Eurosif Study Finds Increasing Investment in Sustainability by Wealthy Individuals
First-ever study addresses sustainable investment by high net worth individuals.

New Sustainable Transportation ETF to be Launched on NASDAQ
Index-based ETF to track companies offering green solutions to growth in worldwide transportation.

Investing to Empower Homeowners
The Calvert Foundation partners with Habitat for Humanity to offer investors a vehicle to drive homeownership while also receiving a financial return.

Sunshine is the Best Disinfectant: Shareholder Activists Promote Corporate Transparency
SocialFunds writer Bill Baue speaks with Sanford Lewis of the Investor Environmental Health Network on his shareholder activism promoting corporate disclosure

Mainstream Fund Managers Vary Widely on Social Responsibility
Even as more fund managers accept the impact of environmental, social, and corporate governance issues on performance, the application of responsible investment practices is hit or miss with most mainstream firms.

Bob Monks: ExxonMobil Exemplifies Corpocracy
SocialFunds writers Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon interview corporate governance advocate Bob Monks about his shareholder activism at ExxonMobil and his new book, Corpocracy.

Shelley Alpern on How Tar Sands Perpetuate Petro-Addiction
SocialFunds writer Bill Baue speaks with Shelley Alpern of Trillium Asset Management about its shareholder activism on oil company exploitation of tar sands.

Michael Conroy on Activist Campaigns and the Certification Revolution
SocialFunds writer Bill Baue speaks with Michael Conroy about his new book, Branded! How the “Certification Revolution” is Transforming Global Companies

Large UK Companies Put Their Best Foot Forward
New study of the FTSE 100 finds most companies, but not all, are improving their performance on environmental, social and governance issues.

Disney and McDonald's Take Steps to Protect Global Labor
In partnership with prominent stakeholders, the two companies strive to improve working conditions in factories overseas while new data shows an uptick in companies monitoring suppliers' labor practices.

Ford Establishes Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan
Shareholders withdraw resolutions at Ford after the carmaker agrees to release its plans on how it will decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

Transparent Supply Chain Sends A Clear Message
Hewlett-Packard recently released a list of its largest suppliers in hopes of increasing accountability from factory floors to consumers' front doors.

Do Your Proxy Votes Really Count?
A new report examines how boards of directors respond to shareholder concerns by adopting or ignoring non-binding shareholder proposals.

Three New SRI Funds from Pax World
Sustainable investing pioneer Pax World adds Global Green, International, and Small Cap Funds to its SRI family of funds.

Are Alcohol Screens Outdated?
Social investors have used exclusionary alcohol screens for decades. Is it time to reconsider this strategy?

ICCR Defines the Past, Present, and Future of Shareowner Activism
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility Executive Director Laura Berry speaks with SocialFunds.com about transformative changes in shareowner activism.

EarthFolio Screens the Big SRI Picture
New investment site offers fully managed SRI portfolios for every type of investor, from timid to tenacious.

SRI Assets Surge Ahead
New socially responsible investing study reports one dollar out of every nine dollars under professional management is invested responsibly.

Shareholder Activists Try New Tactic in Divestment Campaign
Activists are bringing resolutions to shareholder meetings of mutual funds in a bid to widen pressure on companies doing business with the Sudanese government.

Institutional Investors Plan Long-term for Climate Change
Summit at the UN unveils an action plan for addressing climate change risks and opportunities.

Yearbook Presents Sustainability Trends and Leaders
SAM and PricewaterhouseCoopers offer insights into the sustainability efforts of cutting-edge companies.

Joel Makower on the GreenBiz.com State of Green Business 2008 Report
GreenBiz founder talks about the inaugural report, which surveys the top 10 green business stories of 2007 and introduces the GreenBiz Index.

New Survey Uncovers Discrepancies on Corporate Citizenship Issues
There is gap between what executives say on corporate citizenship and what their corporations actually do, finds a survey of over 750 executives.

New Index Contains Companies that Support Stewardship
Index leader launches first index series based on the Dharmic religions.

Supreme Court Rules on Naming Secondary Actors in Fraud Cases
In a ruling last week, the Supreme Court laid out what businesses can be held liable under current securities fraud laws.

Social Investment Options on the Rise
A flurry of new socially responsible mutual funds and products makes it easier then ever to invest in a double bottom line.

Are Banks Getting Caught With Their Umbrellas Down?
A new report from the RiskMetrics Group ranks 40 of the world's largest banks responses to climate change risks and possibilities.

Microfinance: Catch the Swelling SRI Wave
The microfinance sector offers socially responsible investors a growing arena to create positive social and financial growth according to a new Deutche Bank study.

Top Five Socially Responsible Investing News Stories of 2007
New alternative energy and green funds fuel expansion of socially responsible investing; climate change is pushed to the forefront; community development organizations flourish despite the subprime mortgage debacle; consumers demand healthy products and work environments; and SEC limits shareholder rights.

Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products
The United States is no longer setting the agenda for manufacturers’ standards and American consumers are paying the price with their health.

Whistling Past the Graveyard—Socially Responsible Investing and the Financial Crisis
SRI thought leaders analyze the potential impacts of the widespread economic downturn caused by the subprime meltdown and deflating dollar.

Socially Responsible Investing Branches Out Over Asset Classes
A handbook published by Boston College's Institute for Responsible Investment outlines how managers can diversify socially responsible investments.

SEC Sacrifices Shareholder Rights to Achieve Temporary Certainty
Instead of reaffirming shareholder rights to file resolutions to nominate directors, the SEC cites uncertainty as a rationale for stripping these rights.

Giving the Gift of Gore? Video Game Buyers Beware
ICCR works to educate video game buyers on video games ratings and works with retailers to keep mature and violent video games out of children's hands.

Equalizing the Economic Playing and Farming Fields
Equity Trust invests in farms, non-profits and communities, helping people take charge of their economic futures.

Jolly Green Giant: Google Gives the Green Light to Alternative Energy
Google promises millions of dollars to create inexpensive renewable energy.

Taking the Pulse of the Electric and Natural Gas Utilities Sector
KLD's newest report provides investors with insight on how US and European utilities are dealing with environmental and societal concerns.

Wal-Mart's First Sustainability Report: Just a Gesture or a Just Account?
Many call the biggest retailer's sustainability report a good first step on a long road.

Launch of Five Climate Change Funds May Enrich Investors, But Won't Save the World
Deutsche Bank, F&C, HSBC, Schroders, and Virgin Money launch climate funds, a trend that validates the role of finance in addressing--though not solving--global warming.

Making Toys is Not Child's Play
A group of shareholders have come together to demand safer working conditions for workers along the toy supply chain.

Growing Up Green: Winslow Offers New Mid-Cap Green Mutual Fund
As the green market place expands, Winslow launches a mutual fund to capitalize on middle-sized growth companies that offer green solutions.

CEOs Add ESG Issues to Business Blueprints
A report from McKinsey & Company finds that more CEOs are including environmental, social, and governance issues in core strategies.

Book Review: The Clean Tech Revolution
A new book on investing in green technology looks at new and expected developments that hold out promise for big returns over the coming decades.

Green Financial Products Take Root in North America
A new report commissioned by UNEP FI lists green financial services and products as it makes the case for green banking's environmental, social, and economic benefits.

Are Colleges Only Green Skin Deep?
The Sustainability Report Card 2008 examines colleges and universities dedication to sustainability, on campuses and in endowment portfolios.

Engaged Employees Equal Increased Earnings
A recent study by Towers Perrin shows employee engagement and financial performance are intertwined and outlines how companies can help employees become engaged.

Risking the Weather: The Insurance Sector Faces Climate Change
A new report sponsored by Ceres and written by Evan Mills, one of the recipients of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, highlights new products offered by the insurance sector in response to the changing climate.

Emissions Trading Commodifies Carbon, But Does It Really Help Solve Climate Change?
Proponents of carbon trading see markets as the best mechanism for reducing emissions, while critics characterize carbon trading as a devil's bargain that steers profits to polluters.

"Living" Companies Perform Better
Corporations that care about people more than things are more sustainable and profitable, puts forth author and financial counselor Jay Bragdon.

Working for the Earth: Green Companies and Green Jobs Attract Employees
New research shows that employees want to work at green companies and are happiest at companies with solid corporate social responsibility programs in place.

Ardour Global Index Offers Unique Alternative Energy Universe
Ardour Global Index adds new companies in quarterly rebalancing, including US manufacturer Beacon Power.

Big Bosses Embrace Corporate Responsibility
A new survey of executives finds many companies are increasing their spending on environmental, social, and governance issues, in spite of a decline in business confidence.

Canada is Coming Clean: First Canadian Global Clean Energy Fund Launched
Criterion Investments has announced its Global Energy Fund, reflecting a growing enthusiasm for clean energy by investors, companies and governments.

Where in the World is Corporate Responsibility?
EIRIS' new report "The State of Responsible Business" details growing corporate responsibility in businesses worldwide.

Excessive CEO Compensation Hurting US Companies and Society
A new report claims that excessive executive compensation in the US is taking a staggering economic and social toll on American society, threatening leadership in the business, government, and nonprofit sectors and creating instability in the economy.

The Subprime Meltdown and SRI: Engage, Avoid, Predict
Shareowner activists engaged banks on predatory lending long before the subprime crisis climaxed, and SRI research predicted the meltdown in time to avoid some impacts.

Shareholder Activists Turn Up Heat on the SEC
The Social Investment Forum and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility launch a website as part of a campaign to garner support against SEC's proposals limiting shareholder rights.

Fiddling While The Planet Burns: Mainstream Investment Funds Blinkered To Climate Risk
Part one of a two-part article looks at the lack of climate risk calculations by UK fund managers. Part two will examine some new tools for assessing climate risks to investments.

Book Review-World Inc: How the Growing Power of Business is Revolutionizing Profits, People and the Future of Both
Author Bruce Piasecki argues that better products will help make a better world as companies face the "S" frontier.

Jitters About Regulatory Outlook Rile Confidence in Coal Mining Stocks
Growing political momentum for enacting state and national laws to reduce CO2 emissions is raising worries among investors of the long term viability of the coal industry.

Proxy Advisors Come Out Clean
A report from the Government Accountability Office finds that the largest proxy advisor ISS and other advisor firms disclose potential conflicts of interest.

Merrill Lynch Offers New Energy Efficiency Index
Merrill Lynch expands its line of "green" indexes with a new product that tracks the growing movement to reduce energy costs and CO2 emissions.

Book Review-A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking and the Business Solution for Ending Poverty
Phil Smith and Eric Thurman offer a primer on microcredit for businesspeople who want the best bang for their charitable bucks.

Many Sustainability Reports Upbeat, Ignoring Climate Change Risks
A new study from GRI and KPMG on sustainability reports notes that companies highlight new business opportunities created by climate change and shy away from risks associated with climate change.

SEC Chair Cox Votes For Two Opposing Proxy Access Proposals--Both May Curtail Shareowner Rights
Republican commissioners support a proposal barring shareowners from nominating directors; Democrats support one allowing it, though it introduced other reductions in shareowner power.

Executives and the Environment: Looking Back at Proxy Season 2007
With the 2007 proxy season over, shareholders saw a jump in the number of socially responsible proposals, with support growing for climate change proposals and accountability for executive pay.

Twenty Diverse Companies Make the Sustainability Cut
With some help from KLD, SustainableBusiness.com releases their 6th annual Sustainable Business 20 List: The World's Top Sustainable Stocks.

One and Two Percent Allocations Add Up for Social and Community Development
TIAA-CREF allocates 2% of its Social Choice account for proactive social investments and the Social Investment Forum and Co-op America's 1% or More for Community campaign aims to double the amount invested in community development.

Sustainability Picks Up Where Supply and Demand Meet
Both investors and companies are working on sustainability issues as new reports by UN PRI and Goldman Sachs show ESG issues are gaining momentum.

Book Review--Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy
Author Hazel Henderson's exhaustive survey of the sustainable business landscape serves as a perfect primer on green economics and tracks lesser-known trends and developments.

MMA Helps People Far and Near With its New OneWorld Community Development Investment Program
MMA and the Mennonite Economic Development Associates have created a program for investors to help capital reach poor neighborhoods in the US and abroad.

Wachovia NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance Honor CDFIs
Three heavy-hitters come together to support community development financial institutions with $42.5 million pledged over the next five years in grants and loans.

Seeing Retirement Investment Through Green-colored Glasses
A new report shows that Americans have more SRI retirement choices than ever before, but it remains to be seen if people chose to put their savings in socially and environmentally screened funds.

ABN Amro: Honored for its Global Sustainability Work and Called Out for Its Climate Change Finance
The Financial Times awards banking goliath ABN Amro its 2007 Sustainable Banking Award while a new report points to the bank's carbon-intensive investments.

Biofuels: Keeping Good Intentions on the Right Path
With the biofuels industry growing by leaps and bounds worldwide, controversy is erupting over whether this important new energy source is truly as sustainable as it claims to be.

New Eurosif Reports Identify ESG Challenges in the European Food and Insurance Sectors
Eurosif's raises awareness of social and environmental issues across European companies in a series of sector-by-sector reports, the two newest covering the insurance and food production sectors.

Forget Fossil Fuels, Calvert Now Offers Global Alternative Energy Fund
Calvert releases a survey of US investors on climate change and expands its family of funds with an alternative energy fund.

One and Two Percent Allocations Add Up for Social and Community Development
TIAA-CREF allocates 2% of its Social Choice account for proactive social investments while the Social Investment Forum and Co-op America's 1% or More for Community campaign aims to double the amount invested in community development.

MMA Now Offers Small Cap and Growth Index Funds
Leading faith-based investment company MMA Praxis Mutual grows its offerings with two new screened funds.

Shareholders Push Social and Environmental Issues to the Forefront
Proxy season 2007 sees a huge number of social and environmental resolutions at US companies with the growing support of voters.

Gabelli Launches New Value-Oriented SRI Fund
Gabelli Funds offers its first open SRI Fund, backed up by years of SRI experience working with institutional investors.

Calvert's New Growth Fund Has Global Focus
American SRI pioneer Calvert launches the Calvert International Opportunities Fund, a small and mid-cap fund with UK-based F&C Management as sub-advisor.

Shareholder Resolutions on Climate Change to Heat Up ExxonMobil's Annual Meeting
A broad coalition of shareholders is seriously concerned about ExxonMobil's lackluster response to global climate change and plans to give thumbs down to board member Michael Boskin.

Nanotechnology: The Smallest Green Revolution?
A new report from the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies touts "green" nanotechnology, and calls for Federal oversight.

Innovative Fund Looks to Johnny Appleseed for Inspiration
The Appleseed Fund offers social investors a fresh venue for investing in undervalued companies selected for their social and environmental records.

Banking on the Future: The Two Biggest US Banks To Dedicate Billions to Halting Climate Change
Citigroup and Bank of America have pledged billions of dollars to help fight climate change while a new report questions Chinese banks' environmental policies.

Risky Business: The Outlook for Investing in Nuclear Power
A new report scrutinizes the nuclear industry from an investor's perspective and finds a rotting fantasy of cheap energy and huge returns.

Going In and Out the Windows: Weaving a Web of Political Accountability
The Center for Political Accountability's new report "Open Windows" calls on companies for greater transparency and accountability in political giving and outlines a model of political accountability.

Book Review: Deep Economy: The Wealth Of Communities And The Durable Future
Author Bill McKibben's latest book helps lay the groundwork to create a more livable and viable world in which less is actually better.

Grading Sustainability Reports: Creating the Curve
As more and more companies publish sustainability reports, awards and studies of these reports help raise reporting standards.

Yes and No: Newmont Recommends Voting For One Resolution, Petitions SEC to Omit Another
The actions span the gamut of corporate responses to shareowner resolutions on environmental, social, and governance issues, from wholehearted support to forceful opposition.

Over the Hedge: New Green Hedge Fund of Funds
Kenmar plans to launch socially responsible hedge fund of funds for institutional investors.

Shareholders Work to Make AIDS Drugs Available Worldwide
Abbott Labs changes its tune and lowers price of AIDS fighting drugs in low-and-middle income countries.

If You Tag It, It Will Be Used: Sustainability Reporting in XBRL
Weeks after the latest SEC roundtable on interactive data, the Global Reporting Initiative releases a draft taxonomy of XBRL tags mapped to G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.

Water, Water, But Not Everywhere
The entry of private equity firms and consolidation of utility operations by large conglomerates are poised to change the water industry over the next 20 years.

Subprime Lending Hurts Homeowners
The Center for Responsible Lending contends that subprime lending has led to a net loss in homeownership.

Carbon Offsets: Modern-Day Indulgences to Assuage Carbon Guilt or Market Mechanism for Supporting Clean Energy
Even as they gain popularity as a climate change solution, carbon offsets have come under considerable criticism for diluting action on global warming--the truth likely resides between these extremes.

The World's Poor: Huge Market or Just a Marketer’s Fantasy?
New report from the International Finance Corporation and World Resources Institute measures the market-size of the Earth's people who live in poverty.

Concerned Investors and Businesses Call for Congress to Pass a Carbon-Cap or Wear a Dunce Cap
A large group of institutional investors and US companies call on the federal government to pass legislation to fight climate change that includes a demand for mandated cuts in greenhouse gasses.

ABN AMRO Asset Management Launches First Indian SRI Mutual Fund
New fund focuses on companies screened by Indian research and ratings company CRISIL.

TIAA-CREF Ups the Ante With New Stance on ESG Issues
TIAA-CREF’s new policy statement and proxy voting guidelines address social, environmental and governance issues, moving SRI arguments into the mainstream.

Carrying the Shield for Responsible Investing in Canada
Corporate Knights magazine names top Canadian SRI mutual funds and releases survey that finds SRI funds mirror market performance.

Chocolate Giant Commits to Responsible Supplier Code
The Hershey Company is working to create a supplier code of conduct that goes above and beyond just cocoa suppliers.

New Bond Index Focuses on Climate Change
JP Morgan Chase and Innovest introduce the first bond index that addresses climate change risks and possibilities.

Toxic Cosmetics Getting Under the Skin of Concerned Investors
Health-conscious investors and consumers are starting to demand cosmetic companies report and ban toxic ingredients.

New Ethical Fund Brings Value-Based Investing to High Street
Marks & Spencer Money, a former division of the top English retailer Marks & Spencer, has started offering a new SRI fund called the M & S Ethical Fund, which will be managed by two well-respected SRI mangers.

Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, and UBS Report on Climate Risks and Opportunities for Investing
Lehman Brothers and UBS agree climate change represents a market failure for neglecting to price carbon externalizations in valuations, while Citigroup makes specific stock picks.

New Fund for Affordable Housing In Latin America
With $100 million pledged from OPIC, the Alsis Latin America Fund supports home construction and local capital markets in Latin America.

Aflac Shareholders Get Say on Executive Pay
Aflac becomes the first major US company to offer shareholders a non-binding vote on executive compensation packages.

Shareholders Ask Companies for Transparency on Corporate Political Giving
With 43 companies facing shareholder resolutions on political accountability this proxy season, a handful of companies have already reached agreements with filers on this issue.

Top US Jewelry Retailers Get the Gold for Signing Responsibility Pledge
In time for Valentine’s Day, seven out of the top ten US jewelry retailers sign No Dirty Gold’s "Golden Rules" to back responsible gold mining practices.

Social(k) Catalyzes SRI Retirement Opportunities for Employees
Social(k)’s online retirement platform expands companies’ retirement options by offering over 100 SRI funds.

Proxy Votes on Sexual Orientation Nondiscrimination Draw Strong Support
Shareholder resolutions calling for equal rights for all employees at Commercial Metals and Micron highlight growing support for companies to include sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policies.

"Say on Pay" Highlighted in the Upcoming 2007 Proxy Season
Institutional investors band together, asking for the right to weigh in on top executive compensation packages.

Global 100 List Raises the Profile of Sustainability at the World Economic Forum (and Beyond)
Competition to make the third annual list of the 100 most sustainable companies--based on ratings by Innovest--continues to spur strong corporate social and environmental performance.

Surveyed Managers Emphasize Socially Responsible Issues
EIRIS’ newest survey asserts that both SRI and mainstreams investors view specific environmental, social, and governance factors as important when applied to certain sectors.

MicroVest Secures Mutual Fund Investor
Meritas Jantzi Social Index Fund Invests with MicroVest

Top Five Socially Responsible Investing News Stories of 2006
Green investing booms, microfinance pioneer wins Nobel Peace Prize, shareowner democracy increases, resolutions receive record votes, and UN launches Principles of Responsible Investment

Launch of Three New Clean Tech Indexes Culminates Banner Year for Green Investing
The three Jefferies Global Clean Technology Indexes join the half-dozen green indexes introduced this year.

Rainforest Action Network Seeks to Stem Flow of Financing to TXU Coal Project
Part two of this two-part articles addresses how RAN sent a letter to 54 banks urging them to withhold funding from a TXU plan to build 11 pulverized coal-burning power plants in Texas.

Retailers Improve on Keeping Violent Video Games Out of the Hands of Children
An Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility report also identifies several areas where the seven companies examined stand to improve performance--predominantly on disclosure.

Another Clean Energy Exchange Traded Fund to Launch
First Trust Advisors is slated to introduce an ETF that tracks the NASDAQ Clean Edge US Liquid Series Index early next year.

Merrill Lynch and World Resources Institute Issue Second Auto Sector Climate Change Report
The report again balances stock picking and investment analysis with in-depth discussion of regulatory and market developments in response to global warming and energy security concerns.

KLD Fills Gap in Socially Responsible Investing by Launching Equity Income Index
The KLD Dividend Achievers Social Index, created in partnership with Mergent, provides a new option for passive investment vehicles in this previously underdeveloped asset allocation in SRI.

Two New ETFs Fight Climate Change: One Bridges Shift to Cleaner Energy, One Pushes Cleantech
The PowerShares WilderHill Progressive Energy Portfolio and the PowerShares Cleantech Portfolio offer investors increasing choice for investing in climate change solutions.

Pax World Drops Zero Tolerance Screens on Alcohol and Gambling
SocialFunds.com speaks with Pax World CEO Joe Keefe about changes approved today, including the addition of governance, climate change, and human rights screens.

Winslow Conservation Index Outperforms the S&P 500 and Russell 2000
Winslow Management Company back-tested five-year performance of 15 companies focused on conservation, an oft-overlooked component of the alternative energy equation.

Blue Funds to Invest in Companies that Support Democrats
The two new funds seek to capitalize on research that finds that Democrat-supporting companies significantly outperform Republican-supporting companies.

Microfinance Crosses Continental Divide with $100 Million Commitment from TIAA-CREF
TIAA-CREF inaugurated its Global Microfinance Investment Program by purchasing from ProCredit Holdings $43 million in private equity shares, a new strategy in microfinance.

FTSE4Good Deletes Nine Companies on Environmental and Supply Chain Labor Standards
FTSE4Good criteria promote incremental progress in corporate social responsibility performance, and climate change is the latest topic covered in newly proposed standards.

New Socially Responsible Investing Portfolios Offer Alternatives to SRI Mutual Funds
Investment advisors can now offer retail clients separate accounts tracking seven different indexes, and a new index is geared toward high net worth individuals with Catholic values.

Why Aren't We Here Yesterday? A Conversation with Social Investment Forum CEO Lisa Woll
SocialFunds.com speaks with Lisa Woll as well as SIF President Tim Smith about the new CEO position and the future direction of SIF and socially responsible investing generally.

Emerging Markets Emerging as Socially Responsible Investing Opportunities
A report by the Ethical Investment Research Services examines 50 emerging market companies using various SRI screens, and finds a number of possible plays.

Academic Joins Shareowners in Advocating Corporate Lobbying Reform
Yale University Professor Bob Repetto issues paper calling for companies to rapidly adopt best practice on corporate lobbying, including oversight and approval by independent directors.

Court Affirms Shareowner Right to File Resolutions on Proxy Access for Nominating Directors
The decision, which simply upholds existing rules that SEC practice had departed from, fills the void left when the SEC proposed then abandoned a rule on proxy access for nominating directors.

DJSI Takes Holistic Approach to Assessing and Promoting Corporate Sustainability
Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes assesses overall sustainability performance, driving constant improvement through the competitiveness to attain best-in-class status.

Barclays Files for Permission to Launch iShares ETF Tracking the Domini Social Index
The exchange-traded fund will likely have a low expense ratio, but will not conduct shareowner engagement like the other fund tracking the DSI, the Green Century Equity Fund, does.

Pax World and Citizens Announce Engagement
The marriage would consolidate two leading socially responsible investing firms with primarily complementary offerings.

Hydropower Stocks as an Alternative Energy Play
Phaethon and Creative Investment Research recommend hydro to gain exposure to the energy boom, contending new technologies offer potential for reducing environmental impacts.

Green Century Equity Fund Seeks Shareowner Okay to Continue Tracking Domini Social Index
Green Century also announced its intention to lower the expense ratio for the fund with aim of enlarging the fund's investor base.

Domini Shareowners Approve Shift from Index Tracking to Active Management
The transition carries implications for investors, such as capital gains taxes, which Domini is strategically mitigating.

ICCR Benchmarks Pharma Responses to AIDS and Diseases of Poverty in Emerging Markets
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility report assesses 15 pharmaceutical companies, and finds all of them falling short of best practice in most areas on AIDS and neglected diseases.

Alternative Energy Revolution Fueled by New Fund Launches Despite Sector Downturn
The launch of the Guinness Atkinson Alternative Energy Fund testifies to optimism about the sub-sector echoed by the launch of the first renewable energy hedge fund by Ardsley Partners.

Calvert and Ford Foundations Help Launch Public Radio Fund to Democratize the Airwaves
The foundations jointly seeded $4.5 million in the revolving loan fund administered by Denver-based Public Radio Capital to provide low-interest loans to public radio projects nationally.

Shareowners Push TimeWarner on Movies Depicting Smoking, Recycled Paper, and Pay Disparity
Part two of this two-part article documents steps forward made by TimeWarner, as well as areas where shareowner activists continue to press for progress.

Shareowner Activists See Progress at TimeWarner, and Room for Improvement
In part one of this two-part article, activists applaud the company on its first corporate social responsibility report while continuing to push on environmental, social, and governance issues.

Biofuels May Not Be Sustainability Panacea, According to Bank Sarasin Report
The report identifies strengths and weaknesses of biofuels from social and environmental perspectives, as well as positing minimum sustainability criteria to qualify for investment.

BP, Suncor, and Shell Top Oil Sector Sustainability Rating; Chevron and ExxonMobil Rank Low
The report by Jantzi Research examines 23 oil companies worldwide on environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions as well as human rights and other social issues.

First Socially Responsible Investing Portfolio Devoted to Diversity Launched
Minority-owned Creative Investment Research conceived of the portfolio to promote corporate diversity while targeting women and minority investors for economic empowerment.

The Pages of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility
Books addressing climate change dominate the fourth annual SocialFunds.com Summer Reading List recommended by socially responsible investing and corporate social responsibility leaders.

Executives and the Environment: Looking Back at Proxy Season 2007
With the 2007 proxy season over, shareholders saw a jump in the number of socially responsible proposals, with support growing for climate change proposals and accountability for executive pay.

Nuns and Priests File Depleted Uranium Bunker Buster Resolution at Three Weapons Companies
The resolution goes to vote next week at Alliant Techsystems, and already received more than double the support needed to re-file next year at Lockheed Martin and Textron.

Survey Examines Nomenclature and Numbers Fueling SRI and Extra-Financial Research
The fourth annual survey from Thomson Extel and the UK Social Investment Forum looks beyond the numbers to assess the role of language in promoting uptake of SRI research.

Trillium Takes the Reins from Winslow in Managing the Green Century Balanced Fund
The transition in portfolio managers has shifted the fund back to its roots as a core portfolio holding by reducing risk and diversifying holdings across the multi-cap space.

Filing Resolutions at Mutual Funds: The Next Frontier for Shareowner Activism?
Eight years after the Northwest Corporate Accountability Project first filed an environmental shareowner resolution, it will finally go to vote at the Merrill Lynch Global Allocation Fund.

Parnassus Small Cap Fund Identifies Unique Sustainability Characteristics to Outperform Russell 2000
While the introduction of the Parnassus Workplace Fund a year ago piqued interest, the Parnassus Small Cap Fund unveiled at the same time is turning heads with strong financial performance.

UN Advances Business Case for Materiality of SRI, Leaving Skeptics Little Wiggle Room
A new UNEP FI report assesses how investment banks are integrating environmental, social, and governance factors and linking them to financial performance in their research.

Survey Reveals TIAA-CREF Investor Desire to Up Commitment to SRI
TIAA-CREF promises to respond to participants, of whom over three-quarters prioritize social and environmental considerations in investing choices.

Book Review--The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social, and Environmental Success--And How You Can Too
The book lays out a framework for companies to follow on the path toward integrating the triple bottom line of economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

Missouri Farmers Union Credit Union Supports Sustainability in Low-Income Rural Areas
The new credit union supports cooperative entrepreneurial models that advance social responsibility and environmental sustainability in low-income agricultural regions.

Does Trucost Measurement of Corporate Carbon Footprints Reduce Environmental Impacts?
Trucost ranks the carbon intensity in UK portfolios, arguing for overweighting companies with lower carbon footprints to reduce ecological impact while maintaining performance.

Sending Funds Home to Mexico Just Got Cheaper for Latino Community Credit Union Members
The Durham, North Carolina-based community development credit union will charge a flat $3 fee, use the exchange rate set by the Fed, and allow recipients to set up accounts in Mexico.

Semantics and Semitics: Presbyterian Church Investment to Focus on Israeli-Palestinian Peace
A recommendation approved by the church General Assembly apologizes to Jews and refines language while reaffirming commitment to corporate engagement with divestment as last resort.

Norwegian Government Pension Fund Dumps Wal-Mart and Freeport on Ethical Exclusions
The $230 billion global fund--one of the largest pension funds in the world--cited Wal-Mart for systematic human rights violations and Freeport for serious environmental damage.

World Resources Institute and Citigroup Team Up to Report on Solutions to Climate Change
The report recommends a dozen companies poised to profit from a carbon-constrained future, including Archer Daniels Midland, Caterpillar, Cypress Semiconductor, GE, Itron, Johnson Controls, Monsanto, and Waste Management

Winslow and Jupiter Launch Global Green Fund Using Only Positive Environmental Criteria
The Jupiter Green Investment Trust pioneers cross-continent collaboration and evolution from negative screening to positive sustainability criteria.

Corporate Shenanigans: Companies Dis Shareowners at Annual Meetings
Home Depot exemplifies a phenomenon of companies manipulating annual meeting protocols to disempower shareowners, following in the footsteps of Weyerhaeuser, Whole Foods, and others.

The Numbers--and the Stories Behind Them--on Community Development Financial Institutions
CDFI Data Project recently released the most comprehensive report on the CDFI industry, with statistics documenting CDFI growth and case studies illustrating positive social impacts.

Wainwright Bank and Equal Exchange Partner to Offer the First Branded Certificate of Deposit
This new branded CD model is particularly suited to socially responsible banks, companies, and investors, as the increased social returns can counterbalance the slightly higher financial risks.

Domini Fund to Shift from Indexing to Active Management
Domini Social Investments proposes shifting the Domini Social Equity Fund from tracking the Domini 400 Social Index to being actively managed by Wellington Management.

Listmania! Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility Lists Drive Improved Performance
CSR lists take the old adage--what gets measured gets managed--one step further by spotlighting the ranking process, thereby encouraging better corporate social and environmental performance.

Using the Same Tape Measure: MicroRate To Launch Tool for Rating Microfinance Funds
The rating tool, a project supported by Gray Ghost Microfinance Fund, Omidyar Network, and Gates Foundation, is yet another step toward establishing microfinance as a distinct asset class.

Ecological Community Loan Pool Directly Links Ecologically Minded Investors to Eco-Preneurs
The portal created by Ecostructure Financial tweaks the community development financial institution model to allow investors to lend directly to startups solving environmental problems.

Japanese Fund First to Track KLD Global Climate 100 Index
The construction methodology of the Global Climate 100 distinguishes it from other clean energy indexes, and distinguishes this fund from other Japanese eco funds.

The Case for Categorizing Community Development Venture Capital as a New Asset Class
A white paper by Pacific Community Ventures lays out the argument and identifies steps to promote growth in community development venture capital, such as standardizing social return metrics.

Amgen Recommends Support for Political Donations Resolution, Bolstering Broader Campaign
The Center for Political Accountability, which coordinates the political contributions campaign, released a report on trade association contributions that previews its 2007 proxy season strategy.

Hog Manure Fertilizes Improvements in Environmental Management at Smithfield Foods
Fines for Clean Water Act violations and a lawsuit settlement spur Smithfield to clean up its act and move toward environmental leadership, but it still has a way to go to complete a turnaround.

Digging for More than Gold: SRI Letter Asks Newmont to Address Western Shoshone Concerns
The letter cites a recent decision by the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to support Western Shoshone claims.

Another Clean Energy Index Launches to Capitalize on Transition from Dependence on Fossil Fuels
The NASDAQ Clean Edge US Index joins several other recently launched clean energy indexes tracking solar photovoltaic, biofuel, wind, and fuel cell companies.

Confirming the CalPERS Effect: Academic Study Links Shareowner Activism to Financial Gain
Examining companies targeted for governance reform by the CalPERS Focus List, the study presents data correlating activism to increasing shareowner value as well as cautionary notes.

Proxy Season Report Geared to Foundations Helps Others Navigate Proxy Landscape
As You Sow Foundation and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors report allows for stepping back by providing a useful overview as well as an in-depth look at behind-the-scenes dialogue.

Shareholders One Step Closer to Having a “Say on Pay”
The US House of Representatives votes to give shareholders an advisory non-binding vote on executive compensation.

Conflict of Interests Policies and Practices Vary Widely at Proxy Advisory Firms
Part two of this two-part article examines how Institutional Shareholder Services, Glass Lewis, and PROXY Governance handle potential conflicts of interest.

Voting Recommendations on Shareowner Resolutions Vary Widely at Proxy Advisory Firms
Part one of this two-part article compares Institutional Shareholder Services, Glass Lewis, and PROXY Governance vote recommendations on resolutions at Citigroup and Chevron.

Wal-Mart Discloses Equal Employment Opportunity Data
The company joined six others in the S&P 100 that publicly disclose their EEO-1 report, but Wal-Mart still faces shareowner action on union-busting and selling gems mined in Burma.

Enterprise Social Fund First to Tap Corporate Community for Community Investing
The fund partners Enterprise Community Partners, which will manage the portfolio, with Deutsche Bank, which will seek investment from socially responsible companies and individuals.

Is Contrarian Investing Consistent With or Contrary to Socially Responsible Investing?
SRI practitioners say that the contrarian focus on long-term prospects and overall health of a company suggest yes, while its focus on timing suggests maybe no.

Common Good Bank Advances One Branch of Community Investing Evolution
The bank promotes the common good by distributing excess profits to the community and by making all lending and spending decisions through participatory democracy.

Amana Funds Continue Strong Performance
The Amana Funds' Islamic principles coincide with sound investment strategies that have helped fuel strong financial performance over the past three years.

Shareowner Resolutions Overcome Obstacles to Promote Sustainability Reporting
A campaign advocating for sustainability reporting refines its strategies, shifting from requiring adherence to recommending Global Reporting Initiative guidelines.

Corporate Action on Climate Change Improves Over Past Three Years, But Still Insufficient
A report from Ceres benchmarks corporate governance on climate change, finding steady gains by leaders while some laggards leapfrog toward the top and other laggards stagnate at the bottom.

White House and Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility Address Pediatric AIDS
Bush Administration launches a new public-private partnership on Pediatric AIDS, an area where ICCR engages pharmaceutical companies in shareowner advocacy.

Book Review--Responsible Investment
An impressive and wide-ranging list of contributing writers advance a balance between elucidating the strengths of socially responsible investing while also exposing its weaknesses.

Facing Campaign on Farm Working Conditions, McDonald's to Heed Independent Study Results
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers urges McDonald's to improve farm working conditions, which the company is addressing through a study by the Center for Reflection, Education, and Action.

Cost of Clean Energy Decreases to Compete with Its Dirtier Counterparts, According to Report
The Clean Edge report surveys clean energy, documenting market growth, strong stock performance, and expansion of venture capital investment, as well as projecting future trends.

Thirty Years and Counting: Cofounder Wayne Silby Recounts the Birth of Calvert
To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Calvert, SocialFunds.com speaks with co-founder Wayne Silby about its genesis, development, and future.

A Serendipitous Match: Davis Advisors Takes Over MMA Praxis Core Stock Fund
The portfolio holding of Wal-Mart exemplifies (oddly enough) how both Davis Advisors and MMA Praxis emphasize the importance of stewardship and shareowner empowerment.

FTSE4Good Semi-Annual Review Boots 16 US Companies on Environmental Criteria
Of the 19 deletions, only one company was dropped due to human rights (instead of environmental) criteria, and all but three deletions were US-based companies.

US Banks Sink to the Bottom of the Barrel on Latest Sustainability Ratings from Oekom
Most US banks fail to disclose enough information on their social and environmental performance to qualify for analysis, and only four of 21 analyzed earned above D-level grades.

Whole Foods Market Gags Shareowners at Annual Meeting
A leader on corporate social responsibility, Whole Foods lags on corporate governance by stymieing shareowner democracy.

Sudan Presents Investment Risk as Genocidal Regime and State Sponsor of Terrorism
Socially responsible investing research provider IdealsWork Financial now offers data from Conflict Securities Advisory Group on corporate exposure to human rights abuses in Sudan.

Wells Fargo Issues Alternative Energy Report to Join Ranks of Banks Advancing SRI Research
The report provides an overview of the alternative energy market as well as the pros and cons of investment opportunities in wind, solar, hydroelectric, hydrogen, biomass, and even nuclear.

SEC Forces Chevron, Dow, and CVS to Include Shareowner Resolutions on Their Proxies
Part two of this two-part article examines no-action activity thus far in the 2006 proxy season, focusing on attempts to apply the personal grievance rule and expand a new risk assessment rule.

Resolution Withdrawals Signal Success in Shareowner Advocacy Early in 2006 Proxy Season
Part one of this two-part article examines withdrawal of resolutions on climate change, sexual orientation nondiscrimination, political contributions, and HIV/AIDS policies.

SRI Community Adding Its Two Cents to Comments on GRI G3 Guidelines
The Global Reporting Initiative is seeking public comments on its new sustainability reporting guidelines by March 31st.

Book Review--Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders in a Global Environment
The book maps the landscape of CSR, advocates a strategic approach taking global stakeholders into account, and presents a wealth of case studies to illustrate its points.

State Laws Effectively Curb Predatory Lending Without Stifling Subprime Market, Study Finds
The Center for Responsible Lending study rebuts opponents of state anti-predatory lending laws, and suggests significant implications for the two competing anti-predatory bills now in Congress.

Bank Policies Fail to Meet International Social and Environmental Standards, Report Says
The 39 banks assessed fall far short on global sustainability standards, and fail to disclose enough information on implementation to even be assessed by NGO coalition BankTrack.

Defining Corporate Complicity in Human Rights Abuses
Business and Human Rights Seminar report maps the landscape of corporate complicity in human rights abuses, and addresses the dichotomy of mandatory laws versus voluntary codes.

Opening the Umbrella of Socially Responsible Investing to Include Energy Efficient Mortgages
Indigo Financial Group promotes energy efficient mortgages, which have long been available through a Fannie Mae program but have yet to reach their market potential.

Book Review: Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality & Insecurity
The revised and updated edition of this text (originally published in 2000) examines how excessive executive compensation contributes to the widening gulf between rich and poor.

Two New Indexes Help Wean Us From Oil Addiction Via Clean Energy and Cleantech
The WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index tracks clean energy companies internationally, while the Cleantech Index tracks cleantech companies in the US.

Shareowner Action on Product Toxicity Shifts from Isolated Resolutions to Become a Campaign
Fueling this development is the increasing visibility of product toxicity in the news, with the Environmental Protection Agency issuing record fines.

Calvert Rates Environmental, Social and Governance Practices of 100 Largest US Companies
The move increases transparency of socially responsible investing research while maintaining the proprietary nature of the Calvert investment process.

Using Mutual Fund Proxy Voting Data to Promote More Conscientious Voting
The final installment of this multi-part series steps back to consider the implications of the findings and how to harness them to push mutual funds to support corporate social responsibility.

How to Determine the Top 100 Sustainable Companies in the World
Innovest Strategic Value Advisors and Corporate Knights announce the Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies at the World Economic Forum, documenting financial outpeformance.

Social Investment Forum Trends Report Tracks Rises and Falls of Socially Responsible Investing
The 2005 report documents increases since 2003 in assets overall in SRI, in SRI mutual funds, and in shareholder advocacy, but decreases in overall screened assets and in screened separate accounts.

Eroding Support for Shareowner Resolutions on Climate Change Revealed by Unpublished Data
In part three of this multi-part article, SocialFunds.com examines unpublished data associated with a recent report on mutual fund proxy voting from The Corporate Library, and finds decreasing support for climate change resolutions.

In the Year of the Oil Boom, Some SRI Funds Look Elsewhere for Strong Performance in 2005
The top-performing socially responsible investing funds compared to their category peers (SRI and non-SRI alike) drew strong performance from pharma, tech, and financials.

Unpublished Data Clarifies SRI Proxy Voting on CSR Resolutions
In part two in this multi-part series, SocialFunds.com examines unpublished data associated with a recent report from The Corporate Library, and finds that statistics are not always what they seem at first glance.

The Corporate Library Report on Mutual Fund Proxy Voting Finds Stagnation and Even Retreat
Part one of this multi-part series discusses the report findings on decreasing mainstream fund support for CSR resolutions; subsequent articles examine unpublished data from the research.

GE Comes Clean, Disclosing Costs Related to PCB Cleanup on the Hudson
The move prompts the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment, which characterized some of these expenditures as delay tactics, to withdraw its shareowner resolution requesting this information.

New Domini Funds Invest in the World
Domini charts new territory with the creation of the Domini PacAsia Social Equity Fund and the Domini EuroPacific Social Equity Fund.

Wal-Mart Faces Host of Shareowner Resolutions, From Union-Busting to Sustainability Reporting
The broad range of resolutions suggests that the sustainability commitments announced by Wal-Mart last year did not convince shareowners that the company has solved all its challenges.

Top Five Socially Responsible Investing News Stories of 2005
Socially responsible investing, corporate social responsibility, and microfinance embraced by the mainstream; shareowner advocates withdraw several climate change resolutions as companies agree to report; and exchange traded funds apply SRI strategies.

Alien Tort Claims Act Lawsuit Alleges Slavery and Child Labor on Liberian Firestone Plantation
The International Labor Rights Fund calls this its strongest ATCA case yet because the evidence of forced labor is so clear and Firestone owns and operates the plantation.

Socially Responsible Property Investment Still on the Drafting Table
A blueprint of the fledgling field of socially responsible real estate investment.

Are European Finance Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives Adequate?
A report from a recent EU conference on CSR suggest so, while a Corporate Responsibility Coalition report says voluntary CSR initiatives and current regulation fall short.

Book Review--Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism
The newest in the Megatrends series advances a framework for conscious capitalism that highlights socially responsible investing.

EPA Tries to Pull a Disappearing Act on the Toxics Release Inventory
In response to the Environmental Protection Agency proposal to dilute TRI, the socially responsible investing community launches the SaveTRI.org website.

Solar Energy Helps Fuel Socially Responsible Investing
Managers from Winslow Green Growth Fund, New Alternatives Fund, and Portfolio 21 discuss the opportunities and challenges of investing in solar power.

SRI Community Releases Retailer Guidelines to Avoid Violent Video Game Sales to Kids
The Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility guidelines address underage exposure to graphic violence, strong sexual content, and racist themes, as well as impact on shareholder value.

Socially Responsible Investing Advances Anti-Racism in Helping Rebuild New Orleans
In addition to supporting community investment and leveraging influence through shareowner advocacy, social investors can help rebuild in the aftermath of Katrina by naming root problems.

First Steps: Corporate Engagement on HIV/AIDS Improves Since Last World AIDS Day
Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS Best Practice AIDS Standard represents an important step forward, and companies such as Intel are responding to shareowner dialogue with ICCR.

A Light Bulb Turns On: Goldman Sachs First Investment Bank to Adopt Environmental Policy
The policy matches the robustness of other such policies recently adopted by global financial institutions, but the status of Goldman Sachs as an investment bank brings added significance.

Calvert World Values Fund Tackles Challenges of International Socially Responsible Investing
The fund delivers double-digit three-year returns for shareholders while screening for corporate environmental, social, and governance performance in international and emerging markets.

Fonkoze Helps Transform Microfinance to Reach the Poorest of the Poor in Haiti
After convening a summit on how to modify microfinance to serve the extreme poor, Fonkoze adapts a model pioneered by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee.

Shareowner Empowerment Is Alive and Well: a Preview of the 2006 Proxy Season
Part two of this two-part article examines the developing trends in shareowner activism as resolutions are filed for the upcoming proxy season.

Forging Ahead from the Crossroads: Reviewing the 2005 Proxy Season
Part one of this two-part article looks back at this year's proxy season, which was highlighted by majority vote director election proposals while part two previews the upcoming proxy season.

One Year On: Global Compact Maps Progress on Mainstreaming ESG Considerations
Two recent reports paint a vivid picture of developments over the past year on integrating environmental, social, and governance considerations into traditional financial analysis.

Consortium Advances Microfinance as an Emerging New Asset Class
The Global Commercial Microfinance Consortium, with its $75 million fund, links mainstream financial institutions to socially responsible investment practitioners with microfinance experience.

Tearing Down the Great Firewall
Social investors issue a statement holding information technology companies accountable for collusion with repressive regimes such as China that stifle dissent expressed on the Internet.

Book Review--The Challenge to Power: Money, Investing, and Democracy
John Harrington compiles voluminous evidence to diagnose what ails modern corporatocracy, and prescribes a comprehensive cure with socially responsible investing playing a key role.

Fiduciary Duty Redefined to Allow (and Sometimes Require) Environmental, Social and Governance Considerations
A report commissioned by UNEP FI and prepared by Freshfields attorneys dispels the persistent myth that laws prevent fiduciaries from considering environmental, social, and governance issues.

Insurers at the Crossroads: Intersection Between Insurance and Sustainability is a Busy Corner
Swiss Re exemplifies global sustainability leadership, as the chair of its US arm gives the keynote address at a summit on climate change and insurance in Connecticut.

Counting Stars: Top Morningstar Ratings Bespeak Strong Performance for SRI Funds
Of the 60-odd broadly-screened socially responsible investing funds tracked by SocialFunds.com, three earn 5-star ratings and 12 earn 4-star ratings from Morningstar.

SRI Research from UBS Strikes Balance Between Ethics and Economics
The new socially responsible investing team at UBS quantifies the costs of corporate social and environmental impacts as a means of effecting ethical and economic rectification.

Transforming the Myth of Democratic Shareholder Power into a Reality
A new paper by Harvard Professor Lucian Bebchuk debunks the myth of shareholder power to replace directors, and recommends reforms that could jumpstart the stalled SEC proxy access rule.

Wal-Mart Embraces Sustainability: Does the SRI Community Buy It?
Socially responsible investors cautiously applaud Wal-Mart for committing to social and environmental sustainability, but remain highly skeptical about actual implementation.

Institutional Investors Drive Research on Mainstreaming of SRI by Investment Managers
A new line of research at Mercer Investment Consulting rates proxy voting, shareholder engagement, and analysis of environmental, social, and governance issues by mainstream investment managers.

New Index and Exchange Traded Fund Expose Risks and Potentials in Nanotech
The Innovest Nanotech Index assesses social and environmental risks, while the PowerShares Lux Nanotech Portfolio focuses more on investment opportunities.

Scaling Community Investment: Report Addresses Growth in Community Development Finance
An Aspen Institute report serves as the basis of a series of conferences at regional federal reserve banks on how to best scale up community investment.

Rising Oil Prices Fuel Investment Returns in Renewable Energy for New Alternatives Fund
The first environmental mutual fund is also globalizing its reach to capitalize on innovative developments in alternative energies in other countries.

Moskowitz Prize Winning Study Correlates Corporate Eco-Efficiency and Financial Outperformance
The paper finds a significant and positive relationship between Innovest eco-efficiency ratings and both market-based and accounting-based financial performance metrics.

Divining the Future of Socially Responsible Investing
A study commissioned by Vancity Credit Union surveys 42 SRI thought leaders to identify trends, opportunities, and obstacles, as well as potential developments that defy prediction.

SRI Utilities Fund Flicks Switch to Power Strong Returns
The Flex-funds Total Return Utilities Fund uses environmental and social screening in addition to fundamental analysis to identify sustainable utilities.

Changing of the Guard: Vanguard Pulls a Switcheroo on SRI Index Providers
Vanguard is swapping the benchmark for its socially responsible investing index fund from the Calvert Social Index to the FTSE4Good US Select Index.

Spreading SRI: Goldman Sachs Adds Its Own Twist in Social and Environmental Assessment
As socially responsible investment strategies migrate into the mainstream, mainstream analysts apply social and environmental considerations in innovative ways.

ICCR Online Database Eases Access to Information on Shareowner Resolutions
EthVest, the new web-based tool from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, provides access to 2,000-plus shareowner resolutions and 12-plus years of shareowner action.

Insurers Behind the Curve on Addressing and Disclosing Risks of Climate Change
Two reports, one from Ceres and one from Friends of the Earth, concur that climate change is catching insurance companies, which are particularly impacted by global warming, unawares.

Domini Goes Abroad with New European Fund
The fund allows US social investors to diversify their portfolios into a region with attractive investment opportunities and corporations with strong sustainability commitments.

Third Carbon Disclosure Project Survey Finds Increasing Action on Climate Change
CDP3, now sponsored by 155 institutional investors with more than $21 trillion in assets, also reveals some significant footdragging by the Financial Times 500 companies.

Community Investment Bridges the Gap from Destitution to Restitution After Hurricane Katrina
Predominantly low-income African Americans were barred from crossing the bridge out of New Orleans, but now community development bridge loans are spanning the gulf back to stability.

AccountAbility Cooks Up a New Recipe with Stakeholder Engagement Standards
An exposure draft of new AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standards to be released next week may prove useful to the socially responsible investment community of shareholder activists.

Business Impacts on Millennium Development Goals: A Virtuous Cycle or a Coin Toss?
A new World Business Council for Sustainable Development report profiles corporate initiatives to alleviate poverty, but focuses less attention on how business may confound such goals.

A Next Generation SRI Strategy: The Henderson Industries of the Future Fund
By extending to its entire portfolio a focus on ten sustainability industries, Henderson has conceived of a novel approach to socially responsible investing.

A Semantic Hermeneutics of SRI
KLD Research & Analytics Founding President Peter Kinder examines limitations of the term socially responsible investing, and identifies both overemphasized and overlooked distinctions.

Banks and Financial Service Providers Figure Prominently in FTSE4Good Attrition, DJSI Matriculation
Corporate social responsibility plays an important role at banks and financial service companies, which are not only recipients but also increasingly purveyors of socially responsible investment.

Blogging SRI
SRI Notes and SRI-Extra harness the strengths of weblogs to comment candidly on developments in socially responsible investment as they happen.

Labor Day List Celebrates Corporate-Union Collaboration
The inaugural list launched by American Rights at Work spotlights positive relationships between companies and their workers.

War Millionaires: Defense Contractor CEO Pay Up 200 Percent Since 9/11
The ratio between CEO and worker pay across the market climbs to 431 : 1, up from 301 : 1 last year, according to a new CEO pay study from United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies.

Book Review--The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility
David Vogel scrutinizes the business case for CSR and finds no causal link between corporate virtue and profitability, but rather finds a robust niche market for it.

Toxic 100 Uses Enhanced Toxics Release Inventory Data to List Top Corporate Polluters
The Toxic 100 aggregates facility-level TRI data to compute company-wide toxic emissions performance.

Shareowner Resolution Asks Monsanto to Create Ethics Oversight Committee
The company stonewalls inquiries related to the resolution, which springs from a $1.5 million settlement with the SEC and DOJ earlier this year regarding a bribe Monstanto paid in Indonesia.

Human Rights Site Spotlights Bank Investment in Chinese Manufacturer Linked to Forced Labor
The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre posts an article alleging Chinese firm Henan Rebecca uses forced labor, as well as responses from banks implicated through investment for their clients.

Social(k) Allows Socially Responsible Investment Retirement Portfolios to More Fully Diversify
ExpertPlan administers a 401(k) platform that solves the problem of limited asset class diversification by offering 25 SRI funds from nine fund families than span the spectrum.

Most Canadian Extractive Companies Behind the Curve on Human Rights Policies
Ethical Funds surveys Canadian energy and mining companies and finds less than a handful with comprehensive human rights policies, management systems, and disclosure mechanisms.

Lack of Human Rights Policy Concerns Chevron Shareowners in Light of Unocal Merger
Part two of this two-part article examines the implications of the delay in adopting a human rights policy given the inheritance of Unocal holdings in Burma and Alien Tort Claims Act cases.

New Document Alleges Tie Between Chevron and Human Rights Abuses in Nigeria
Identified in the discovery phase of a case proceeding at state and federal levels, the invoice and receipt indicate Chevron paid Nigerian soldiers for services on a day several villagers were allegedly killed (part one of a two-part article.)

CalSTRS Follows Calvert Blueprint to Capitalize on Money Manager Diversity
Both CalSTRS and Calvert see efforts to identify emerging money managers as smart business and socially responsible as well.

Power to the People: Amnesty Launches Grassroots Shareowner Advocacy Program
The SharePower program encourages ordinary people to tell institutional investors holding shares in their name to vote for shareowner resolutions supporting human rights.

Book Review--Profitable Socially Responsible Investing?: An Institutional Investor's Guide
An invaluable tool for fiduciaries considering SRI, the book advances original research finding competitive financial performance for positive screening.

Winslow Green Growth Fund: On the Rise Again
Following up on its stellar 2003 performance, the environmentally-focused fund is again significantly outperforming its peers and benchmark.

Retirement Plans, Fiduciary Duty, and SRI: Complicated But Compatible
A paper published in a professional journal establishes the validity of employing socially responsible investing in retirement plans while also outlining the complexities of the practice.

Shell Doubles Cost Projections of Sakhalin II, Project Critics Redouble Opposition
The largest oil and gas project in the world meets resistance over concerns about its social and environmental impacts, as well as its economic sustainability.

Oneida Nation Loan to Lakota Fund Marks First Intertribal Community Development Financing
While the World Bank Global Fund for Indigenous Peoples covers only developing nations and socially responsible investors have yet to support the Lakota Fund, a fellow tribe fills gap.

The Lowdown from Corporate Governance and Proxy Advisory Experts on ISS-IRRC Merger
Implications of the buyout of the Investor Responsibility Research Center by Institutional Shareholder Services on social research and competition in proxy advisory services.

TIAA-CREF Creates New Director of Social Investing Post But Refrains From Some SRI Strategies
TIAA-CREF enhances its proxy voting and practices some community investment, but finds obstacles to supporting community development financial institutions and SRI venture capital.

Gap and Nike Engage Stakeholders For Assurance Statements on Sustainability Reports
Sustainability reports, whose credibility is enhanced by such stakeholder engagement and assurance statements, are gaining in significance, as KLD indexes add Nike due in part to its report.

Thinking Outside the Big-Box: Report Suggests Smart Growth for Retailer Siting Decisions
Domini Social Investments and Christian Brothers Investment Services provide retailers nine recommendations, examples of best practice and cautionary tales, and helpful resources.

New KLD Index Benchmarks 100 Global Companies Proactively Addressing Climate Change
While the G8 agreement on climate change may amount to hot air, the KLD Global Climate 100 Index will allow investors to support high-profile large-cap companies as well as little-known small caps actively mitigating climate change.

Merrill Lynch and World Resources Institute Analyze Climate Change Investment Opportunities
The jointly-produced report, the first such collaboration between a mainstream US investment bank and a environmentalist nonprofit, breaks new ground by issuing stock recommendations.

Women's Equity Mutual Fund Supports Businesswomen Through Screening and Now Microfinance
Subadvisor Walden Asset Management provides research on how companies treat women, and Blue Orchard Finance provides a new securitized product supporting microfinance institutions.

Business for Social Responsibility Suggests Improvements to the Global Reporting Initiative
A BSR report surveys 19 member companies on their experience and opinions of sustainability reporting according to GRI guidelines, identifying both strengths and weaknesses.

Nuclear Power: Still an Environmental Scourge or Now a Climate Change Mitigator?
Despite prominent environmentalist opinions that low greenhouse gas emissions of nuclear power eclipse its problems, socially responsible investment funds still screen nukes out.

Gabelli Asset Management Launches SRI Hedge Fund Focused on Catholic Values
The fund uses short-selling and merger arbitrage strategies, and screens out companies involved in abortion, contraception, stem cells, and pornography, as well as the top 50 defense contractors.

Students and States Seek to End Genocide in Sudan Through Divestment Campaigns
Students urge Stanford University to follow in the footsteps of Harvard University by divesting, and urge California senators to pass legislation like Illinois did.

Microfinance and Donor-Advised Fund Provide Tsunami Relief
A Grameen Foundation USA report examines barriers and opportunities for using microfinance as tsunami relief, and the Calvert Foundation funnels donations to tsunami-ravaged Sri Lanka.

The Ghost of a Shareholder Resolution Haunts ExxonMobil Annual Meeting
Despite an unprecedented 28 percent vote for a first-year climate change resolution and strong support for seven others, the censoring of a resolution quashes shareholder democracy.

The Value of Local Expertise in SRI Research: Jantzi Research Knows Canada
Jantzi Research conducts socially responsible investment research and corporate social responsibility rating and ranking focused on the Canadian market primarily for institutional investors.

Catching a Rising Knife: Sophia Collier Manages the Citizens Value Fund
Whereas former portfolio manager Shelly Meyers tried to catch falling knives, Ms. Collier shifted to a more conservative strategy that has generated much better returns.

Ethical Funds Hires Manning & Napier to Manage Its North American Equity Fund
Former portfolio manager Alliance Capital Management got the boot due to poor performance and a lack of diverse strategies to navigate market cycles.

Report Ranks Best German Corporate Sustainability Reports
Henkel, adidas-Salomon, Volkswagen, BMW, and Deutsche Telekom rank in the top 10 of the 150 German companies surveyed.

Book Review--The Bhopal Reader: Remembering Twenty Years of the World's Worst Industrial Disaster
A collection of primary and secondary sources spanning the twenty-year quest for corporate accountability from Union Carbide and now Dow for the 1984 chemical leak that killed thousands upon thousands.

Institutional Investors Call on SEC, Wall Street, and Companies to Address Climate Risk
The second Investor Summit on Climate Risk focused on information, from the perspectives of disclosure, data generation, and analysis, as a key to transforming climate risk into opportunity.

Virgin Trees in Kleenex: Greenpeace Lambasts Kimberly-Clark Fiber Sourcing
Between 15 and 30 percent of K-C tissue products fiber originates from the Canadian Boreal Forest, according to a Greenpeace report, and only 19 percent of its fiber is recycled.

Long-term Performance of 15 Year-Old Domini 400 Social Index Helps Validate SRI
Since its 1990 inception, the DSI has outperformed the S&P 500, helping quash the widespread perception that socially responsible investing automatically underperforms.

Report Asserts Shareholders Have The Right To Know More About DuPont PFOA Liabilities
The report documents information on perfluorooctanoic acid, a Teflon ingredient associated with human health hazards, which DuPont withheld from federal regulators and investors alike.

Newly-Launched Funds Advance the Maturation of Socially Responsible Investment
Calvert launches two fund of funds comprised of existing Calvert funds across a range of asset classes; Domini releases load-share clone of flagship fund for use by commission-based brokers.

JPMorgan Chase Environmental Policy Triggers Tipping Point for US Bank Sustainability
The JPMC policy surpasses environmental best practice established by Citigroup and Bank of America in some areas, but also lags these sustainability leaders in others.

Parnassus Workplace Fund Launches Today, Along With New Small- and Mid-Cap SRI Funds
While many socially responsible investment funds assess workplace criteria, the Parnassus fund is the first to lead with this issue.

Pharma and Biotech Companies Just Starting to Pass the Transparency Litmus Test
oekom research rates the social and environmental sustainability performance of 27 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and finds disclosure lacking across the board.

Weyerhaeuser To Screen Shareholder Questions at Annual Meeting Tomorrow
Shifting from the standard open-mic Question and Answer format, the CEO will act as gatekeeper for shareholder questions, a practice viewed by shareholders as restricting their rights.

Climate Change Offers Opportunities: An Interview with Tim Wirth, President of the UN Foundation
At the Ceres conference in Boston last week, SocialFunds.com sat down with Tim Wirth to discuss the opportunities for companies presented by the climate change issue.

SRI Funds Vote Proxies More Conscientiously Than Conventional Funds on Corporate Governance
A study on proxy voting by socially responsible investment and conventional funds finds SRI funds voting against management more often on social, environmental, and governance issues.

Ecuadorian Attorney General Tells ChevronTexaco Shareholders Remediation Agreement May Be Invalid
The questionable validity of the remediation agreement indemnifying ChevronTexaco could carry implications for the lawsuit and beyond (part three of a multipart article).

Asphalt Jungle: Did Oil Drilling by Texaco Create Environmental and Social Harm in Ecuador?
Both ChevronTexaco and lawsuit plaintiffs are finding evidence of contamination during judicial site inspections: the question is, does it pose human health or environmental risks? (part two of a multi-part article.)

Oil Spread Upon the Waters of Ecuador May Return Harm for ChevronTexaco Shareholders
A shareholder delegation surveys the environmental and social impact of oil operations, assessing potential risk from a twelve-year old lawsuit in its judicial inspection phase (part one of a multi-part article).

New SRI Managed Account Uses Options to Capitalize on Market Ups-and-Downs
The socially responsible investment team at Piper Jaffray screens the new Redwood Account, which applies the covered options strategy of Kelmoore Investment Company.

Caterpillar Bulldozes Shareowner Concern Over Aiding Alleged Israeli War Crimes
Caterpillar faces a shareowner resolution as well as a lawsuit filed by the family of peace activist Rachel Corrie that cites the Nuremberg Tribunal as precedent in alleging war crime complicity.

Coffee, Tea, or . . . Liqueur? Pax World Alcohol Screen Forces Reluctant Divestment from Starbucks
While Pax World applies a zero tolerance alcohol screen, other socially responsible investment firms set thresholds for retailers based on the percentage of revenues derived from alcohol sales.

Faith-Based and Environmentalist Shareowners Withdraw Climate Change Resolutions at Six Companies
The six oil and gas companies commit to measure, mitigate, and disclose data related to global warming, and evangelicals join their faith-based compatriots in concern over climate change.

Wanted: Socially Responsible Real Estate Investments
An academician searches for socially responsible real estate investment trusts, finding few that fit the definition, as well as disagreement over what criteria define SRI REITs.

EPA Expands Program Recognizing Corporate Environmental Performance
Environmental Protection Agency Performance Track Program certifies a new crop of company facilities, honors company-wide performance, and serves as an indicator for SRI research.

Biting the Hand That Feeds: Mutual Fund Ties to Corporate Clients Can Affect Proxy Voting
Study reveals that individual mutual fund firms do not alter proxy voting whether companies are clients or non-clients, but fund firms with more clients tend to vote and adopt voting policies favoring management.

Taco Bell Agrees to Pay Florida Tomato Pickers A Penny More Per Pound to End Boycott
Shareowner activists will also withdraw their resolution if parent company Yum! Brands agrees to join agricultural supply chain working group to address industry-wide reform.

Comparing Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase Policies: Which Stems Illegal Logging in Indonesia?
Before providing funding, financial institution policies requiring documentation certifying legitimate timber sourcing may help promote sustainable logging in Southeast Asia.

Campaign to Enhance Pharma Industry Accountability Broadens Shareowner Action
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility sent letters to over 2,750 institutional investors seeking support for three resolutions filed at nine pharmaceutical companies.

Community Credit Union Brings Hope to Low-Income Residents of the Mississippi Delta
Hope Community Credit Union launched a $15 million initiative supported by corporate investment and New Markets Tax Credits to promote economic justice in the Mid-South.

Carrots and Sweets: Tying Executive Remuneration to Extra-Financial Performance Indicators
A report from Henderson Global Investors and Universities Superannuation Scheme finds incentives for extra-financial performance tied to short-term instead of long-term indicators.

MMA Praxis International Fund Buoyed by Strong Performance in Global Markets
Growth is concentrated in sectors and companies that are excluded by social and environmental screens.

Tale of Two Reports: Sustainability Yearbook Compares Extra-Financial to Financial Reporting
Published jointly by Sustainable Asset Management and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the yearbook shows how adding extra-financial data to a financial report increases buy recommendations.

Web Design, Lobbying Disclosure Fuel Co-Operative Bank Win of UK Sustainability Reporting Awards
The award judges distinguished between sustainability and corporate social responsibility reporting, noting that many reports identifying themselves as the former (which are more rigorous) were actually the latter.

Book Review--Corporations and the Public Interest: Guiding the Invisible Hand
Steve Lydenberg eloquently describes corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investment, fields in which he is an expert, and recommends mechanisms to fuel their trajectories.

Binding Resolutions and Coordination Circumvent Structural Limitations of Shareowner Action
A preview of the 2005 proxy season reveals tactics that challenge the systemic imbalance of power favoring corporate management and directors over shareowners.

Deafening Silence: Corporate Political Contribution Non-Disclosure Impacts Shareowner Value
A Center for Political Accountability report documents corporate secrecy on political donations, and a Common Cause report reveals how mutual funds fail to support contribution transparency.

Mixed Messages and Flip-Flops as the SEC Director Nomination Rule Stagnates
While the SEC retracts its promise to allow shareowners to file director nomination resolutions, lawsuits secure shareowner rights to nominate directors.

Benchmarking Corporate Governance on Product Toxicity and Safer Alternatives
The benchmark, released by the Rose Foundation today, addresses the scientific uncertainty of product toxicity through risk assessment and opportunity identification instead of inaction.

Speaking From Both Sides of the Mouth: The Art and Science of Corporate Tax Avoidance
Three reports--by a US tax watchdog, a pair of US academics, and a UK socially responsible investment firm--find troubling trends in corporate tax strategies.

Community Investment Surpasses the $1 Billion Mark at The Rock
The Prudential Financial Social Investment Program, one of the oldest community investment programs in the country, has distributed more than $1 billion before its 30th anniversary.

List of Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies Highlights Alcoa, BP, and Toyota
Canadian corporate social responsibility magazine Corporate Knights sponsored the list, which is based on sustainability ratings from Innovest Strategic Value Advisors.

Two Socially Responsible Investment Exchange Traded Funds Launch
The iShares KLD Select Social Index Fund seeks broad diversification and low risk, while the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio ETF invests in renewable energy companies.

Calvert Foundation Community Investment Notes Go Electronic
For the first time, individual and institutional investors will be able to support community investment in the same way they transact most other investments--via computer.

Reigning In Raines on Bonuses Based on Earnings Before Restatements
With restatements of financial earnings reaching record levels in 2004, the question arises whether executive bonuses based on incorrect earnings statements should be recalculated.

Book Review--Faith and Fortune: The Quiet Revolution to Reform American Business
Fortune magazine writer Marc Gunther documents the growing link between spiritual values, which he defines broadly to include sustainability, and business conduct.

Pax World Tells Its Shareowners That Market Timers Hit Its High Yield Fund in 2003
In a letter to shareowners, Pax said it believes the market timing differed from the abusive forms associated with the mutual funds scandal and that shareowners did not suffer any material losses.

World Economic Forum Report Finds Decreasing Corporate Awareness and Response to AIDS
The report also finds an increase in companies adopting HIV/AIDS policies, a trend confirmed by the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS.

Monsanto $1.5 Million Fines for Genetic Engineering Bribe Illustrates Risks of GE Strategy
The penalties, levied by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, may lend credence to a shareowner resolution asking Monsanto to report on GE risks.

Enhanced Analytics Initiative Picks Sell-Side Brokerage Houses with Best Intangibles Research
EAI awards seven firms and three runners-up for outstanding sell-side analysis of corporate social and environmental issues.

2004 Socially Responsible Investment Fund Performance
Of the broadly-screened SRI mutual fund tracked by SocialFunds.com, two earned over 20 percent returns, and six others joined them in outperforming more than 80 percent of their SRI and non-SRI peer funds.

World Economic Forum and AccountAbility Report on Mainstreaming Responsible Investment
The report, based on three roundtables convened by the report sponsors, is particularly illuminating in representing attitudes and perceptions toward social and environmental issues of roundtable participants from the mainstream investment community.

ConocoPhillips Bows Out of Arctic Power, Green Century Withdraws ANWR Resolution
The oil company left the group lobbying to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a year ago and neglected to inform resolution filers, who were nonetheless pleased with the development.

Top Five Socially Responsible Investing News Stories of 2004
Shareowner engagement shifted from confrontational to collaborative, sustainability analysis fused with financial analysis, and fiduciary duty expanded to include social and environmental issues.

Addressing the Israel-Palestine Conflict Through Shareowner Action and Selective Divestment
Part two of this two-part article examines the Presbyterian Church USA's policy of "phased, selective divestment" and the Episcopal Church's decision to study the issue before responding.

To Divest or Not to Divest: Ethical Considerations of Addressing the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Part one of this two-part article examines across-the-board divestment from companies profiting off Israeli policies that harm Palestinians, and the case against divestment.

Latin American Forest Products Company Illustrates Best Practice Sustainability Reporting
Terranova issues its second Global Reporting Initiative-based sustainability report, exhibiting many exemplary practices such as stakeholder engagement and external verification.

Calvert First SRI Firm to Issue Global Reporting Initiative-Based Sustainability Report
While many small-to-medium-sized enterprises consider sustainability reporting prohibitive, Calvert finds value in doing what it asks publicly traded companies to do.

Dell and Starbucks First Companies to Endorse Calvert Women's Principles
The two companies publicly commit to implement the code in their business practices, setting a precedent for other companies to follow in promoting parity for women in business.

Unocal Alien Tort Claims Act Case Settlement Boosts Corporate Accountability
Some interpret the settlement between the energy company and Burmese villagers as setting a practical precedent for holding companies responsible for indirect human rights abuses.

New Indexes Seek to Link Corporate Governance and Diversity to Financial Performance
A DiversityInc index and joint FTSE-ISS indexes try to answer if diversity and corporate governance, respectively, correlate to financial outperformance.

Divesting from Genocide: More Conversation with Eric Reeves of the Divest Sudan Campaign
In part two of this two-part interview, Mr. Reeves discusses the significance of actions by the investment and legislative communities to address the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.

Divesting From Genocide: A Conversation with Eric Reeves of the Divest Sudan Campaign
In part one of this two-part interview, Mr. Reeves explains why shareowner action and direct dialogue with companies operating in Sudan is not an option in the context of genocide.

Corporations Fight to Keep Political Contributions in the Closet
The Center for Political Accountability expands its campaign by advancing shareowner resolutions asking companies to disclose political donations and to provide a business rationale for them.

Two Reports Reveal Proxy Votes Rubber-Stamp Management Recommendations
One finds the majority of top US mutual funds voting against climate change resolutions, the other finds contradictory proxy by Canadian pension fund managers.

Ford HIV Report Exemplifies New Shareowner Action Strategy
Ford joins Coca-Cola, Cinergy, and others heeding shareowner resolutions requesting reporting on social and environmental issues, but it remains to be seen how far the strategy will extend.

Bhopal, Climate Change Require Shift From Legal Liability to Moral Accountability
A report by SustainAbility examines how increasing legal liabilities are blending into moral liabilities, forcing companies to face social and environmental accountability.

Gap-Verite Collaboration Exemplifies Award-Winning Practice on Social Responsibility
Verite wins a Social Capitalist Award for labor standards monitoring such as its work with the Gap, whose Social Responsibility Report earns a Social Reporting Award.

ICCR Spends World AIDS Day Preparing Shareowner Resolutions for Upcoming Proxy Season
This year's resolution has expanded to cover operations in India and China as well as Africa, and ICCR is campaigning for pharma companies to provide better access to medicines for children.

FTSE4Good Raises the Bar With New Supply Chain Labor Standards Criteria
Launched last week, the new criteria allow companies already in FTSE4Good indexes limited time to implement policies, systems, and eventually reporting on supply chain labor standards.

Enhanced Analytics Initiative Offers Sell-Side Analysts Cash to Cover Intangibles
A group of European institutional investors launched EAI to encourage mainstream investment analysts to include issues such as corporate governance and climate change in their research.

Rating Corporate Sustainability: Behind the Scenes at Oekom Research
SocialFunds.com visits Oekom Research to get a more in-depth look at corporate social and environmental sustainability research.

European Socially Responsible Investment Firms Let the Sun Shine In
The European Social Investment Forum releases transparency guidelines covering seventeen socially responsible investment practitioners.

Integrating Sustainability at Xerox: A Talk with VP for Environment, Health, and Safety Jack Azar
In part two of this two-part interview, Mr. Azar discusses how Xerox integrates sustainability into its policies and practices.

Zero Waste and Industrial Ecology: A Talk with Xerox VP for Environment, Health, and Safety Jack Azar
In part one of this two-part interview, Mr. Azar discusses the history of waste-free policies and practices at Xerox.

Al Gore and David Blood Graft Sustainability Research into Traditional Investing Analysis
The former US vice president and the former Goldman Sachs CEO launch a new investment firm whose research team fully integrates sustainability with fundamentals.

Sustainability Reporting Improves, But Falls Short on Linking to Financial Performance
A new benchmarking survey correlates the top 50 corporate non-financial reports to credit ratings, but reports themselves fail to link financial and sustainability performance.

Paul Hawken Critiques Socially Responsible Investment: Is He On Target or Off Base?
A Natural Capital Institute report criticizes SRI for lack of standards and transparency on screening and holdings for shareowner action.

How to Open Your Own Socially Responsible Investment Retirement Portfolio
In this real-life profile, an SRI-oriented financial planner advises a 34 year-old woman how to transfer her non-SRI retirement account into a portfolio of SRI mutual funds.

Is CRA the Right Remedy for Race-Based Disparity in Mortgage Lending?
A new study finds significant disparity between lending to minorities versus whites, but a Community Reinvestment Act expert questions the focus on CRA as the cure.

European Utilities Top Oekom Sustainability Rankings, US Utilities Crowd the Bottom
Corporate sustainability rating firm Oekom Research rewards climate change mitigation and enhancing energy accessibility for the economically disadvantaged in its latest report.

SEC Decision on Shareowner Nomination of Corporate Board Directors Still Pending
Supporters and opponents of the proposed SEC rule granting shareowner access to the proxy to nominate directors advance their causes while the rule languishes in limbo.

Moskowitz Prize Study Removes Doubt Over Link Between Strong Corporate Social and Financial Performance
The study analyzes over 50 published studies on corporate social performance and corporate financial performance, and finds an unambiguous positive relationship.

Fonkoze Partners With Zanmi Lasante to Link Microfinance and Health in Haiti
The largest microfinance institution in Haiti teams with a renowned community health provider to launch a new bank and hospital in a rural village.

Socially Responsible Investment Assets On the Up and Up Down Under
The Ethical Investment Association in Australia reports that SRI assets have doubled in the three years it has been producing benchmarking surveys.

Are Electronic Components Producers Ready for Environmental Regulation?
A Citizens Advisors study surveys 26 electronics components companies, and projects that many of them will be unprepared for European Union laws taking effect in 2006.

FDIC Proposes Rule Watering Down Community Reinvestment Act Requirements
The SaveCRA.org website promotes opposition to the rule change, posting information and a sample letter to file with the FDIC before the end of the comment period tomorrow.

Abortion, Sexual Orientation Reveal Diversity of Socially Responsible Investment
The umbrella of socially responsible investment encompasses a wide diversity of values, running the gamut from social progressivism to cultural conservatism.

Shell and BP Top Innovest CSR Ratings of Integrated Oil and Gas Companies
Marathon and several companies operating in emerging markets sink to the bottom of the rankings of corporate social responsibility performers.

Calvert Fills Gap in Small- and Mid-Cap SRI Value Categories With Two New Funds
The two new funds add diversification options to the socially responsible investment (SRI) palate.

Morningstar Grades Mutual Fund Governance, SRI Funds Rate Well
Morningstar Fiduciary Grades find relatively few areas of weak performance for those socially responsible investment mutual funds rated.

Memo From: SRI Analysts To: Companies--Use GRI Sustainability Reporting Platform!
A coalition of 17 socially responsible investment firms recommends that companies disclose social and environmental data using the Global Reporting Initiative.

Global Survey of Socially Responsible Investment Finds Information Lacking
Questionnaire respondents express frustration over the reliability of social and environmental information on their SRI holdings, and financial planner ignorance of SRI.

Disclosure: How SEC Proxy Voting Rules May Shift the Definition of Fiduciary Duty
Will mandatory disclosure of mutual fund proxy voting records drive change in the general definition of fiduciary duty, or will the principle of undivided loyalty prevent this development? Part two of a two-part article.

Fiduciary Duty, Undivided Loyalty, and Socially Responsible Investment Performance
Does the principle of undivided loyalty preclude fiduciaries from practicing SRI, or will competitive SRI financial performance shift the definition of fiduciary Duty? Part one of a two-part article.

Apple Added, Time Warner and Petro-Canada Deleted from FTSE4Good Index Series
The biannual review of FTSE4Good constituents resulted in the addition of 79 companies and the deletion of 23.

Material Risks of Genetic Engineering Undisclosed by Food Companies, Report Says
A survey of the 35 largest food processors finds only two mentioning genetic engineering risks in their annual reports, and none analyzing these risks.

As Socially Responsible Investment Grows in Japan, FTSE4Good Launches New Index
Following on the introduction of the first SRI index by Morningstar Japan last year, FTSE4Good unveils the second SRI index covering the Japanese market exclusively.

SEC Asked to Let the Sun Shine on Corporate Political Contributions
A group of state and city treasurers and a watchdog group sent letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission requesting mandatory political contributions disclosure.

About Face: Cintas Settles Lawsuit and Supports Vendor Standards Resolution
In his apology, Tim Smith of Walden Asset Management highlights the need for accurate information, which Cintas promises to supply in the report requested by the resolution.

Conference Promotes Sustainability Through Corporate Collaboration
The Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) Business Innovation for Sustainability Forum calls for cooperation amongst companies as well as with stakeholders.

New Web Tool Identifies Climate Risk and Opportunity in 24 Biggest Mutual Funds
KLD Research & Analytics information reveals both positive and negative corporate performance on climate change, allowing retail investors to lobby their mutual funds.

First Alternative Energy Index Spawns Exchange Traded Fund
The WilderHill Clean Energy Index, published by the American Stock Exchange, will serve as the basis for an exchange traded fund from PowerShares Capital Management.

Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes Add General Electric and Drop Electrolux
The annual change in the DJSI is based on recent assessment of corporate economic, environmental and social performance.

As Mutual Funds Prepare to Reveal Proxy Votes, Guideline Disclosure Acts as Acid Test
Investor-friendly website accessibility to mutual funds' proxy voting guidelines may signal proxy voting record accessibility and investor-friendly proxy voting.

Got Water? Report Recommends Solutions for Businesses To Address Water Scarcity
A new Pacific Institute report outlines the impacts on business of water scarcity, and offers ten steps companies can take to help solve these problems.

US Banks Criticized for Involvement in China State Bank Bonds
Nongovernmental organizations and socially responsible investing firms criticize US banks for selling Chinese bonds that fund socially and environmentally problematic projects.

How Do SRI Firms Walk Their Talk When It Comes to Corporate Social Responsibility?
Socially responsible investment firms take particulars such as scale and sector into account in their CSR expectations at the companies they own and in their own operations.

Accuracy of Dow Chemical Statements and SEC Filings Questioned
On behalf of two socially responsible investment firms, an environmental attorney asks the SEC to probe the factuality of public statements and filings made by Dow Chemical.

The Value of Transformation: The Catholic Equity Fund
After transforming itself from three actively managed funds into one index fund, the Catholic Equity Fund works to transform corporate practice through shareowner advocacy.

CRAFund Goes Retail
Formerly available only to institutional investors, the Community Reinvestment Act Qualified Investment Fund is now available to individuals through Charles Schwab.

Climate Change a Nuisance? Nine State and City Attorneys General Bet a Lawsuit On It
The first climate change lawsuit against corporations, aimed at the top five US carbon dioxide emitters in the utility industry, cites federal common law on public nuisance.

Can Corporate Social Responsibility Put the Brakes on HIV in Africa?
A field report from Africa by Dan Rosan of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.

House Votes to Kill Mandatory Expensing of All Stock Options, Sending Bill to Senate
The House's passage of the Stock Option Accounting Reform Act reverses Sarbanes-Oxley's commitment to protect independence of FASB as the arbiter of accounting rules.

Two Socially Responsible Investing Funds Generate Double-Digit Year-to-Date Returns
The Ariel Fund and the Pax World Growth Fund perform well in the first half of this year.

How HIV/AIDS Impacts Corporations, and How Corporations Can Impact HIV/AIDS
The World Economic Forum and the International Labor Organization report on the impact of HIV/AIDS on business, but will companies respond by addressing HIV/AIDS?

The Responsible Summer Reading List
Fifteen recommended books on corporate sustainability and our general welfare

A Brief History of Sustainability Reporting
Part one of this two-part article outlines the history of sustainability reporting up to the present; part two projects trends in sustainability reporting into the future.

Does Supreme Court Validation of Alien Tort Claims Act Apply to Corporations?
Human rights organizations say yes, lawyers representing corporations in ATCA cases say no, but the Supreme Court opinion itself remains vague on the issue.

Calvert Group Launches Code for Corporations to Profit by Promoting Gender Equality
Calvert links equality for women to sustainable development, making the ethical and business cases for implementing its corporate code of conduct for empowering women.

Book Review--Profits With Principles: Seven Strategies for Delivering Value with Values
Pertinent case studies that illustrate corporate social responsibility best practice abound in this well-structured and well-written book.

Community Investment Institutions Managed By and Benefiting African Americans
Generations Community Credit Union, Carver Bancorp, and UrbanAmerica are three African American managed community investment institutions.

Rule Proposal Requires Canadian Mutual Funds To Disclose Proxy Votes and Guidelines
New Canadian Securities Administrators rule closely resembles the US Securities and Exchange rule.

The Emergence Story Behind Indigenous Peoples Rights Screens
Socially responsible investment firms also engage in shareowner action on indigenous peoples rights issues.

Governance Overhaul: An Interview with Tyco Corporate Governance VP Eric Pillmore
Mr. Pillmore speaks candidly with SocialFunds.com about rebuilding reputation and trust, engaging stakeholders, and increasing transparency.

US Socially Responsible Investment Indexes Diverse in Style, Study Says
A study presented at a recent socially responsible investment conference finds variability in US SRI index construction.

Are the Equator Principles Sincere or Spin?
A report calls into question whether signatory banks are complying with the Equator Principles.

Sarona Supports Microfinance To Help Alleviate Poverty in Developing Regions
The Sarona Global Investment Fund finances starch processing in Paraguay, a foundation supporting small enterprises in Romania, and a savings and loan cooperative in Haiti.

New SRI Index Optimizes Social and Environmental Performance and Controls Risk
The KLD Select Social Index caters to institutional investors by underweighting companies with weak social and environmental performance instead of exc