners access to director nominations, but social investors worry it may not solve some problems. NEWS STORY: Johannesburg Securities Exchange Requires Compliance with King II and Global Reporting Initiative Companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange will soon have to comply with King II corporate governance codes as well as Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. NEWS STORY: First Steps for the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development Carlos Guimaraes, chair of the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development, speaks about the new organization's strong membership, partnerships, and projects. 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: Report Connects the Dots Between Corporate Governance and Climate Change Risk A report reveals the degree to which 20 major global companies use corporate governance to address climate change risks and opportunities. NEWS STORY: Sustainability Leaders in Food Sector Produce Healthy Returns Innovest finds that global food products companies with higher sustainability ratings perform better financially than companies with weaker environmental performance. NEWS STORY: Eurosif Releases Transparency Guidelines for European SRI Funds Eurosif asks socially responsible investment firms to disclose their policies and procedures around SRI issues. NEWS STORY: Summer Reading List, SRI-Style Prominent figures in the socially responsible investing community recommend SRI- and CSR-related books, and as well as some great titles from outside the field. NEWS STORY: Pension Funds and Mutual Funds Influence Their Holdings Differently Academic studies discern between how pension funds and mutual funds wield influence as institutional shareowners, but the studies lack methods sophisticated enough to evaluate the effects of SRI. NEWS STORY: McDonald's Phases Out Animal Growth Promotion Antibiotics from Global Supply Chain McDonald's, which is often the first in its sector to introduce sustainable practices, will end use of animal growth promotion antibiotics, but does this make the company socially responsible? NEWS STORY: U.S. Drops in Country Sustainability Ratings The United States fell eight places in Oekom Research's Country Rating Report this year, mirroring its poor performance on other similar country sustainability ratings. NEWS STORY: Apria Democratizes Director Elections Apria Healthcare Group set a precedent as the first company to allow shareowners to nominate candidates for board of director elections. NEWS STORY: Attitudes and Actions Behind the Growth of SRI in Japan Alongside the highly visible events that demonstrate the spread of socially responsible investing in Japan are shifting attitudes and less visible actions (part two of a two-part article). NEWS STORY: The Sun is Rising on SRI in Japan A major Tokyo public pension fund commits to socially responsible investing, an indication of Japan's growing interest in SRI (part one of a two-part article.) NEWS STORY: Investors Managing $3 Trillion Back Blair's Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Developing countries are being prodded to support oil and mining companies disclosure of payments the companies make to governments. NEWS STORY: First Dutch Passively-Managed DJSI-based Index Fund Launched Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers has launched a passively-managed fund that tracks a Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the first such product in the Netherlands. NEWS STORY: IRRC Platform Combines Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility Research The Investor Responsibility Research Center merges its corporate governance research tool with its social responsibility research tool in a web-based platform. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Eco-Service Development: Reinventing Supply and Demand in the European Union A new book presents the business case for promoting sustainable development through "eco-services," or the switch from a product-oriented to a service-oriented culture. NEWS STORY: Will Equator Principles Deliver Social and Environmental Responsibility from Banks? Social investors and NGOs question whether the Equator Principles will serve their stated purpose of increasing global banks' social and environmental responsibility. NEWS STORY: Nike and Others Increase Transparency into Their Global Labor Practices The Fair Labor Association releases a report today on the internal and independent external monitoring of apparel and footwear manufacturers' global labor practices. NEWS STORY: FedEx and UPS Green Up Their Fleets With Hybrid Electric and Fuel Cell Vehicles FedEx introduces hybrid electric delivery vehicles, while UPS is investing in fuel cell technology. NEWS STORY: World's Largest Coffee Traders Agree to Sustainability, but How Committed Are They? Rainforest Alliance's recent agreement on sustainability with the world's two largest coffee traders holds promise but the devil may be in the details. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Saving the Corporate Soul & (Who Knows?) Maybe Your Own A new book recommends a series of corporate reforms that mirror those advocated by the corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investment communities. NEWS STORY: Religious Institutions Issue Benchmarks for Corporate Social Responsibility Performance A global coalition of religious activists have published the third edition of a comprehensive set of guidelines for corporate social and environmental performance. NEWS STORY: Blacklisting, Voicetracking, and Payola: Clear Channel and the Effects of Media Consolidation Shareowner activists ask Clear Channel to ban blacklisting, while musicians and other activists oppose FCC plans to deregulate media industries. NEWS STORY: Corporate America Less than Halfway to Gender Parity A Conference Board report documents the evident and the less-apparent obstacles to achieving male-female equality in the workplace. NEWS STORY: Socially Responsible Investing in 529 Funds Requires Some Savvy There are now three SRI options for 529 college savings plans, though ascertaining how best to save for college in a socially responsible way may require professional advice. NEWS STORY: Report Asks When ExxonMobil Will Wake Up to Climate-Related Risks For the second year in a row, a report tells ExxonMobil shareowners to beware of the significant risks the company faces in terms of how the oil giant addresses climate change. NEWS STORY: Do UK Charities' Investments Reflect Their Mission Statements? A report released today reveals that the majority of large UK charities do not practice socially responsible investing. NEWS STORY: The Switch to Socially Responsible Investing Affords Choice and Confers Power The continuation of one investor's story of how he chose SRI mutual funds, and his reflections on the power of socially responsible investing (part two of a two-part article). NEWS STORY: The Benefits and Obstacles of Switching to Socially Responsible Investing One investor's story of the process of shifting mainstream investments into socially responsible investment mutual funds (part one of a two-part article). NEWS STORY: Innovest Report Identifies Business Risk of Genetic Engineering for Monsanto Investors The controversy surrounding genetic engineering creates substantial risks to shareowner value at Monsanto, according to a new report from Innovest. NEWS STORY: Simulated Institutional SRI Portfolios Continue to Outperform Benchmarks Institutional investors take note: four out of five mock portfolios in the Triple Bottom Line Simulation performed better than their benchmarks over the last three quarters NEWS STORY: Ford and Fannie Mae Top List of 50 Best Companies for Diversity DiversityInc's new corporate survey strives to identify the business value of diversity. NEWS STORY: Is Nike Guaranteed Free Speech? The Supreme Court Will Decide Advocates of socially responsible investment and corporate social responsibility on both sides of the Atlantic weigh in on the implications of Nike's Supreme Court case. NEWS STORY: Earth Day Founder Not the Only One to Link Climate Change and Investing The voices of institutional investors representing public pension funds join those from the insurance industry to advance a business case for addressing climate change. NEWS STORY: The Effects of 9/11 and the Iraq War on Islamic SRI Funds Socially responsible investment funds that reflect Islamic values shed light on the issue of anti-Islam sentiment, which has run rampant after 9/11 and through the Iraq War. NEWS STORY: Is the Sun Setting on AstroPower? Once the darling of the green investors, AstroPower's share price has plummeted precipitously over the past year. NEWS STORY: Back in the U.S.A. A combination of investors, activists, and congresspeople are working to make sure U.S. companies keep paying their share of taxes. NEWS STORY: Pay Dirt or Payola? How Halliburton Strikes it Rich A number of practices have generated profits as well as controversy for Halliburton, the company where Vice President Dick Cheney served six years as CEO. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists A new book identifies what ails capitalism and proposes a panacea. NEWS STORY: Rebuilding Iraq: Humanitarianism Versus Opportunism Socially responsible investing supports companies and nonprofit initiatives that advance humanitarian efforts to rebuild Iraq and avoids investment in profiteering companies. NEWS STORY: Socially Responsible Investment Firms Respond to New War with Tried and True Tactics SRI firms are sticking with their traditional strategies, such as screening, community investment, and support for humanitarian aid, in response to war. 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: Guide Rates Best and Worst Lenders in Terms of Reaching the Underserved When it comes to reaching minorities, women, and low- and middle-income borrowers, Bank of America rates as one of the best and ABN AMRO rates as one of the worst. NEWS STORY: Watching the Public Company Accounting Watchdog The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Association is slowly getting to work and it will be scrutinized by the newly-formed Association for Integrity in Accounting. NEWS STORY: CEOs Advocate Economic, Environmental, and Social Sustainability at Conference The Forum for Corporate Conscience calls on CEOs and corporations to promote triple bottom line performance. NEWS STORY: Oekom Applauds Insurers Employing SRI but Chides Rest of Sector's Non-Transparency Lack of transparency prevented the German corporate research firm from conducting corporate responsibility ratings on the majority of global insurance companies. NEWS STORY: New UK Index Rates Corporate Social Responsibility Performance UK-based Business in the Community launches its Corporate Responsibility Index, which benchmarks corporate social responsibility performance. NEWS STORY: Mutual Fund Industry Takes Last Stab at Blocking Proxy Voting Disclosure The Investment Company Institute, the mutual fund industry trade group, continues to lobby against new SEC rules that require disclosure of proxy voting policies and records. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Socially Responsible Investment: A Global Revolution A new book is generous in its history of socially responsible investing, but it shortchanges readers with its definition of SRI and its coverage of SRI's globalization. NEWS STORY: Investing in Wind Energy Is Not a Breeze With few pure players in the domestic wind energy sector, investors who want exposure to wind energy must commit their money overseas. NEWS STORY: Individual Retirement Accounts Meet Socially Responsible Investing IRAs that employ socially responsible investing strategies can help create a more secure financial, social, and environmental future. NEWS STORY: Congress Cuts Funding for New Markets Venture Capital Program The New Markets Venture Capital program, which provides entrepreneurial expertise and equity capital to small businesses in low-income regions, received the Congressional ax. NEWS STORY: International Right to Know Campaign Promotes Disclosure of Global Corporate Impacts In a recent report, the International Right to Know Campaign outlines the benefits of corporate disclosure of global environmental and social policies and practices. NEWS STORY: SRI Issues Will Impact Companies' Financial Performance, UK Pension Fund Trustees Say A recent survey finds that pension fund trustees in the United Kingdom view socially responsible investing (SRI) issues as linked to companies' future financial performance. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights A new book by Thom Hartmann states that the nineteenth century Supreme Court case that established corporate personhood did not in fact rule on this issue. 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: Prince Albert of Monaco Helps Launch a New Sustainability Fund Instead of investing directly in equities, this new "fund of funds" from Monaco invests in SRI and sustainability funds. NEWS STORY: World Economic Forum Surveys CEO Attitudes Toward Corporate Citizenship The World Economic Forum CEO survey finds much enthusiasm but less substance in the adaptation of corporate social responsibility into core business activities. NEWS STORY: CSRwire Spreads the Word on Corporate Social Responsibility Companies, nonprofits, and other organizations use CSRwire to distribute corporate social responsibility-related press releases and corporate performance reports. NEWS STORY: Europe's Largest Pension Fund Buys a Minority Stake in SRI Research Firm ABP and State Street Global Alliance have invested in Innovest, another indication that mainstream investors are seeing the benefit of implementing SRI strategies. NEWS STORY: Global Warming Shareowner Resolution Filed at "Filthy Five" Electric Companies A coalition of institutional investors has filed a shareowner resolution calling on five electric power producers to report on the business risk of their greenhouse gas emissions. NEWS STORY: Corporate Responsibility Ratings and SRI Screens Sometimes Differ A new report from Oekom Research criticizes IT network and component company performance based on the companies' own disclosure, while the Calvert Group's screens assess companies' actual practices. NEWS STORY: Sierra Club Launches SRI Mutual Funds The Sierra Club is harnessing its name recognition and expertise on corporate environmental performance with its launching of an SRI equity mutual fund and an SRI balanced mutual fund. NEWS STORY: Top Five Social Investing News Stories of 2002 The major social investing news stories of the year include significant corporate governance reforms and the success of community investment. NEWS STORY: Low-Income Toronto Residents Save on Check Cashing Royal Bank of Canada tailored its Cash & Save concept to meet the unique financial services needs of residents in a diverse, densely populated urban community. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: The Sustainability Advantage In a new book written for corporate senior executives, a former IBM manager systematically quantifies the business case for sustainability. NEWS STORY: Australia To Require Investment Firms to Disclose How They Take SRI into Account A 2002 Australian law that requires all investment firms to disclose how they take socially responsible investment issues into consideration will take effect in March 2003. NEWS STORY: NEC Pioneers "Green" Computer NEC reverses the computer industry's foot-dragging on addressing environmental liabilities by introducing the PowerMate eco, the first eco-efficient computer. NEWS STORY: A Tribute to Chuck Matthei, Community Investing Trailblazer At a time of year when many people give thanks for their gifts, the SRI community continues to reflect on Chuck Matthei's numerous contributions to community investing. NEWS STORY: Social Investment Forum Outlines "Next Wave" of Corporate Governance Reforms Additional reforms besides those already on the table will be necessary to create meaningful corporate governance reforms, according to the U.S. Social Investment Forum. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Cause Marketing A new look at an increasingly used marketing angle may provide lessons for social investors. NEWS STORY: Humans' Overuse of Earth's Resources Exceeds Sustainability by 20 Percent A new report on the ecological footprints of 146 nations documents unsustainable consumption, a phenomenon that, unchecked, will deplete the world's natural resources. NEWS STORY: SRI Gains Momentum in University and College Endowment Investments U.S. academic institutions are increasingly applying socially responsible investment principles, although not comprehensively. NEWS STORY: Moskowitz Prize Pays Tribute to Evidence of SRI Funds' Competitive Performance A Dutch paper documenting no significant difference between returns from SRI funds and conventional mutual funds wins this year's coveted Moskowitz Prize. NEWS STORY: CSR Matrix Plots Socially Responsible Business Initiatives Throughout Europe A new report surveys the status of corporate social responsibility in Europe, representing CSR initiatives graphically with a CSR Matrix. NEWS STORY: The Ethical Investment Group, Canada's Socially Responsible Investment Club Initially spurred by a popular trend in the 1990's, a Montreal-based investment club continues its commitment to socially responsible investment. NEWS STORY: SRI Firms Caution Against a Wimpy Accounting Oversight Board Despite the distractions of the current Accounting Oversight Board debacle, SRI firms focus on what policies the board could adopt to support social and environmental issues. NEWS STORY: Talisman Leaves Sudan But Remains on Social Investment Nix List Canadian SRI rating agency recommends investors continue to avoid investment in Talisman due to ongoing human rights and environmental concerns. NEWS STORY: The Complexities of Venture Capital Investment Disclosure The University of Texas' disclosure of information on its venture capital investments creates challenges for venture capital firms and institutional investors. NEWS STORY: National Policy Association Book Advocates Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting A new book published by the National Policy Association makes a series of recommendations to promote global corporate social responsibility, among them triple bottom line reporting. NEWS STORY: DJSI and FTSE4Good Index Licensing Continues to Expand Index-based separate accounts, certificates, and exchange-traded funds are among the products being created based on these European SRI indexes. NEWS STORY: GAO Report Says Financial Restatements Cost Investors Billions The ravaging effects of financial restatements, which have been on the rise since 1997, are documented in a recent General Accounting Office report. NEWS STORY: Connecticut Initiative Promotes a Better Bottom Line Through Diverse Boards The Connecticut Board Diversity Initiative cites academic research to document the positive financial value of diverse boards of directors, in addition to their social value. NEWS STORY: Oekom Pans Telecoms' Social and Environmental Performance A recent report from the German research firm concludes that only a handful of telecommunications companies have above average social and environmental practices. NEWS STORY: Nike Greenwash Decision a Double-Edged Sword While some cheer the California Supreme Court ruling against Nike as a victory for truth in advertising, others consider it a potential defeat for CSR reporting and increased corporate transparency. NEWS STORY: Corporate Governance Now Rated by Mainstream Investment Research Firms Mainstream investment research firms are now evaluating corporate governance as a potential indicator of stock valuation. NEWS STORY: Eco-Efficient Real Estate and Retail Food Stocks Outperform Environmental Laggards Two recent Innovest reports correlate strong energy management, particularly participation in the EPA ENERGY STAR program, with superior stock performance. NEWS STORY: Board of Directors Survey Reveals Progress and Gaps in Corporate Governance A recent survey of board directors at Fortune 1000 companies found improvement in some areas, but also identified areas in need of improvement. NEWS STORY: UNEP Advises Financial Sector on Threats and Opportunities Related to Climate Change A recent United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative report outlines the financial sector's risks and opportunities regarding climate change. NEWS STORY: Screening the Gambling Sector from High Yield Investments Can Be Tricky Screening out gaming sector investments from high yield portfolios presents challenges, including identifying private gaming companies and controlling tracking errors. 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. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: The SRI Advantage In this important new book, author Peter Camejo makes a case for why socially responsible investing strategies lead to higher returns than non-SRI strategies. NEWS STORY: SRI Community Reaps Success in Washington Recent proposals from the SRI community enacted as public policy are creating momentum toward more potential legislation and regulations that support SRI goals. NEWS STORY: The Strengths and Inadequacies of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act Social and mainstream investors alike applaud the positive reforms instituted by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but also point to additional reforms needed to clean up the markets. NEWS STORY: Survey Reveals High Investor Interest in Socially Responsible Investing A recent Harris Interactive poll commissioned by the Calvert Group shows investor interest in SRI, particularly in retirement plans. NEWS STORY: SEC Proposal Would Require Mutual Fund Companies to Disclose Proxy Voting The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules requiring all mutual fund companies and investment advisers to disclose proxy voting guidelines and votes. NEWS STORY: Achieve SRI Objectives While Deferring Taxes with Variable Annuities Variable annuity subaccounts allow social investors with a very specific profile to apply SRI strategies and receive tax benefits simultaneously. NEWS STORY: Religious Mutual Funds Multiply in Numbers and Assets Faith-based mutual funds represent a fledgling but fast-growing movement in the socially responsible investment field. NEWS STORY: Hazardous Waste as Fuel: Conservation or Corporate Irresponsibility? The cement industry calls the use of hazardous waste to fuel cement kilns recycling while critics of the practice call it dangerous. NEWS STORY: Using Portfolio Theory to Manage Biodiversity More Prudently A recent report proposes to improve biodiversity management by applying the portfolio method, which values diversification. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: U.S. Company Receives World Summit Award for Sustainable Development Partnerships ForesTrade, which markets organic spices and fair trade coffee, was the sole U.S. company to win a Sustainable Development Partnerships Award at the Johannesburg Summit. NEWS STORY: Pension Funds, Fiduciary Duty, and SRI An interview with Meredith Miller from the Connecticut State Treasurer's Office gives some insight into why the State of Connecticut is increasingly embracing SRI. NEWS STORY: Shifting the Sustainability Dialogue from Values to Value A recent Ecos Corporation discussion paper advocates integrating the social and environmental considerations of sustainability into the financial bottom line. NEWS STORY: Institutional Investors Are Slow to Apply SRI to Fixed Income While many institutional investors apply SRI strategies to the equity portion of their portfolios, they are leaving their income investments relatively untouched. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: The Johannesburg Summit Differs from Its Predecessor Five days into the World Summit on Sustainable Development, participants remark how the conference is different than the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. NEWS STORY: Four New Indexes Track Best Practice Companies The Ethibel Sustainability Indexes apply positive screens for sustainable development and stakeholder involvement. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: The Rhetoric of the World Summit on Sustainable Development Sustainable development's amorphous definition may prove a difficult hurdle to gaining consensus on concrete action plans at the Johannesburg Summit. 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: New Tool Quantifies Corporate Environmental Performance London-based TruCost launched a single-framework rating tool that allows for a quantitative comparison of companies' environmental performance. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: SRI Contributions to the Earth Summits Blocked from Within and Without The fact that the global socially responsible investment community was denied a greater voice at the Rio Summit does not excuse its low participation in the Johannesburg Summit. NEWS STORY: Some Cracks in Freddie Mac's Otherwise Solid Social and Fiscal Reputation Freddie Mac's profile appears picture-perfect from a social and fiscal perspective, but recent disclosures have tainted this image somewhat. NEWS STORY: Alternative Strategies for the Alternative Energy Sector The recent downturn in alternative energy stocks is not necessarily reason for social investors to abandon the sector altogether. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: Business Action Addressing Biodiversity is a Rare Species The Center for Environmental Leadership in Business’ Energy and Biodiversity Initiative represents one of very few business actions that support biodiversity conservation. NEWS STORY: FTSE4Good to Fortify Human Rights Criteria FTSE4Good is conducting market consultation in preparation for strengthening human rights criteria for inclusion in its socially responsible indexes and funds. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: The Ecology of the New Economy A collection of essays identifies how the new digital economy both upgrades and downgrades the environment without predicting which trend will prevail. NEWS STORY: Matrix Plots Business Cases for Sustainability in Emerging Markets SustainAbility recently released a report that identifies the business benefits of practicing sustainability in emerging markets. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: The Sustainability of the World Summit on Sustainable Development Organizers are working to reduce the environmental impacts of the Johannesburg Summit. NEWS STORY: Conference to Consider the Business Case for SRI Institutional investors will discuss SRI at the Green Mountain SRI Summit, to be held in Stowe, Vermont in September. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: Report Finds Fundamental Flaws in WTO's Agreement on Agriculture An Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy report argues that the Agreement on Agriculture fails to account for agri-business' monopoly over global agricultural trade. NEWS STORY: Oil and Gas Company Environmental Risk Should Concern Investors Innovest and the World Resources Institute released reports this week that illustrate how environmental risk can affect the shareowner value of oil and gas companies. NEWS STORY: British Law Requiring SRI Reporting by Pension Funds Fails to Generate Best Practice A recently released report identifies gaps between UK pension funds' stated commitment to SRI issues and their actual implementation of SRI practices. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: UNAIDS' Accelerating Access Initiative May Decelerate Access ACT UP Paris criticizes Accelerating Access, a joint United Nations/pharmaceutical industry initiative, for limiting price reduction on AIDS medicine in developing nations. NEWS STORY: Supporting Science, Supporting Sustainability Earthwatch Institute's Corporate Fellowship Program places corporate employees in the field with top scientists for the benefit of both the environment and the sponsoring companies. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: Two UNEP Reports Chart Past, Present, and Future Course of Sustainable Development Assessments of the progress since the Rio Summit guide the blueprints for the Johannesburg Summit. NEWS STORY: Cement Companies Churn Out Action Plan to Promote Sustainable Development The Cement Sustainability Initiative, a consortium of ten global cement companies, recently released a report outlining specific steps to achieve sustainable development. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: Progress and Regress--Energy Sectors Report on Their Efforts Toward Sustainability Three industry sectors that supply energy--oil and gas, coal, and electricity--reported on their improvements and shortcomings in sustainable development since the Rio Summit. NEWS STORY: Eco-Efficient Pharmaceutical Companies Have Higher Share Value Innovest's recent report on the global pharmaceutical sector notes a correlation between strong environmental performance and better stock performance, with some exceptions. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: Book Review--Building Partnerships A new book outlines the benefits and challenges of cooperation between the private sector and the United Nations. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: How the Private Sector Can Help Solve Global Water Problems Solving the world's water problems may depend on properly regulated water privatization and corporate initiatives that introduce new technologies and reduce water consumption. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: A Brief History of the Earth Summits--From Rio to Johannesburg SocialFunds.com presents a historical snapshot of the Rio Summit and surveys some significant developments leading up to the Johannesburg Summit. (the second in a series of articles leading up to the Johannesburg Summit) NEWS STORY: New York Stock Exchange Calls for Tighter Corporate Governance Standards At the SEC's request, the New York Stock Exchange drafted recommendations to fortify corporate governance standards and restore investor confidence. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Cradle to Cradle William McDonough and Michael Braungart propose a paradigm shift for how the world views product lifespans, moving from a "cradle-to-grave" mentality where products die in a landfill to a "cradle-to-cradle" mentality where they continue to feed production. NEWS STORY: Rio + 10 Series: A Brief History of the Earth Summits--From Stockholm to Rio SocialFunds.com examines the significant events, theories, and people that contributed to the first two global summits on human interaction with the environment. (the first in a series of articles leading up to the Johannesburg Summit.) NEWS STORY: New Report Assesses the Status of Corporate Social Responsibility Echo Research reports on how corporate social responsibility is increasingly important for global corporations, and rates how CSR is being incorporated into business practices. NEWS STORY: Electronics and Appliances Sector Rated Highly for Environmental Performance German research firm also finds, however, that there is much room for improvement in the sector's social performance. NEWS STORY: Labor Law Database Eases Companies' Compliance Efforts A new database service aids corporate compliance teams in gathering information on national and local labor laws. NEWS STORY: Journalists List Corporations Found Guilty of Crimes throughout the 1990s A simple list of corporate crimes, presented along with guilty pleas or fine payments, hints at the pervasiveness of poor corporate ethics. NEWS STORY: The Matrix: a New Tool for Assessing Corporate Social Responsibility Each of two new initiatives employs a matrix to graphically represent the variables inherent in socially and environmentally responsible corporate practices. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Corporate Irresponsibility George Washington University law professor and corporate governance expert blames immoral corporate behavior on imperative to maximize stockholder profit. NEWS STORY: Two Perspectives on the Business Case for Ethical Corporate Behavior Robert Monks defends the business case for corporate ethics against Sir Geoffrey Chandler's recent editorial attacking the business case as amoral. NEWS STORY: Occidental Pipeline in Colombia Strikes It Rich in Washington The Bush Administration has proposed $98 million in military aid to protect Occidental's Cano-Limon pipeline in Colombia, despite its environmental and economic liabilities. (part two of a two-part article) NEWS STORY: Occidental Returns Siriri Oil Block to Colombia Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum withdrew from an oil field belonging to the indigenous U'wa people, but the company will continue oil extraction in Colombia. (part one of a two-part article) NEWS STORY: Mining Industry Reports on Its Problems, but Remains Vague on Solutions A new report identifies the global mining industry's social and environmental pitfalls, though its recommendations may prove hollow, according to an industry watchdog. NEWS STORY: The Progress and Stagnation of Corporate Social Responsibility in MBA Programs Two recent developments paint different pictures of the current status of corporate social responsibility in MBA programs. NEWS STORY: CERES Calls on Institutional Investors and Corporate Directors to Address Global Climate Change Risk A new report from CERES advises institutional investors and corporate directors on the financial risks of global climate change. NEWS STORY: New Research Tool Identifies Terrorism Risk in Institutional Investments The Global Security Risk Monitor allows investors to study risks to their investments from companies operating in countries that sponsor terrorism and weapons proliferation. NEWS STORY: WILD Awards Reward Socially and Environmentally Responsible Advertising The Third Annual WILD Awards recognized companies, ad agencies, and individuals that support wild animals and nature in their marketing. NEWS STORY: Nordic Partnership Signs Sustainability Manifesto in Preparation for Rio + 10 Summit A group of companies from the four Nordic countries convened recently to report on their progress in generating a model for sustainable business development. NEWS STORY: Glass Ceilings Harden Instead of Shattering for Women in the U.S. and U.K. Numerous recent studies on both sides of the Atlantic report continuing and even increasing disparity between women's and men's pay and advancement opportunities. NEWS STORY: Federal Lawsuit Seeks Slave Reparations from Three Companies African-American attorneys filed a class-action lawsuit against three companies that allegedly profited from slavery, either directly or through acquired companies. NEWS STORY: SEC Faltering on Meeting Shareowner Resolution Needs Proposed budget for 2003 may help the SEC provide public information on its no-action letters as well as advise shareowners on resolution changes. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Investing in Separate Accounts A new book extols the merits of separate accounts, which may represent an attractive alternative to mutual funds for institutional investors and high net-worth individuals. 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: Corporate Sustainability Reporting Is Here to Stay The Global Reporting Initiative, an organization working to make corporate performance more transparent, was formally inaugurated as an independent institution yesterday. NEWS STORY: Survey Holds Money Managers Accountable A recent AFL-CIO survey may prod money managers to examine their proxy voting on labor issues, but some in the social investment community note that the interests of organized labor and social investors sometimes diverge. NEWS STORY: Executives and Analysts Name Most Admired Socially Responsible Companies A recent Fortune magazine survey lists America's most admired companies, with one section of the list devoted to social responsibility. NEWS STORY: Millipore Enhances Health Through Its Products, Employment, Environmentalism, and Philanthropy This bioscience company's above-average social and environmental performance sets it apart from competitors. NEWS STORY: FTSE4Good Indexes Add Companies After Semi-Annual Review FTSE4Good has significantly expanded its universe of socially responsible companies. NEWS STORY: Disney and Intel Clash Over Solution to Digital Piracy Entertainment industry executives called on Congress to enforce a solution to the digital piracy problem, while the technology industry favors market incentives. NEWS STORY: Report Diagnoses Ills in the Pharmaceutical Sector A German rating agency reports that many pharmaceutical companies are failing to follow the example of the sector’s leaders in solving environmental and social problems. 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: Bush Plan on Corporate Responsibility Criticized as Vague, Unenforceable Critics slam President Bush's ten-point plan on corporate responsibility for lacking specifics, penalties, budget support, and consideration of corporate social responsibility. NEWS STORY: State Tobacco Settlement Money Being Reinvested in Tobacco Companies States that do not place specific restrictions on investing tobacco settlement money may be investing the funds back into tobacco. NEWS STORY: Shell to Stand Trial for 1990s Human Rights Abuses in Nigeria A U.S. Federal Court rejected Shell's plea to dismiss a case charging the company with human rights abuses in Nigeria dating back to 1995. NEWS STORY: Which Government Bonds Are Appropriate for Sustainable Investors? Oekom Research recently conducted a study that evaluates the sustainability of governments that issue bonds popular with investors. NEWS STORY: CalPERS Divests from Four Emerging Countries California's public pension fund withdrew its equity from four emerging countries in response to a review that considered social and financial factors equally. NEWS STORY: Online Communications Specialist Offers New Angle on Corporate Responsibility UK-based consulting firm offers reports that look at how the Internet affects the relationship between companies and their stakeholders. NEWS STORY: Mining and Minerals Sector Trying to Clean Up Its Act Large international mining companies, in an effort to improve their image with investors, are working on a project to define how the industry can best contribute to global sustainable development. NEWS STORY: Verdict Still Out on Costa Rica Offshore Drilling Although American companies Harken Energy and MKL-Xplorations purchased the rights to drill for oil off the coast of Costa Rica in 1998, drilling has not started as local organizations voice concerns. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Eco-Economy Pioneering environmentalist Lester R. Brown fuses ecological consciousness into economics to create "eco-economy," an economic system that would preserve natural resources while continuing to generate wealth. NEWS STORY: Students Compel Williams College to Offer Social Investment Option for Donors Alumni and other donors now can have their endowment contributions invested in a socially responsible manner. NEWS STORY: Report Argues that Europe Outperforms the U.S. in Corporate Social Responsibility According to a study recently released by the National Policy Association, the United States has fallen behind Europe in advancing corporate social responsibility. NEWS STORY: First Nasdaq-based Social Index Unveiled KLD and Nasdaq create the KLD-Nasdaq Social Index, the first index to screen Nasdaq companies for social and environmental criteria. NEWS STORY: Private Equity Investment Puts Yale in Deep Water Yale University's investment in a private water company highlights the difficulty institutional investors have in managing private equity investments that may have little or no transparency. 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: CEOs Worldwide Prioritize Corporate Social Responsibility A survey of CEOs around the globe revealed their appreciation of corporate social responsibility, though they have yet to reach consensus on CSR's definition. NEWS STORY: Report Criticizes GM's Poor Fuel Efficiency, Applauds Its Other Environmental Efforts CERES reported on GM's environmental record, praising the majority of the carmaker's initiatives but condemning its failure to improve overall fuel efficiency in its fleet. NEWS STORY: Spreading the Word about Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development A new report assesses the role of the media in the growth of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: The Divine Right of Capital Marjorie Kelly argues persuasively for the creation of a new corporate structure, one that puts a priority on those that create wealth, not on those that own the company. NEWS STORY: Idiosyncratic Firm Invests Old Money in A New Way Through investments in documentary films, Lowell, Blake & Associates earn a healthy profit for their clients and shows non-profits how to operate within a business model. NEWS STORY: Canadian Citizens and Investors Favor Corporate Accountability According to a recent poll, as well as public hearings conducted by a government commission, Canadians largely support corporate social responsibility. NEWS STORY: UK Bank Offers Green Mortgages Financial institution efforts to be more environment-friendly are proving popular with customers. NEWS STORY: Natural Foods Industry Savors 2001 Performance The natural foods industry defied dire predictions for 2001, demonstrating the commitment of consumers to social and health values over cost BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Sustainable Finance and Banking New book methodically argues that finance and banking have a significant role to play in achieving sustainability. NEWS STORY: Top Five Social Investing News Stories of 2001 Among the major social investing news stories of the year, social mutual funds continued to bust poor performance myths, and governments and shareowners pushed companies on sustainability and corporate social responsibility issues. NEWS STORY: Attractive College Savings Programs Yet to Embrace Socially Responsible Options New regulations shelter certain college savings funds from taxation, but socially responsible investors must petition their states to implement socially responsible options NEWS STORY: Harry Potter Hawks Coke, Inciting Ire Amongst Fans and Consumer Advocates Alike Coca-Cola secured global marketing rights to the Harry Potter image, a move more likely to increase obesity than to promote literacy, according to children's health advocates. NEWS STORY: Consulting Firm Promotes Online Reporting of Triple Bottom Line SustainAbility, a British research and consultancy firm, recently released a report on how companies, their stakeholders and customers use the Internet to communicate about sustainable development. NEWS STORY: SBI Promotes Responsible Business Practices Alongside Profits The Sustainable Business Institute is working to spread its vision of sustainability to business leaders and the public. NEWS STORY: Capstone Generates Interest in Microturbines Capstone Turbine Corporation offers environment-friendly alternatives to electricity generation for multiple applications. NEWS STORY: Domini Urges SEC to Require Proxy Voting Disclosure In a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, Domini Social Investments outlines the benefits of mutual fund managers disclosing their proxy voting practices to their investors. NEWS STORY: City of London Principles Anticipate Global Summit on Sustainability The UK financial sector is developing sustainable business principles that it hopes can act as a blueprint for similar principles to be created and adopted at the UN's 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. NEWS STORY: Study Correlates Shareowner Rights with Strong Stock Price Performance Through the 1990s, stock in firms that preserved shareowner rights outperformed companies that bolstered management's power, according to an academic paper. NEWS STORY: Global Energy Providers Score Well in Corporate Responsibility Ratings New study by German research firm Oekom identifies several trends developing worldwide in the power delivery sector. NEWS STORY: FTSE4Good Adds Final Two Indexes to its Series FTSE launches the FTSE4Good Global Index and the FTSE4Good US Index, the last two in its series of eight indexes covering the performance of companies practicing corporate social responsibility. NEWS STORY: The Socratic Method Expands KLD expands the scope of SOCRATES, its database of research reports on issues related to the social and environmental performance of thousands of companies. NEWS STORY: Socially Responsible Investing: An Academic Issue? TIAA-CREF opposes enhanced social responsibility for its Social Change Account, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the account's investors favor such an initiative. NEWS STORY: Activists Dog Animal Research Firm and Its Investors Animal rights proponents protesting European animal research firm Huntingdon Life Sciences have extended their ire to its major U.S. backer, Stephens, Inc. NEWS STORY: Directing the Faithful Call for Corporate Social Responsibility An interview with Sister Patricia Wolf, executive director of ICCR, reveals how ICCR has remained a driving force in the corporate social responsibility movement and what might be in store for ICCR in the future. NEWS STORY: Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative Creates Global Emissions Standards An international consortium of government agencies, NGOs, and businesses creates its own set of standards for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in advance of the Kyoto Protocol. NEWS STORY: British Insurers Demand Corporate Social Responsibility The Association of British Insurers recently announced that its members will expect companies to disclose how social, environmental and ethical risks are being handled. NEWS STORY: Social Investors Press Unocal to Cut Ties to Burma Social investors have become part of a sophisticated, multi-pronged campaign to keep the Burma issue in front Unocal senior management. (part two of a two-part article) NEWS STORY: Students Push University of Virginia Out of Unocal Unocal is feeling pressure from activists because the company continues to do business with Burma's ruling military regime. (part one of a two-part article) NEWS STORY: Calvert Foundation Launches Donor Advised Fund With a $5,000 minimum, the Calvert Giving Fund enables many investors to reap the multiple benefits of having a donor advised fund. NEWS STORY: WRI Recognizes Eco-Friendly Enterprises New Ventures program aims to bring together socially responsible venture capitalists with environment-friendly businesses looking to expand. NEWS STORY: Sustainability in the U.S. Sees Hurdles, Future Growth Symposium discusses market hesitance and corporate attraction to embracing sustainability. NEWS STORY: "New World Order" May Turn Out to Be World Interconnectedness Some social investment industry leaders believe one of the lessons from September 11th should be a focus on the long-term economic and environmental health of the whole world. NEWS STORY: Research Paper on Corporate Global Environmental Standards Wins Moskowitz Prize For the first time, judges also give Honorable Mention to a paper that provides compelling evidence of no significant cost for actively managed screened portfolios. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: The Civil Corporation The New Economy brings increased competition, faster dissemination of information and the rise of corporate citizenship. NEWS STORY: SRI in the Rockies Reflects Growth in Social Investing, Perseveres Under Extraordinary Circumstances Conference of SRI industry professionals facilitates learning and networking, and on September 11, support of a different kind. NEWS STORY: Political Contributions Bring Oil Drills Closer to ANWR U.S. PIRG finds unsurprising correlation between oil company political donations and House members that voted to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. NEWS STORY: New Survey Indicates Potential Growth for Faith-based Investing The survey, sponsored by MMA Praxis, found that over half of U.S. investors would be inclined to consider religious or other values in making investment decisions. NEWS STORY: Companies Cut Pollution Through E-commuting A federal government pilot program will give participating companies pollution credits based on the emission reductions achieved by telecommuting employees. NEWS STORY: Group Invites Grantmakers to Invest with Their Values The Foundation Partnership for Corporate Responsibility seeks to help foundations bring their investment principles in line with their mission. NEWS STORY: Survey Finds Most Top U.K. Pension Funds Slow to Adopt SRI Friends of the Earth U.K. survey reveals that over half of the largest pension funds either are not taking steps to implement their social investing policy or they have no social investing policy. NEWS STORY: Venture Capitalists Warm to Charcoal from Sustainably Harvested Forests Mexican company selling charcoal from FSC-certified forests gets a lump of capital with the help of a non-profit. NEWS STORY: UN Lends a Hand to SRI in Australia UNEP is co-hosting the Ethical Investment Association's second annual conference, to be held next month in Melbourne. NEWS STORY: Global Compact Turns One U.N.'s ambitious business initiative makes progress but still has difficulty silencing critics. NEWS STORY: Proxy Monitor Buys ISS Move gives one firm significant power in influencing the proxy votes of institutional investors. NEWS STORY: Social Fund Assets in the U.S. May Top a Quarter of a Trillion Dollars in Ten Years Study marking Pax World Funds' 30th anniversary also pegs current assets of U.S. socially responsible mutual funds at $103 billion. NEWS STORY: Green Room and Board Fairmont Hotels and Resorts has created a valuable resource for hotels that want to lesson their environmental impact. NEWS STORY: Fuel Cell Stocks Lose A Little Spark But for the social investor who does not get jolted by volatility, the sector may generate long-term gains. NEWS STORY: Canadian Parliament Votes to Give Socially Responsible Shareowner Proposals Equal Billing New law will limit corporate management’s ability to claim that a proposal “promotes a cause” and therefore should be rejected. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: The Future of Success The new economy may be offering unprecedented opportunities and choices, but is making it nearly impossible to live a balanced life. NEWS STORY: All-SRI 401(k) Plan Debuts Seventeen social mutual funds compose a new, diversified plan that can also be customized to client needs. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: The New Global Investors Robert Monks calls on institutional investors to exercise their rights as shareowners and hold senior managers accountable for company performance and practices. NEWS STORY: Americans Increasingly Interested in Corporate Citizenship Survey indicates that Americans are looking for good corporate citizens, but are having difficulty finding them. NEWS STORY: Florida Can't Quit Tobacco Profits Sunshine State will again invest pension funds in cigarette makers. NEWS STORY: Placer Dome's Efforts at Sustainability: Sincere or Greenwash? Contentious issues surrounding its Porgera mine operations reveal the difficulty in assessing corporate social and environmental performance. NEWS STORY: Placer Dome Mine Strikes Resentment in Papua New Guinea Inaction on improving the environmental performance of the Porgera mine is drawing criticism from within Papua New Guinea as well as Australia, Canada and the U.S. NEWS STORY: Stock Ownership Increasingly Black and White Survey finds stock ownership among African-Americans is increasing while ownership among Whites has stayed flat. NEWS STORY: Better Corporate Governance Pays Off for Large Companies in Emerging Markets Recent study across global emerging markets finds large companies with good corporate governance yield better bottom lines. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: The Rise of Fiduciary Capitalism The fiduciaries of large institutional investors are finding it is in their interest, as shareowners, to urge corporate social responsibility. NEWS STORY: Simulating the Triple Bottom Line Fiduciaries try their hand at socially responsible investing at the innovative "Triple Bottom Line Simulation Conference 2001" held in New York this week. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Sustainable Banking Scholarly collection of perspectives and case studies explores the international financial sector’s role in sustainable development. NEWS STORY: Do You Own Firearms Stock? Well-known conventional mutual funds as well as a few teacher pension funds own shares of gun manufacturers. NEWS STORY: Merrill Lynch Drops Defined Asset Funds in the U.S. Socially responsible investors now left with few options for unit investment trusts. NEWS STORY: Fiduciaries Consider Socially Responsible Investing First conference of its kind brings together institutional investors and the social investing industry to discuss why and how fiduciaries should adopt values-based investing. NEWS STORY: Business Group Supports Sustainability Via the Market Economy New report identifies seven factors companies must address in order to realize sustainable practices. NEWS STORY: Major UK Fund Manager to Require Environmental Reporting Institutional investors are increasingly seeing the need for environmental disclosure. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Tending Your Money Garden Affable guide to personal money management is revised for 2001. NEWS STORY: Wal-Mart Booted Out of the Domini 400 KLD cites lack of leadership on labor controversies among reasons for removal. NEWS STORY: Do You Own Nuclear Power Stock? Well-known conventional mutual funds and asset managers are looking to catch profits from nuclear power’s revival. NEWS STORY: Thirty-one Companies to Test Sustainability Reporting Guidelines Structured feedback will help shape the next generation of Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. NEWS STORY: Shopping for Responsibility Internet site is helping consumers base shopping decisions on values. NEWS STORY: Procter & Gamble Heads List of 100 Best Corporate Citizens Business Ethics magazine recently published their annual rankings of the companies that best serve a diverse group of stakeholders. NEWS STORY: The Dirt on Selling Green The lessons learned from case studies on marketing environment-friendly, "values-based" products are examined in a new report. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: The 50 Best Ethical Stocks for Canadians Investment advisor and corporate social research expert pen book on building a socially responsible investment portfolio of individual stocks. NEWS STORY: California's Supreme Court to Decide Corporate Whitewash Trial Suit charging Nike with false advertising regarding its labor practices has implications for corporate image advertising. NEWS STORY: New Association Promotes Social Investing in Asia Organization's first goal of being an Internet-based social investing resource is realized as website goes online today. NEWS STORY: Study Examines Corporate Perspective on Supporting Causes Companies view philanthropy in terms of achieving business goals, but not all are marketing their charitable efforts to the fullest extent. NEWS STORY: Labor Issue Database May Lighten Social Research Workload International Labour Organization compiles database of Internet sources of information on corporate social responsibility-related employment and labor issues. NEWS STORY: Social Investors Rise to New Challenges at National Conference At a meeting held in New York this week, socially responsible investment professionals reveled in a decade of outstanding growth, but did not rest on their laurels. NEWS STORY: Ford Adopts CERES Principles at National Conference The national conference of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) was the backdrop for Ford Motor's historic endorsement. NEWS STORY: Calvert Launches New Social Index The Calvert Social Index provides a valuable benchmark for social investors using the broad-based screens of a veteran fund family. NEWS STORY: Nike CEO Retracts University Donation over Human Rights Founder Philip Knight canceled a $30 million gift to University of Oregon after the school took a stand on international labor and human rights. NEWS STORY: Domini Social Index At Ten Years Old On the tenth anniversary of its socially screened stock index, Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini & Co. has much to celebrate. So do social investors. NEWS STORY: Annual Conference Offers Inspiration for Social Investors The fourth annual "Making a Profit While Making a Difference" conference provides a wealth of information for both high-net-worth individual and institutional investors. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Robin Hood Was Right Three leaders in giving for social change provide a primer for tomorrow's philanthropy, taking a hard look at the pitfalls of traditional charity giving. NEWS STORY: Tomorrow's Business Leaders Strive for Corporate Responsibility A commencement speech by Citizens Funds' Joseph Keefe prepares the next generation of managers for the new landscape of socially responsible business. NEWS STORY: IBM Tops List of 100 Best Corporate Citizens In a survey by Business Ethics magazine, some corporations shine in their commitment to diverse stakeholders. NEWS STORY: Washington Protests Deliver Message to World Bank, IMF Although they did not shut down international finance meetings, peaceful demonstrations yesterday remained a reminder of the social costs of unfettered globalization. NEWS STORY: Wealthy Activists Confront Economic Inequality At their national conference Responsible Wealth members examine what they can do as business leaders to promote a broader prosperity. NEWS STORY: Shareholder Resolutions This Year Have Ups and Downs A summary of withdrawals and SEC decisions on social and environmental proposals defines the landscape for this year's proxy season. NEWS STORY: Winslow Management Has a Green Thumb for Investments An interview with Winslow president Jack Robinson reveals how his unique blend of financial and gardening background has resulted in a successful investment style. BOOK REVIEW: Book Review: Natural Capitalism Three visionaries give practical steps toward the next industrial revolution, where business is NOT as usual. NEWS STORY: Walden Reflects on Going Global Six months after launching the first socially responsible international index fund, Portfolio Manager Geeta Aiyer does not take the role of pioneer woman lightly. NEWS STORY: Friends of the Earth Launches On-line Guide to Shareholder Activism A web-based handbook from the national environmental group provides strategy and resources for shareholder activists. NEWS STORY: SEC Commissioner Speaks Out on Mutual Fund Proxy Voting Commissioner Paul Carey brings the shareholder voting priorities of mutual fund investment advisers to light. NEWS STORY: Businesses Pool Experience for Guide to Social Performance A recent publication from the Social Venture Network creates a framework for businesses desperately seeking social responsibility. NEWS STORY: Putting the Environment on the Ledger Accounting for the Environment has moved the world's most powerful international organizations toward weighing environmental costs along with other expenses. When will the U.S. budge? NEWS STORY: The Canadian Difference Social investors in Canada have a certain "Je ne sais quoi," based on cultural, historical, and legal differences north of the border. NEWS STORY: The Five Biggest Social Investing Stories of 1999 In the growing field of socially responsible investing, here's five news items that topped the charts and made 1999 a year to remember. NEWS STORY: The Genuine Progress Indicator Shows Continued Decline in Quality of Life While the GDP rises, an alternative index released by Redefining Progress shows that genuine economic progress eludes most Americans. NEWS STORY: United for a Fair Economy Reports on a Decade of Disparity A new report reveals the growing divide between the rich and poor in the 1990s. :

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