Eurosif Launches First European SRI Toolkit for Pension Funds

17 December, 2004

Eurosif Press Release

PARIS, FRANCE - December 16, 2004: Eurosif, the European Social Investment Forum, has completed its "Pension Programme SRI Toolkit" designed to help pension fund trustees understand how to integrate SRI into their fund's investment policy. Based on research conducted in ten European countries during 2004, this toolkit allows the reader to better grasp the meaning of fiduciary risk, decision making criteria as well as potential strategies to employ in order to include social, environmental, ethical and corporate governance issues (CG/SEE) in a pension plan.

The toolkit proposes specific steps for trustees to use in order to implement CG/SEE issues within their pension fund. Rob Bauer from ABP Investments declares "Eurosif's toolkit is a must-read for board of trustee members willing to learn about the practice of SRI by pension
funds across Europe."

The project was completed with the help of the European Commission and is in line with the Commission’s Social Policy Agenda as part of the integrated European approach towards raising awareness about how to integrate social and environmental criteria into financial analysis.

As further endorsement of Eurosif's Pension Programme, the European Commission has awarded Eurosif with additional funding for 2005 to continue its work with pension funds. Eurosif expects to use this money to implement the toolkit with trustees. Among other partners, Eurosif plans to work with different European trade unions to help expand SRI into the workers' groups so that a 'responsible' shareholder culture is developed.

Pierre Habbard, corporate governance consultant for TUAC (Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD) says, "Eurosif's SRI toolkit is a promising guide to current SRI practice and should be of great use in the context of trustee and investor education."