|
SRI World Group
president Jay Falk interview with Sky Radio (January 2001)
Sure … the number one
goal when you invest is to make money. But there’s a growing trend
among investors: Socially conscious investing. Investing in companies
that respect the environment. That support diversity. That make
contributing to the future as important as contributing to the bottom
line.
And it’s a strategy that’s paying off.
Jay Falk is the CEO of SRI World Group. And he is here to talk about
this growing interest in social investing and corporate responsibility
issues.
1. Why is socially
conscious investing taking off?
There are
a number reasons. First, there is a growing awareness of the concept
of social investing among individual and institutional investors.
Investors are beginning to realize that they can influence corporate
behavior by investing with their values. The second reason, is that
there is a broad range of competitive financial products available
to investors, particularly among socially responsible mutual funds.
This was not the case even just five or ten years ago.
2. What kinds of issues are today’s investors concerned with?
Although
issues vary from one investor to another, but environmental issues
seem to top the list for most investors. Other issues include human
rights, diversity, sweatshops, community and employee relations,
product safety. Issues concerning executive compensation and genetically
modified foods have also emerged in recent years, as well.
3. Your company runs socialfunds-dot-com. Tell us about this site.
SocialFunds.com
is a personal finance site devoted exclusively to socially responsible
investing. It features a variety of interactive tools and daily
news, all geared toward individual investors that have an interest
in social investing. This site offers complete coverage of socially
responsible mutual funds, community investment, and shareholder
activism.
3. What areas of the site generate the most interest?
Our Mutual
Fund Center has been the most popular, obviously most individuals
use mutual funds these days, so it is quite popular. However, we
recently added an exciting new area to SocialFunds.com - the Corporate
Social Research Center.
This Center features corporate social and environmental research
reports on over 1,000 publicly traded companies. For the first time,
investors now have the information that they need to evaluate individual
companies and their social performance. The Corporate Social Research
Center also allows individuals to compare records of companies....and
determine whether or not a company is operating in accordance with
their personal values.
4. You also run CSRwire-dot-com. Who is this site designed for?
Corporate
Social Responsibility Wire or CSRwire features company press release
pertaining to a wide range of corporate social responsibility issues.
This site attracts primarily investment professionals, institutional
investors, business and financial media, We are also getting individual
investors and even consumers who are using the site now.
5. What type of issues are we talking about that are covered by CSR
wire-dot-com.
The press
releases found on CSRwire generally relate to business ethics, the
environment, human rights, community economic development. You'll
also find press releases on volunteerism and corporate philanthropy
as well as corporate governance. It is really a wide range of issues.
6. Why should businesses care about these issues?
Consumers,
investors.... and even employees are increasingly considering corporate
social responsibility issues in their decision making process. The
emerging information based global economy is really requiring companies
to become more transparent in their activities and more responsible.
Another reason why businesses should care about these issues is
that because there is a very competitive marketplace out there and
reputation is everything. As consumers look at one product or another
the product differentiation is quite small and that is where a companies
company’s reputation can be really critical in their decision.
7. What is the future of social investing and corporate social responsibility?
Right now,
social investing is clearly moving into the mainstream. Some major
players and well known financial institutions and companies that
are now offering products. TIAA-CREF, Vanguard Funds, Merrill Lynch,
all have socially responsible mutual funds available now. We also
have Dow Jones active in this area as well. They have launched a
sustainability index. So, clearly the more mainstream financial
institutions are becoming more interested. We also have a wide range
of public pension funds - California and New York State also have
been very active in this area. It is clear to me that this is not
going to go away. People are increasingly interested in casting
their economic vote. Whether it is through what they purchase or
how they invest in companies that they agree with, that they can
feel good about.
|
