| From across the nation and around the world, INSIGHTS-edge brings you news, commentary and research in key areas of interest regarding ESG, Sovereign Wealth Funds and US Public Sector Pension Funds. We watch the watchers...who are watching you. ESG / Sustainability Merger to expand The Corporate Library's reach
(Source: MaineBiz) Richard Bennett, president and CEO of The Corporate Library in Portland, says the merger with GovernanceMetrics International in New York City provides "a platform for growth" and a greater global reach. The Corporate Library, a corporate governance research and risk rating firm, will add more than 2,400 new public companies to its database, enhancing the information available to investment and insurance professionals.
Just Pay It: Nike Creates Fund for Honduran Workers
(Source: Time) It's no secret that the global economy hasn't exactly been a boon to the labor movement. But globalization can be cruelest to the Third World employees it was supposed to raise out of poverty. As developing countries compete for investment from large foreign corporations, they all too often push workers' wages, benefits and rights so low that many of them ought to be called sweatshop nations today instead of banana republics.
International Investor Coalition Urgently Calls for Improved Working Conditions in Electronics Manufacturing Facilities
(Source: Boston Asset Management/ CSRWire) BOSTON - In light of a series of suicides at the Foxconn Electronics facility in China, a broad coalition of over 40 European, Australian and U.S. investors have joined their voices to issue a public statement condemning abusive workplace conditions in the global electronics supply chain. Worker abuses such as excessive overtime and supervisor harassment which are endemic in the electronics manufacturing sector have been cited by non-governmental organizations as contributing to excessive stress and grave mental health issues among factory workers. In issuing this statement, the group, led by Boston Common Asset Management, LLC, Trillium Asset Management Corporation, As You Sow and Domini Social Investments LLC, all members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, sends a strong message to the electronics manufacturers in their portfolios urging stricter supply chain compliance. Sovereign Wealth Funds Beyond Oil: Global Energy Security & Sovereign Wealth Funds
(Source: Journal of Energy Security) Does the rise of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), government owned investment vehicles, as relevant financial and political vehicles have any relevance for the analysis of energy security? “An issue ignored is a crisis invited”, Henry Kissinger once pointedly remarked. For the past decades, the industrialized economies of the West and the oil producers of the Gulf region have been linked by an uneasy, yet robust energy supply and demand relationship, determining respective political agendas and interests. It now might be profoundly challenged as both parties seek to distance themselves from what they perceive as an unhealthy dependence on oil.
A Lebanon fund: what we should know
(Source: Daily Star) The possibility that Lebanon might benefit from exploiting massive natural resources that exist off shore in the eastern Mediterranean has provoked a debate about establishing a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) to manage the accumulated revenues
Norwegian sovereign fund eyes a stake in Regent Street
(Source: Telegraph.co.uk) Norway's sovereign wealth fund is in the running to buy a stake in Regent Street, one of the world's most famous shopping destinations and a prized asset of the Crown Estate, The Daily Telegraph understands. |
Coming Soon…
We are in the process of upgrading INSIGHTS-edge, including the addition of many more profiles, identification of ESG critical issues of importance to corporations and investors, adding to the toolbox (twitter, customized email alerts and more). You will see the 2.0 version soon. And, we are rebranding the platform to better identify the focus of our efforts:SustainabilityHQTM
will be here September 1, 2010.
Contents © 2009
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noted where appropriate.
Please credit the source if quoted. |
US Public Sector Pension Funds N.Y. Comptroller Files Separate Suits Against Merrill, BofA Over Pension Fund
(Source: Law.com) The potential recovery for New York state pensioners from existing shareholder litigation against Bank of America and Merrill Lynch apparently is not big enough to satisfy New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. On Thursday DiNapoli, who is the sole trustee for New York's $132.6 billion Common Retirement Fund, filed separate suits against Merrill and Bank of America in Manhattan federal district court, claiming the banks misled the New York pension fund about their exposure to subprime mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to their 2008 merger.
Md. judge orders company to pay pension fund $39m
(Source: The Washington Examiner) A Maryland judge has ordered a financial consulting company to pay $39 million to the state's pension fund for miscalculating how much the state owed retirees since the early 1980s. The $31.8 billion pension fund was initially seeking $73 million from Seattle-based Milliman Inc., which the state hired to calculate its pension contributions for judges, state police, transit police, and other law enforcement officers from 1982 to 2004. Acadian Named by New York City Comptroller as Among 6 Fired Fund Managers
(Source: Bloomberg) New York City Comptroller John Liu said Acadian Asset Management LLC, a Boston company that managed $646 million for three city pension funds, was one of six investment advisers dismissed for “poor performance.” Liu’s disclosure yesterday responded to an April 11 Bloomberg News request under the state Freedom of Information Law that he name the managers he said on April 8 he had fired. His office said June 11 that Emerald Infrastructure Development Fund LP and RiverSource Investments LLC were two of the six. Watching the Watchers  GES Investment Services
Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden; Copenhagen, Denmark; research center in Poland
Established: 1992, as CaringCompany
KEY COLLABORATIONS
the former SiRi. Also: Participant in the UN Global Compact, UN PRI, and a member of Concito, Denmark’s first green think tank.
OVERVIEW/MISSION
GES describes itself as a “research and service provider for responsible investment.” GES, which stands for Global Ethical Standard, believes “sustainability pays off.” GES states its mission as “To make it a little bit better, everyday.” GES fulfills this mission for client investors, companies, GES itself, and the world at large. Principles include providing quality research, improving governance and performance of companies, and holding constructive, educational dialogue with companies on behalf of investors.
GES repeatedly (and clearly) expresses its values in its code of conduct: long-term commitment, integrity, respect, and responsibility. Its principles address legal compliance, relations with business partners, transparency, conflict of interest, environment, and human rights. GES also states its “independence policy,” which lists political, religious and financial independence, plus expectations that GES associates behave objectively, fairly, neutrally, and impartially.
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