Responsible Investor

RI Global news round-up 08/01/08

RI’s bite-sized report of the world’s major responsible investment stories

PGGM, the €88bn Dutch pension fund for healthcare workers, has appointed a high-ranking ethical advisory committee including a Dutch politician and senior human rights academics to oversee its increasing commitment to responsible investment. The new advisers are Rein Willems, a Christian Democrat member of the lower house of the Netherlands Parliament, who until recently served as president of Shell Nederland, Cees Flinterman, honorary professor of human rights at Utrecht University, and Cees Homan, who has held posts including that of senior research fellow at the Clingendael Institute, the Dutch institute of international relations. Else Bos, chief executive at PGGM Investments, said: “We welcome the appointment of these prominent experts on climate change, human rights and the arms industry; three themes that are very important to us. They will help us to implement the ethical aspects of our responsible investment policy.” The ethical advisers will advise PGGM’s Board of Governors in developing and implementing the fund’s investment exclusion and engagement policy and will assess the ethical aspects of investment proposals. PGGM is increasing its five-strong, in-house responsible investment team to about eight members and will make further recruitments in the coming months. The fund recently hired Alex van der Velden, former executive director of FairPensions, the UK lobby group for responsible investing, as a responsible investment director in charge of portfolio assets.


The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) has elected Rob Tacon, London-based head of risk reporting at Standard Chartered, as its chair for the coming two-year period.
UNEP FI is a global partnership between the UN and more than 160 financial institutions, including banks, insurers and fund managers, to understand the impacts of environmental and social considerations on financial performance.
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is inviting investors to participate in its sixth survey of the carbon emissions of the world’s largest 2,800 companies, which will be sent out on February 1. The service is free of charge and gives participants access to all responses received, including those not authorised to be made publicly available. DS – The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a global standardised mechanism by which companies report their greenhouse gas emissions to their investors, recently announced it was expanding to include the Netherlands.
The CDP said investor participation should be confirmed no later than Friday, 18 January 2008 by contacting info@cdproject.net
EEA, the London-based specialist environmental fund manager founded by Simon Shaw, former investment funds director at Clerical Medical Investment Management, has opened a US office to support its expanding investment activities in North and South America. The Washington, DC base will be run by

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