The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility

Tag Archive for ‘Socially Responsible Investing’

What is ‘Slow Money’?

“Slow Money” is the name for a movement started by socially conscious investing pioneer and author, Woody Tasch, who essentially borrowed the conceptual framework of “Slow Food”—whereby participants eschew convenience-oriented “fast” foods, instead filling up their plates with traditional, unprocessed and, ideally, locally produced foods—and applied it to personal finance and investing.

JP Morgan:Impact Investing Offers Trillion Dollar Opportunity

A study by analysts at J.P. Morgan concludes that impact investing – which is intended to generate social good as well as financial return – could represent a highly-profitable trillion dollar market over the next decade. “In fact, we believe that impact investing will reveal itself to be one of the most powerful changes within the asset management industry in the years to come,” the study says.

Study Finds Sustainable Companies ‘Significantly Outperform’ Financially

A new study by researchers at Harvard Business School and London Business School concludes that companies which have voluntarily embraced sustainable business cultures with a substantial number of environmental and social policies “significantly outperform their counterparts over the long-term, both in terms of stock market and accounting performance.”

Opinion: ESG Yields Profits

Factors pertaining to ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues are now included in mainstream corporate stock and bond analysis in numerous investment firms, funds and managers globally. Why? Because it provides analysts better insight into companies and a possibility of producing higher investment returns with less risk.

Opinion: Inglorious CEOs

As each headline about corporate malfeasance is juxtaposed against record profits and bonuses, Americans become more jaded about the ethics of today’s business leadership. Many CEOs seem to lack the emotional awareness to deal with their own image problem.

Opinion: Traditional Philanthropy Gives Way to a New Power

For generations, philanthropy was the exclusive domain of the wealthy and powerful. Many of the great benefactors of the early 20th century made their fortunes from the railroad, steel, and oil industries. How times have changed. Many of today’s entrepreneurs are building their businesses based on the idea of fulfilling a new kind of social contract, one in which organizations voluntarily take responsibility for the “triple bottom line”: people, planet, and profits.

Information Resources for Green Investing

If you’re interested in learning more about investments that help the environment, some of the best resources are available online. In addition to investing web sites and blogs, information is also available from portfolio managers, mutual funds and investment firms that pick stocks according to environmental and social responsibility standards.

More Wall Street Analysts Buy Corporate Social Responsibility

Wall Street analysts who issue “buy” and “sell” recommendations on publicly-held companies are increasingly awarding more favorable ratings to firms with corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, according to a new academic study. “As time goes by,” the authors write, “CSR strategies are perceived to be more value-creating.”

Activist Investors Claim Record Results on Climate Change

Investors filed a record 101 climate and energy-related resolutions with 88 U.S. and Canadian companies in 2010, a 50% increase from the year-earlier, according to activist shareholder organizations. A record 51 resolutions were withdrawn after the companies agreed to climate change and energy-related commitments.

NY State Fund Seeks to Lead Class Action Against BP

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, trustee of the $132.6 billion Common Retirement Fund for state employees, said the Fund will seek lead plaintiff status in the class action lawsuit against BP Plc for damages arising from the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill