News Index

Search for news:

Denmark's National Pension Fund to Invest Ethically

EIRIS Press Release

12 April, 2005

ATP (Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension), the Danish labour market public authority pension fund, is to use new research from leading global Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) research house EIRIS in order to aid the implementation of its socially responsible policy. Pen-Sam, the Danish pension fund for public employees including medical support staff and teachers, has also recently adopted EIRIS' new Convention Watch service.

Convention Watch uses the UN Global Compact as a framework. It can be used to see whether companies are complying with the spirit of such international conventions as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, The Universal Declaration on Human Rights, International Labour Organisation Core Conventions, the Kyoto and Montreal Protocols, the Ottawa Convention on Landmines and the UN Convention against Corruption.

Convention Watch was recently launched in response to the demands of ethical investors, particularly in Scandinavia. "Convention Watch from EIRIS fits the needs of ATP with respect to SRI very well. EIRIS provides thorough and independent research of a high quality and we expect it will be an important tool in our investment process with regards to SRI," said Claus Wiinblad of ATP.

Hanne Roj-Larsen, Pen-Sam's Portfolio Manager, commented that: "EIRIS not only seeks to obtain the company response to each allegation regarding international conventions 'breaches', but also provides an assessment on the way in which the company is dealing with the allegation. These assessments, made by an experienced team, make the reports easy to use, and the transparent nature of the research means that you can always access the full detail."

Peter Webster, EIRIS Executive Director said, "it is encouraging to see the national Danish pension fund taking socially responsible investment on board; we are pleased to be providing the research to underpin this approach".

attach this press release