Paul Hawken's new website, www.responsibleinvesting.org, Allows Investors to View Complete Equity Holdings of SRI Funds Worldwide
A new website provides a comprehensive view of the equity holdings of socially responsible investment ("SRI") mutual funds in North America and worldwide.
Sponsored by the nonprofit Natural Capital Institute (NCI), it is intended to be an easy-to-use research tool for investors who want to know more about which companies SRI funds are holding. Visitors can peruse equity holdings, SRI screens and performance data of mutual funds around the world that use non-financial screening criteria in their portfolio selection process.
The database is based on the recent report analyzing the SRI industry, "Socially Responsible Investing: How the SRI Industry Has Failed to Respond to People Who Want to Invest With Conscience and What Can Be Done to Change It." The report includes recommendations to help the industry improve its transparency and social responsibility, and is available at the website.
Hawkin hopes to push the industry forward by developing common standards. Says Hawken, "Investors are unable to determine how and why particular companies are included in portfolios. The fund companies don't have to tell their investors what their standards are, or how they apply them. And there is no commonality in terms and definitions."
The new website focuses on both SRI funds and the companies held by those funds. In its present beta version, the site contains current information for North American SRI funds, while updates are in progress for funds from other continents.
About Paul Hawken
Paul Hawken is the best-selling author of The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability and co-author of Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. www.paulhawken.com.
About the Natural Capital Institute
The Natural Capital Institute (NCI) researches principles and practices leading to social justice and environmental restoration. NCI initiates projects relating to the relationship between human and living systems, with particular emphasis on ecological economics, green business, innovative design, and social justice. NCI believes the current downward spiral of environmental and social conditions can be arrested and that a just and restorative economy is possible.