Additional ESG / SRI Resources
Each Fund Company offers resources via their websites. Performance metrics as well as investments and style of investing among other topics. Spend time with each company learning about how they choose their investments and what they do as shareholders of those companies.
Shareholder Advocacy is one area you could research. Here is what Pax Funds says about it:
“Our shareholder resolutions focus on persuading companies to adopt higher standards of corporate responsibility.”
For more on Pax Sustainable Investing position follow this link.
Remember each fund company offers the same resources for plan sponsors or participants.
The following handbooks cover specific area issues on ESG / SRI investing:
Fiduciary duty in the 21st century. This report is a landmark piece in the global dialogue on the relevance of sustainability to fiduciary duty. By clearly defining the full remit of fiduciary duty and providing recommendations for how it should be implemented, this work serves as a definitive guide for any fiduciary unsure of the role that sustainability should play in their decision-making process.
Untangling stakeholders for broader impact: ERISA plans and ESG incorporation. The case for ESG incorporation by US private sector retirement plans has evolved over the last 30 years; from articulating that ESG is not prohibited, to demonstrating that ESG incorporation creates clear benefits for investors, to now viewing ESG incorporation as a core element of fiduciary duty. This report, which focuses on ESG incorporation in ERISA plans, has been prepared by Godeke Consulting on behalf of the Fiduciary Duty in the 21st Century project.
Investing to Advance Women: A Guide for Individual & Institutional Investors seeks to drive investors to investment opportunities that empower women and address the socioeconomic challenges they face. The guide highlights strategies that investors can use to address gender inequality within their own holdings of stocks, mutual funds, fixed income and cash instruments. The guide also suggests other strategies that investors can take such as shareholder engagement.
Investing to Curb Climate Change: A Guide for the Institutional Investor is designed for investors such as foundations, family offices, university endowments, pension funds, insurance companies, banks and registered investment companies. Individuals who are accredited investors will also find this a helpful source of information. This guide highlights strategies available for institutional investors to manage climate change risks in their investment portfolios and help generate solutions. The guide highlights strategies that investors can utilize across all asset classes, including private equity. The guide outlines several public policy initiatives that will facilitate investments in clean energy and energy efficiency as well strategies for influencing organizations and institutions in their communities to adopt more climate-sensitive investment policies.
Investing to Curb Climate Change: A Guide for the Individual Investor seeks to meet the increasing interest of a wide range of investors in using their investment dollars to address the risks of climate change and to help generate solutions. The guide highlights strategies that retail investors can use not only to address climate change within their own holdings of stocks, mutual funds, fixed income and cash instruments, but also to encourage institutions in their communities to adopt more climate-sensitive investment policies. The guide also suggests several public policy initiatives investors can support to facilitate investments in clean energy and energy efficiency.
Confronting Corporate Money in Politics seeks to assist investors concerned about the growing and largely undisclosed flows of corporate money to influence elections and politics in the United States. The guide highlights practical strategies that investors can use to encourage corporations whose shares they own to disclose or curb their political expenditures. It also offers strategies for investors in mutual funds and bank accounts. In the realm of public policy, the guide suggests initiatives for investors to support.
To learn more about the positive impact SRI / ESG investments have had in recent years, check The Impact of Sustainable and Responsible Investment. In this document, you will find examples of these impacts:
- Changing the Investment Industry and Adding Options for Investors
- Improvement of Companies Through Active Ownership and Engagement
- Helping Communities and Individuals
- Influencing Public Policy and Developing Global Standard-Setting Organizations
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Source: http://www.ussif.org/howdoisri