Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)
The Carbon Disclosure Project is an independent not-for-profit organization with the goal of creating a lasting relationship between shareholders and corporations regarding the implications of climate change on shareholder value and commercial operations. Its goal is to facilitate a dialogue, supported by quality information, from which a rational response to climate change will emerge.
CDP provides a coordinating secretariat for institutional investors with a combined $57 trillion of assets under management. On their behalf it seeks information on the business risks and opportunities presented by climate change and greenhouse gas emissions data from the world’s 3,000 largest companies (as of 2008). During the past eight years, CDP has become the “gold standard” for carbon disclosure methodology and processes, and the CDP website is the largest repository of corporate greenhouse gas emissions data in the world.
CDP leverages its data and process by making its information requests and responses from corporations publicly available, helping catalyze the activities of policymakers, consultants, accountants and marketers.
Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes
Launched in 1999, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes are the first global indexes tracking the financial performance of the leading <
sustainability-driven companies worldwide. Based on the cooperation of Dow Jones Indexes, STOXX Limited and SAM they provide asset managers with reliable and objective benchmarks to manage sustainability portfolios.
Increasingly, investors are diversifying their portfolios by investing in companies that set industry-wide best practices with regard to sustainability.
Innovest Strategic Value Advisors
Innovest Strategic Value Advisors is part of RiskMetrics, It is the #1-ranked provider of extra-financial research for the investment community. Innovest specializes in analyzing companies’ performance on environmental, social, and strategic governance issues, with a particular focus on their impact on competitiveness, profitability, and share price performance. By assessing differentials typically not identified by traditional securities analysis, Innovest’s ratings uncover hidden risks and hidden value potential for investors.
Innovest Strategic Value Advisors was founded in 1995 with the mission of integrating sustainability and finance by identifying non-traditional sources of risk and value potential for investors. Its analysis is designed to assist clients with constructing and managing portfolios that out-perform the market. It does this by tracking company performance and strategic positioning on over 120 factors that are not captured or explained by the traditional, accounting-driven securities analysis.
KLD Research and Analytics (KLD)
KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. is now part of RiskMetrics. It is an investment research firm providing management tools to professionals integrating environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) into their investment decisions.
KLD products and services are used by more than 400 clients worldwide to integrate ESG criteria into qualitative/exclusionary screening, compliance and asset gathering.
KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. is the leading authority on social research and indexes for institutional investors.
Since 1988, institutional investors, managers, trustees, consultants and advisors have depended on the quality and expertise of KLD. Today, 31 of the top 50 institutional money managers worldwide use KLD’s research to integrate environmental, social and governance factors into their investment decisions.
Featuring one of the largest independent corporate research staffs in the world, KLD provides performance benchmarks, corporate accountability research and consulting services analogous to those provided by financial research service firms.
Its mission is to provide global research and index products to facilitate the integration of environmental, social, and governance factors into the investment process:
- To define, by means of our products and services, accountability standards that enable investors, managers and fiduciaries to influence corporate behavior through their investment decisions and share ownership; and
- To effect, through this influence, greater corporate accountability and, ultimately, a more just and sustainable world.
Natural Capital Institute (SRI Database Home)
The Natural Capital Institute [NCI] instigated a project in June 2003, to capture and publish holdings of all SRI mutual funds throughout the world, along with the methods employed by asset managers for company selection. The allocation of investments among publicly held corporations was of particular interest.
It identified virtually every retail SRI mutual fund in the world with equity holdings, drawing from information that was publicly or privately available, and created a unique searchable database. The Beta version became publicly available in mid-October 2004. (North America fund information is current to September 30, 2004, and the holdings, performance data, and SRI screen methodology for the balance of world funds is in progress. Most world data in the database is current to first quarter 2004.)
A complete explanation of the scope and methodology – how we located and determined information to include in the database, can be found on pages 7 – 14 in our October 2004 report, Socially Responsible Investing.
Social Investment Forum
The Social Investment Forum (SIF) is the only national membership association dedicated to advancing the concept, practice, and growth of socially and environmentally responsible investing (SRI). Our members integrate economic, environmental, social and governance factors into 
their investment decisions and SIF provides programs and resources to advance this work.
SIF’s membership includes more than 500 social investment practitioners and institutions, including financial professionals, analysts, portfolio managers, banks, mutual funds, researchers, foundations, community development organizations, and public educators.
The Progressive Investor
The clean-technology era we are entering is often compared in scale to the rise of the telecommunications industry in the early 1980s. This is a gigantic opportunity. Society is in the early stages of the next huge wave of innovation, of investment opportunity, of business creativity. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in young companies that are changing the world for the better. Investors in solar and wind stocks have seen them skyrocket of over the past few years, even while the overall market has been relatively flat.
Progressive Investor shows how and when to invest in the companies leading the way to a clean economy such as renewable energy, green building, green products and organic foods. It is the only newsletter that covers the top sustainable companies across the full range of industry sectors worldwide. It helps individuals make informed, financially-sound investments that support their ethical principles.
