Press Releases & notable news

Conferences & Events (date order)

Media & Published Articles

Thoughts on Calpers

Calpers's Asia Ethics Motives Right, Tactics Wrong

Calpers Will Pull Out Of Some South Asian Mkts

Pragmatism rules in Asia's ethical investing debate

Calpers to divest in 4 Southeast Asian nations

SustainAbility announce the launch of its latest report, Good News & Bad: The Media, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable
Development

Global Reporting Initiative Announces First Board of Directors

The World's best: AMP Henderson, Storebrand and Trillium

Thai Banks Identify Challenges in Corporate Responsibility.

SAI's Annual Conference in Amsterdam: "The Best One Ever"

Levels of charity Funds invested ethically

SPI-Finance Project update

Entegra Brief sample - useful news resource

AMP says it won't proceed with China Pacific venture
AMP has announced it is not proceeding with a planned $500 million investment
in China Pacific Insurance Company. According to AMP chief executive Paul
Batchelor, a review of the final proposal revealed that the deal did not meet
the company's financial criteria.
Bloomberg December

'Business involvement in Myanmar (Burma) - A statement from institutional investors.' Collectively the Group represents almost £400 billion in funds under management.

UNEP Finance Initiatives Annual Global Roundtable Meeting on Finance and Sustainability
14, 15 March, 2002 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Register now, and learn more at: http://unepfi.net/rio

2- French Parliament adopts Tobin tax amendment.

SRI RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

From the Ethical Investor Magazine, Mark Lyster, principal of Lyster & Associates attempts to define the ten characteristics of 'engagement best practice' in ethical investment...

State Street and Friend Ivory & Sime in SRI alliance


State Street Bank and Friends Ivory & Sime have joined forces to provide
index-tracking funds with a socially responsible investments (SRI)
overlay.

MEDIA RELEASE 28 AUGUST 2001 Oz financial Act now requires disclosure of ethical aspects - More on Australian financial disclosure act.

RIO+10 Finance Commitments. details for your reference here

GLOBAL ETHICAL PORTFOLIO HAS BEEN ESTIMATE AT US$1.42 TRILLION in the September issue of the Cerulli Edge-Global Edition.

However this does not include assets held for shareholder Advocacy, as included in a report by the US Social Investment Forum (SIF) in their 1999 SRI Trends Report, that values SRI investment in the US at over $2 trillion.

See notes on both reports at Cerulli Report

UBS Warburg predicts fast SRI growth in Europe - A number of interesting points on SRI

FSRB ENFORCES ETHICAL TRANSPARENCY - BASED ON SIMILAR DISCLOSURE LEGISLATION IN THE UK

CANBERRA Tuesday, 28 August, 2001.
An amendment to the Financial Services Reform Bill backed in the Senate by Labor, the Democrats and the Greens and passed in the Lower House today could alter the face of financial services over the next five years (full text)

from: Ethical Investment Association of Australia (EIA)

Business Partners for Development (BPD) is a project-based initiative that studies, supports and promotes strategic examples of partnerships involving business, civil society and government working together for the development of communities around the world.

The Good Corporation (link) has been set up with improving CSR for SMEs: "The company is committed to championing corporate responsibility and provides resources and a transparent process of verification to organisations, especially SMEs

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) creates a live link on their web-site to the ASrIA site. unepfi.net/ap/

New SRI fund in Japan. Launched by Daiwa SB Investment Ltd
(www.daiwasbi.co.jp/) last month and named '' Global Eco Growth Fund (nick name; Mrs Green)''. This fund focuses on Environment and Growth and invest in stocks worldwide.

NEW FUND IN JAPAN
News From Innovest

SA8000 Signatory Member Dole has defined its membership to cover its pineapple and banana production. Dole's two newest certified facilities are in the Philippines. This story and other SA8000 news

THE DEVELOPMENT BANK OF JAPAN SIGNS UNEP FII STATEMENT
16 May 2001

FUNDS - HENDERSON RETURNS TO HONG KONG. AWSJ (29.06.2001)
The U.K.-based company, which once sold life insurance in the former British
colony, officially opened its Hong Kong office Thursday. This time, it's selling
funds. The company, a division of Sydney based AMP Ltd., is offering 10 authorized funds in Hong Kong, and plans to launch 11 more by the end of
the year. One in the works: a socially responsible investment fund.

Focus on SRI at CLSA Investors Conference in Hong Kong

ASrIA hosted a workshop on "How to Practise Sustainable and Responsible Investment" at the CLSA forum last month.

Mandela, Grameen Bank share Gandhi Peace Prize

Grameen Trust ...An Overview

Dresdner RCM Global Investors links with UNA Trust for Global SRI

POLARIS ASSET MANAGEMENT MERGING

Polaris provide a fund with a basic SRI screen in Hong Kong - see Polaris for details on the company

iHilal launches first regulated Islamic Financial Services web site

AMP Limited has announced its first step into the growing Asian wealth creation and protection markets with the establishment of businesses in two key markets - Japan and India.

Co-op advises green policies for its rivals
8 May 2001

The Co-operative Bank will urge rivals to adopt eco-friendly policies when it publishes an analysis of the costs and benefits of its ethical approach today.

CAER snaps up local FTSE4GOOD role
8/5/2001 By Ross Kendall in Ethical Investor Magazine

The Centre for Australian Ethical Research (CAER), subsidiary of Canberra-based ethical manager Australian Ethical Investments, has been appointed provider of
domestic equities research for the FTSE4GOOD Global Index to be introduced shortly
by the London Stock Exchange--in competition with the Dow Jones Sustainability
Group Indices launched in 1999.

EPA Victoria has an agreement to co-ordinate and promote UNEP's Finance Initiatives in Australasia. They have recently put information about some of the programs and activities that they are running on behalf of UNEP on their website: epa.vic.gov.au

CLSA has started putting a "Corporate Governance rating" section including Social Resp in all its Asian reports!

A study by CLSA Emerging Markets indicates that corporate governance pays:
The study, of 495 companies in 13 markets and regions sorted the companies into quartiles based on their corporate governance performance. The 100 biggest companies in the survey had an average US dollar return of 127% in the past three years, but the quartile with the highest corporate governance rankings produced returns of 267% over the same period.

HSBC thumbs up for green funds www.unep.ch
SRI recently gained a vote of confidence from a surprising source. Speaking at the UNEP Finance Initiative conference in Manila earlier this month,
CEO Aman Mehta said, 'Another area where financial institutions can play a key role is by offering 'green' investment products. I believe the growth potential of such products is considerable'.

The UNEP Financial Services Initiative, Manila Conference,
April 5-6, 2001 KEYNOTE SESSION 2:
21st Century Sustainable Development in Asia-Pacific - Challenges and Opportunities for Financial Institutions
Speaker:
Mr. Ahman Mehta
CEO, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited

'Have you heard the great news of the drug companies dropping their legal action against the S.A. g'ment from supplying cheaper non-patented drugs?'

Friends Ivory backs better forests, 9 Apr 2001
Friends Ivory & Sime (FI&S) has become the first investment manager to sign up in support of the WWF's campaign to get timber sourced from well-managed forests.

Top companies under pressure on environment
10 Apr 2001 Public companies will come under increased pressure to focus on their impact on the environment following the announcement of a new policy by a leading UK fund manager.

FTSE develops standard for socially responsible investment 27/2/2001

German Foundation for Sustainable Development: The German Parliament (Deutsche Bundestag) decided at the end of January this year to establish an ethical, environmental and social disclosure regulation in the new German pensions law.

AMP Sustainable Future Funds

Building on the success of Henderson Global Investors SRI activities in the UK, parent company
AMP have just launched a series of Sustainable Future Funds for the Australian market. Long time social investor Mark Campanale has been shipped out from
London to advise on the launch and development of the funds. AMP ran into
some problems with shareholders at their last AGM including investments
in SunCor and their plans to exploit oil shale reserves along Queensland's
pristine coast. Research by InnovestGroup.com revealed the financial lunacy

Gobal Care News: On 1st February 2001, NPI launched the first ever Socially Responsible
With-Profits Pension Fund.

Living Wage Project, on NIKE, The Living Wage Project is a human rights initiative whose mission is to educate the public about the human stories of sweatshop workers and to educate the workers about their rights and worth in the global marketplace.

UNEP goes East: UNEP Finance Initiatives Joint Steering Committees Planning Meeting for the World Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002

Oxfam: Large institutional investors in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will this week throw their weight behind a new campaign to force the newly merged Anglo-American drugs group to do more to make vital medicines available in developing countries. 12/2/2001

United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative

SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT CONFERENCE

21 May 2002
Auckland, New Zealand

The Centre for Social Market's international events calendar for 2002-2003

CERES 2002 Conference

17-19 April 2002
Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C.

A Seminar on Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI)

Singapore Values - Value for Singapore

8 April 2002 (Monday)
Raffles Hotel, Singapore

The Sixth SPE International Conference on Health, Safety & Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production (HSE),
20-22 March 2002
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

UNEP FI's Seventh Annual Global Roundtable.
14-15 March 2002. Finance sector executives, government representatives, members of the business community, academics will discuss how environmental factors affect corporate performance, shareholder value and the challenge of ‘translating’ environmental performance into financially relevant terms.

Capturing the Value of Ecosystem Services:
Developing Markets for Environmental Assets
13-14 March 2002
London, UK

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
"SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENT IN ASEAN"
7 March 2002
Hilton International Hotel,
Bangkok,Thailand.

Symposium on Corporate Governance & Disclosure: The Impact of Globalization

1&2 February 2002
Hong Kong

UNEP FI Regional Outreach Event - Africa
28, 29 January, 2002
Midrand, South Africa

Invitation to 2nd CHINA-US NGO Forum to be held on Nov. 14-16 in Beijing

'CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP: MEETING THE CHALLENGES'

4-5 December, 2001
Calcutta, India (www.csmworld.org)

SVN Asia (Thailand) conference Business Ethics in Reality 8 - 11th Nov

ASrIA Launch Conference 2nd Nov DETAILS

SAI's Annual Conference: implementing socially responsible workplacestrategies

The Third Annual SAI Strategic Conference will take place October 23-24, 2001 in Amsterdam, Holland

Triple Bottom Line Investing Conference, Oct 2001 18-19 Oct Rotterdam, Holland

Cleaning up Environmental policies & practices in China Kempinski Hotel, Beijing, People's Republic of China

Wednesday September 26th 2001 - Thursday September 27th 2001

SVN Europe Conference in Belgium, SEPTEMBER, 20-22 DE HAAN, BELGIUM

Social Venture Network Europe is a network of business leaders and
entrepreneurs committed to using their organisations as catalysts for change
towards a more just, humane and sustainable world.

Eco-efficient Industry 2001 International Conference on the Industrial Sustainability
- Environmental Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking

Date: September 17-19, 2001, Taipei

SRI in the Rockies is the national gathering of the U.S. socially responsible investment industry. Sept 9 - 12. As a member of this extraordinary community of people and organizations working to weave social justice and environmental sustainability into the fabric of our global economy, we hope you will choose to join us for the 12th annual SRI in the Rockies Conference.

SRI WORKING GROUP

MEETING AFTER THE SRI IN THE ROCKIES CONF. 9 sept 2001

Ethical Investment Association annual
conference - EIA's annual conference is being held in Melbourne on the 3rd and 4th September, 2001, in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme. http://www.eia.org.au/

International speakers include Tessa Tennant, Chair of ASrIA

Harvard Business School July 20 - 21, 2001, Shanghai, China Shanghai Research Conference
Corporate Governance: A Functional Approach

SRI Conference, Edinburgh, July 17

7th Annual ICGN Corporate Governance Conference in Tokyo, July 11 to July 13

HKGCC - THE CONFERENCE BOARD Presents:

Addressing Sustainability:

Benchmarks for Economic, Environmental and Social Performance

JJune 18, 2001

Island Shangri-La Hotel, Hong Kong

FOCUS ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AT
CLSA INVESTORS' FORUM 2001, Hong Kong

IV Annual Conference of the Microlending Institutions in C&EE and the NIS, 18-19 May 2001, Bratislava, Slovakia. Details from Grzegorz Galusek at microfinance@mfc.org.pl.

International Perspectives on SRI

15 May 2001, Paris. Organised by ARESE. Details from sandrine.fernandes@arese-sa.com.

Forest Trends is co-hosting an international conference on "Market-based Approaches to Sustainable Forestry Development and Forestry-based Poverty Alleviation:

Global Trends and Implications for China" at Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain), May 11-12 2001, with the Chinese Center for Agricultural Policy (CCAP) and other partners.

Business and Global Corporate Citizenship: Best Practice for the Future

a Wilton Park Conference, 2-4 May 2001, Montreux. Enquiries about participation to Miss Fran Martin at frances.martin@wiltonpark.org.uk.

SAI SA8000 conference in ShangriLa Hotel Shenzhen China, April 25 - 26 2001

The Third Asian Roundtable on Corporate Governance, Shangri-la Hotel, Singapore 4-6/4/2001-
Senior policy-makers, regulators, business leaders and investors from Asia and other parts of the world met in Singapore 4-6 April 2001 to set an agenda for corporate governance action in the region.

Sustainable investment hits Asia;
Tessa Tennant launches web-based ASrIA to promote awareness in the region. 28/2/2001

SRI in ASIA
AN INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABLE AND RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT (SRI) IN ASIA more details

An ASrIA publication - Order your copy now

ASrIA Research Reports on the Potential Market for SRI in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Available to Members of ASrIA. Details in the Membership section of this Site or contact sweeta@asria.org

Sustainable Finance and Banking - The Financial Sector and the Future of the Planet
by Marcel Jeucken

Corporate Governance: An Asia-Pacific Critique
General Editor: Low Chee Keong

Corporate Governance and SRI - an opinion piece by Mishko Hansen

Just Pensions - Report by Tradecraft on international developments pertaining to investment.

RESOURCES FOR SOCIAL LABELLING.

USAEP Investment in Asia document - interesting insights onto future investment potential in Asia.

AN ASrIA REPORT
The 'Asian Workplace' , author Donna Situ, provides an overview of workplace regulations and employment practices in different Asian countries

TESSA's COLUMN
(as published in the Ethical Investor Magazine, Australia)." The season of SRI conferences is looming...

Heard in Asia:
SRI Is Making Inroads in Asia

By Chen May Yee, The Asian Wall Street Journal via Dow Jones.11 July interviews with ASrIA and ASrIA sponsors.

The gains of going green
Pasquale Pistorio says that protecting the environment can bring rewards for companies as well as the planet. From FT.com

New Book: "SA8000 - The Definitive Guide to the New Social Standard"

"SA8000 - The Definitive Guide to the New Social Standard" by Deborah
Leipziger, former European Director for SAI

TESSA's COLUMN (as published in the Ethical Investor Magazine, Australia). "Last month I promised to report back to you on what the Bush Administration meant for SRI in the US. However, as we all know, a week is a long time in politics, a month more like eternity and so it is in this case ..."

Globalization and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges for the Financial Services Sector

A must have for anyone following the dynamic finance and sustainability debate. This new 32 page report from the Year 2000 UNEP Finance Initiatives Roundtable is now available for purchase online.

The people of Asia and the Pacific are paying a heavy toll for the region’s environmental degradation—in human health and economic terms. But the environmental decline can be stopped.

The Asian Economic Outlook 2001 (AEO) provides the blueprint for doing that.

Ethical Investing in Australia. The Allen Consulting Group has published a report on the current status of ethical investing in Australia.It was commissioned by the Ethical Investment Working Group - a group of individuals and organisations from the philanthropic sector seeking to further the development of ethical investment in Australia. The report is available at www.allenconsult.com.au/focus3.html.

Cutter Information Report - SURVEY COMPARES GLOBAL 100'S REPORTS AND WEB SITES & AN INSIDE LOOK AT ISO 14001 IMPLEMENTATION WORLDWIDE

A new guide for pension funds to how to pursue SRI policies on international development issues. The guide is published on 26 May. If you'd like a hard copy visit the project website (www.justpensions.org). The guide is free of charge.
Just Pensions
www.justpensions.org