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RI round-up Jan 22
RI’s regular round-up of the most important responsible investment news.
France’s Forum for Responsible Investment (FIR) has announced the winners of the fourth FIR Prize for European Research in finance and sustainable development, supported by Eurosif and the UNPRI. Each research winner was awarded €5000. The prize for best research article was awarded to the joint paper by Diego Nocetti (USA), Elyès Jouini (France/Tunisie), and Clotilde Napp (France) on the cost/benefit analysis of social and environmental projects titled: “Properties of the social discount rate in a Benthamite framework with heterogeneous degrees of impatience.” The best Master’s thesis was awarded to Mélanie Oschlies, a German studying at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, for a paper looking at why renewable energy is not yet attractive enough for investors, titled: “A behavioral finance perspective on sustainable energy environment decisions. The best doctorate paper was awarded to Nils Kok at Maastricht University for a paper on the environment and long-term property values, titled: “Corporate governance and sustainability in global property markets. FIR also distributed three research bourses worth €3000 each: the first to Dorothee Techmann, studying at Paris-Dauphine University for research on internalising costs in large infrastructure projects; the second goes to Oguzhan Karakas and Elroy Dimson at London Business School for work on the relationship between the corporate social responsibility (CSR), practices of a firm and its value/performance; the third to Sonia Rahal at the Sorbonne in Paris on reconciling solidarity and profit in microfinance projects in Senegal. Link to site
A group of the largest US foundations has launched a campaign challenging their peers to dramatically
increase their investments in community development, environmental sustainability and other so-called “mission investing” strategies. The More for Mission Campaign, with a leadership committee of 24 foundation CEOs that represent close to $19 billion in assets, is challenging other foundations to increase mission investments by at least 2 percent of total foundation assets – some $12 billion over the next five years. The campaign has developed a resource centre at the Boston College Institute for Responsible Investment. Link to site
Sustainable Asset Management (SAM), the Swiss RI manager has opened an office in Toronto for a push into the Canadian market. The manager has hired Andrew Kavouras, a former vice-president for institutional client services at CDP Capital, the fund management arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, to head its Canadian office.
A sub-prime losses lawsuit against Merrill Lynch led by the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System has resulted in a $475m (€367m) settlement by the US bank. The suit, originally filed in 2007, alleged that the pension fund and other investors in Merrill Lynch stock suffered “substantial losses” when the company wrote down billions of dollars in assets backed by sub-prime mortgages two years ago, according to a statement from the office of Richard Cordray, Ohio Attorney General.
A report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released by Senators Byron Dorgan and Carl Levin said that a majority of the largest publicly-traded companies and federal contractors in the United States use subsidiaries in offshore tax havens to conduct business, potentially depriving the US of $100 billion in lost tax revenues each year.
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