Responsible Investor

Global product sales based on clean energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal power and biofuel could grow to as much as $1 trillion a year by 2030, according to US bank Morgan Stanley.
In a research note, the US bank said global population growth and soaring prices for fossil fuels were driving the market along with dropping costs in clean energy and concern about energy security and climate change.

The $13.1bn New Zealand state superannuation fund has pulled NZ$37.6m (US$28.2m) from tobacco holdings to meet its responsible investment framework. Adrian Orr, chief executive of the New Zealand Superannuation Guardians, said: “In assessing the issue of tobacco manufacture, the board concluded that the fund’s investment in this sector was inconsistent with our responsible investment standards. This decision was based on product safety issues and New Zealand’s commitment to specific international conventions.”

Craig Mackenzie, the highly regarded specialist in socially responsible investment issues, is leaving his post in charge of development of CSR and SRI research issues at Glasgow Caledonian University’s Centre for Ethics in Public Policy and Corporate Governance, to take up a post at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Management. He starts on November 1. Mackenzie is also socially responsible investment advisor to Hymans Robertson, the investment consultant.

The Rainforest Action Network has accused Bank of America of environmental destruction in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina through its financing of mountaintop removal coal mining and the construction of new coal-fired power plants.
Activists draped a 50-foot banner reading “Bank of America: Funding Coal, Killing Communities” across the street from the bank’s headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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