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Paul Hawken Endorses Eurosif Transparency Guidelines

23 November, 2004

By Natural Capital Institute

Natural Capital Institute's Director Lauds European SRI Industry for Progressive Stance, Challenges US Practitioners to Follow Suit

November 23, 2004 (Sausalito, California) In response to the recent release of the European Social Investment Forum's official SRI Transparency Guidelines (www.eurosif.org/transparency-guidelines-retail ), Natural Capital Institute's Director, Paul Hawken, spoke strongly in support of the organization's initiative, calling it "an important and timely move."

In a letter to Tim Smith, President of the U.S.-based Social Investment Forum, Hawken noted that Eurosif deserves congratulations for its initiative as being a step in the right direction for socially responsible investment. He also cautioned, "It doesn't seem appropriate for the North American industry to say we don't need such guidelines when clearly the industry has none." Hawken was referring to Smith's comments in an article last week at SocialFunds.com ( www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/article1572.html), in which the SIF President said, "I don't believe there's a huge vacuum on this side of the ocean just because such standards don't exist here...".

The Natural Capital Institute's October 2004 report, "Socially Responsible Investing: How the SRI Industry Has Failed to Respond to People Who Want to Invest With Conscience and What Can Be Done to Change It," provides recommendations to help the SRI industry improve its transparency and social responsibility. The report presses for more complete transparency than presented in Eurosif's guidelines, encouraging mutual funds to fully share with investors the findings of their social and environmental research on individual companies. The full report can be downloaded at www.responsibleinvesting.org.