Research Providers for SRI in Asia

ASrIA Members

Calvert

Calvert's Asia-Pacific research covers a number of companies in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, Australia and Singapore. It has 2 dedicated analysts focusing on the region. It is continuously expanding and reviewing its work in the region.

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Eco-Frontier Co.

Eco-Frontier Co. is based in Seoul, Korea. It is an independent environmental knowledge-based portal service provider in corporate environmental management, government policy, and environmental business. The company is able to present Korean experience and verify methods of corporate environmental reporting in GRI. The company has about 30 master and doctoral experts in economics, management, science, and engineering fields.

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The Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS)

EIRIS has 29 in-house analysts and works with international research partners in Australia, France, Germany and Spain to obtain regional and country specific information. EIRIS covers 2,800 companies worldwide, including 50 companies in Singapore, 102 in Hong Kong, 122 in Australia, 13 in New Zealand and 505 in Japan. EIRIS also covers, in relation to human rights issues, all major global companies with subsidiaries or significant presence in particular countries where human rights are most at risk -- including China, Burma and North Korea.

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The Good Bankers Co., Ltd.

Good Bankers operates mainly in Japan. The company is a pioneer in implementing the first SRI product "Eco-fund" into the Japanese market. Its research covers around 620 Japanese firms listed or registered in the Japanese stock exchange.

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Responsible Research

The founders of Responsible Research have been instrumental in promoting Corporate Social Responsibility and Socially Responsible Investment practices in Asia for over 10 years and have significant experience in the regions emerging investment markets. This core team works in collaboration with our full time Asian-based responsible investment analysts and the Responsible Research Alliance, a grouping of consultants with subject matter expertise. Together they provide a valuable balance of market and ESG knowledge, academic rigour, process management, data management, customer relationship management and senior level contacts.

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SAM

SAM's Asia coverage includes more than 300 companies in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. SAM currently has 13 analysts and they offer a strong multidisciplinary foundation to analyze companies with regard to economic, environmental and social criteria. SAM seeks to identify leading sustainability-driven companies in both Leader and Pioneer market sectors. SAM Research forms the research basis of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI). The Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) were established to track the performance of companies that lead the field in terms of corporate sustainability.

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Other Research providers for SRI in Asia

Avanzi

Part of SiRi Group

BERC - Business Ethics Research Centre

BERC specialises in Australian companies and monitors their behaviour overseas as much as possible. However, it has the ability to research Asian companies if contracted to do so and aims to expand its research reach to Asia in the future. BERC has three full-time and 3 part-time staff.

CAER - Centre for Australian Ethical Research

The Centre for Australian Ethical Research (CAER) was established in January 2000, and offers ethical research services on a broad range of environmental and social criteria. CAER's database covers the top 300 companies in Australia by market capitalisation, companies that move in and out of the ASX on a regular basis (smaller members of the ASX300), smaller listed companies invested in by research clients and selected New Zealand and Pacific companies. CAER is an independent, not-for-profit research organisation.

Caring Company

Part of SiRi Group

Claros Consulting

Claros Consulting does not conduct regular SRI research covering a specific set of companies but specialises in in-depth research on sectors and issues. They have some experience in Asia and Australia.

Corporate Monitor

Corporate Monitor is based in New South Wales and its research universe covers the top 200 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, many of which operate in Asia to some degree. We rate companies on Evironment, Soial and Governance factors and have published these ratings monthly in
Ethical Investor magazine since June 2001.

Innovest

Innovest currently covers a broad range of companies in Japan and Australia, and a limited number of companies in Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Korea. Innovest has 25 analysts spread among three offices in New York, London and Toronto.

Click here for a list of companies covered.

IntegreX

Integrex is an independent research company specializing in integrity-based socially responsible investment (SRI) with no capital relationship with any financial institutions or business corporations. It conducts annual integrity research on all Japanese listed companies and has information for 877 Japanese companies. There are 4analysts covering Japanese companies. Integrex plans to expand their research on non-Japanese companies listed or operating in Japan. For the detail, please see their website: www.integrex.jp.

Japan Research Institute, Limited

JRI covers approximately 2,000 companies in 33 sectors in Japan. JRI works with Oekom. JRI currently has 5 environmental and social analysts, including 3 analysts working on Asian coverage. JRI has a plan to expand its research coverage into Asian countries. For the specific company names included in research coverage, please contact at
eco-enq@ird.jri.co.jp .

Oekom

As an independent rating agency, oekom research AG has been providing in-depth information on the environmental and social performance of companies, sectors and countries since 1993. oekom offers tailor-made sustainability concepts, development of sustainable investment universes, as well as continuous updating and monitoring of sustainability universes. Services include: negative screening, best-of-class rankings, and stock picking. oekom also offers standardized research at the highest level including: country ratings, corporate responsibility ratings, environmental ratings, social cultural ratings, industry reports and potentials research. The company maintains a strategic co-operation with the Japan Research Institute.

oekom research analyses the largest companies listed in the MSCI World. Over 90 of them are headquartered in Asian countries. Detailed information can be found on the rating agency website www.oekom-research.com in the category "research universe? A team of eight employees is entrusted with the analyses. The companies in oekom research universe are constantly monitored with regards to negative criteria. Major updates of the ratings are conducted every 18 months. For detailed information, please visit http://www.oekom-research.com/

Sustainable Investment Research Institute (SIRIS)

The Sustainable Investment Research Institute (SIRIS) provides sustainability based investment research on Australian and New Zealand companies to wholesale and retail investors, lenders and other users of financial analytical data. SIRIS has already undertaken some research on Asian companies and Asian issues. It currently has the capacity to take on ad hoc requests from clients and is looking to expand its reach more broadly in the Asia-Pacific region in the near future.

So-Tech Consulting Inc.

So-Tech conducts surveys in Japan annually for EIRIS. Through these, they have researched 340 companies in 2001 and 400 companies in 2002. They have three research staff focused on SRI.

Socia Center

SociaCenter currently has six analysts dedicated to Asia, and eight analysts in total. Its research in the region is extensive and covers Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. It is also able to provide information on the various sectors operating in the region.

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Triodos

Triodos is part of the SIRI group. Triodos plans to cover more companies in Japan and a few companies in Hong Kong by the end of 2002. Beyond 2002, Triodos has plans to significantly widen its Asian coverage.

Vigeo

Based in Paris, Brussels and Casablanca, the VIGEO Group is an agency in corporate social responsibility rating. Created in 2005 from the rapprochement of two companies, Stock at Stake (from the Ethibel group) and Vigeo, the Group is the main provider of information on corporate social responsibility in Europe and Japan.