SocialFunds.com
Daily news from Socialfunds.com covering socially responsible investing and corporate responsibility

• Screening for Satisfaction
  By Anne Moore Odell. The 2007 Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible Investing was awarded to a study that shows higher employee satisfaction has historically correlated to higher stock prices.
• Buying and Selling Loans for the Good of Communities
  By Anne Moore Odell. The Community Reinvestment Fund USA offers investors a way to help keep capital flowing into community development organizations.
• Socially Responsible Investing Branches Out Over Asset Classes
  By Anne Moore Odell. A handbook published by Boston College's Institute for Responsible Investment outlines how managers can diversify socially responsible investments.
• Giving to the Givers: Honoring Community Development Organizations
  By Anne Moore Odell. The Wachovia NEXT Awards for Opportunity Finance names ACCION Texas and the Latino Community Credit Union for its 2007 $8.25 million prize.
• Burning Bunker Fuel: The Shipping Industry's Dirty, Not-So-Secret Shame
  By Anne Moore Odell. Friends of the Earth is extremely concerned about the greenhouse gases and other pollutants ships spew into the atmosphere. The UN agency working on the issue stands behind the shipping industry's efforts to comply with international protocols.
• SEC Sacrifices Shareholder Rights to Achieve Temporary Certainty
  By Bill Baue. 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
  By Anne Moore Odell. 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
  By Anne Moore Odell. 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
  By Anne Moore Odell. Google promises millions of dollars to create inexpensive renewable energy.
• Sustainability Issues All Over the Map at Large Cap Companies
  By Anne Moore Odell. An extensive study from RiskMetrics shows sustainability governance among companies varies widely from country to country, and from sector to sector.
• Environmental, Social and Governance Standards: Glass Half-Empty or Half-Full?
  By Bill Baue. The spread of voluntary and mandatory ESG disclosure and performance standards for business raises the question, how robust is implementation and enforcement?
• Taking the Pulse of the Electric and Natural Gas Utilities Sector
  By Anne Moore Odell. KLD's newest report provides investors with insight on how US and European utilities are dealing with environmental and societal concerns.
• Consumers Demand Companies Walk Their Green Talk
  By Anne Moore Odell. The growing number of consumers who identify themselves as "conscious" creates more opportunities for sustainable companies.
• Wal-Mart's First Sustainability Report: Just a Gesture or a Just Account?
  By Anne Moore Odell. 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
  By Bill Baue. 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
  By Anne Moore Odell. 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
  By Anne Moore Odell. 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
  By Anne Moore Odell. A report from McKinsey & Company finds that more CEOs are including environmental, social, and governance issues in core strategies.
• Good Mortgages Still Going to Good People
  By Anne Moore Odell. Community development financial institutions and their customers across the country are disproving the idea that low-income people are mortgage risks.
• Book Review: The Clean Tech Revolution
  By Francesca Rheannon. 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.