January 10, 2001

FINANCIAL GIANTS PUSH SOCIAL INVESTING INTO THE MAINSTREAM

SocialFunds.com Analyzes the Impact of Last Year’s Top Social Investing Stories

Brattleboro, VT - SRI World Group, Inc. announced through its website, SocialFunds.com, the top social investing stories of 2000. They are:
1) The Vanguard Group’s launching of its first social mutual fund;
2) TIAA-CREF'S introduction of its first social mutual fund for individuals; and
3) the announcement of California’s multifaceted plan to incorporate social investing into the overall investing strategy of its CalPERS pension fund.
" These standout events of 2000 indicate that the social investing market is becoming lucrative enough to attract big-name financial players," said Jay Falk, President of SRI World Group, Inc.
The launch of Vanguard's first socially and environmentally screened mutual fund is the year’s top story. The Vanguard Group, the nation's second largest mutual fund firm, introduced the Vanguard Calvert Social Index Fund in May. The fund is designed to track the performance of the Calvert Social Index, a benchmark comprising large- and mid-cap stocks. The index was developed by the Calvert Group, a recognized leader in socially responsible investing.
Vanguard manages more than $550 billion in assets and serves more than 14 million shareholder accounts. The impact of its entry into social investing is marked by the economy of scale it brings. The expense ratio of the Vanguard Calvert Social Index Fund, which is the management fee that Vanguard charges to investors, is an extremely low 0.25 percent.
"Vanguard's entry into the social investing market immediately gives 14 million customers access to a social investing option in their fund family," Falk commented.
TIAA-CREF's introduction of its first social mutual fund for individual investors was the second top story of 2000. TIAA-CREF, an acronym for the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund, is the world's largest private retirement system with over $290 billion in assets under management. Their new fund, the Social Choice Equity Mutual Fund, became available to investors last April. It is modeled after the Social Choice Account, which TIAA-CREFF has been offering to its retirement participants for ten years. The Social Choice Equity Mutual Fund uses social screens that include the avoidance of alcohol, tobacco, weapons, nuclear energy, and companies that have not adopted the MacBride Principles for fair employment in Northern Ireland.
Similar to Vanguard, the significance of TIAA-CREFs’ move is the economy of scale it brings. The annual expense ratio of the Social Choice Equity Mutual Fund is 0.27 percent.
The third top story was the California Public Employees Retirement System’s (CalPERS) announced plans to incorporate social investing in its overall investment strategy. The effort to embrace social investing is being spearheaded by California State Treasurer Philip Angelides. CalPERS is the nations largest public pension fund with approximately $170 billion in assets.
In June the CalPERS Board of Administration, of which Angelides is a member, made a commitment to mobilize $8 billion to broaden economic opportunity for Californians in underserved areas. This three-year community investment effort by CalPERS will leverage 2 percent of its assets to spur private capital investment in economically struggling areas in California.
Four months later, the CalPERS board decided to sell the more than $500 million in tobacco stock in its portfolio. And finally in December, CalPERS initiated a plan to screen all investments in emerging markets for compliance with human rights, labor and environmental standards. The new standards, to be set in motion as early as 2002, will affect about 2 percent of CalPERS assets. Their implementation may become a watershed event in terms of a public institution participation in social investing.
"Yet again the trailblazer, California will find its initiatives being watched and copied by other states" said Falk about the plans. "This development has significant implications for the future of public pension management," he added.
SRI World Group, Inc is an Internet-based financial information services firm. The company operates SocialFunds.com, a comprehensive personal finance site for social investors. The SocialFunds.com site features daily coverage of social investment news, a corporate social research center that covers the social and environmental performance of more than 1,000 US companies, social mutual fund data, shareholder resolutions, community investing, and financial advice. SRI World Group also operates CSRwire.com, a newswire service devoted to corporate social responsibility press releases from Fortune 1000 companies, and which also features information about corporate social responsibility events.

Contact: Jay Falk, President
Telephone: (802) 251-0500
Fax: (802) 251-0555
E-mail: jfalk@sriworld.com