What is Corporate Social Responsibility? - InnoTrain CSR

or ecological grants purposes for example at alternative banks to direct investments
into companies listed on the stock exchange and newly developed business models
of micro finance banks. However, commercial paper investment funds with an ethical
and sustainable focus play the greatest economic role. Sustainability agencies and
corresponding departments of specialised banks evaluate the ethical performance of
companies and issuers of fixed-interest investment papers based on differentiated
methods.
For example, sustainability funds can be selected separately according to the
following procedures or they can have a mixed composition:
Criteria-guided funds: The investor compiles his portfolio of companies and/or bond
issuers based on an extensive list of clearly defined positive and negative criteria.
This allows for example the specific investment into companies whose products or
management methods are ecologically or socially advanced.
"Best in class" approach: The method defines a ranking list in an industry which is
used to grade companies for certain characteristics in the ecological and social
sector. This procedure promotes the specific competition with respect to social and
ecological performance, especially among large enterprises.
Pioneer funds: Investors consciously focus on the narrow market segment of
ecological and social role models. They take a relatively high economic risk which is
associated with an equally high opportunity.
With respect to institutional investors such as for example foundations and church
establishments, "unethical" investment would lead to public protest and damage of
the image because of the non-profit character of these organisations. However, a
comparable contradiction can also occur with respect to privately operated actors, if
the CSR criteria of the company are not at the same time applied to investment
measures.
Additional information and resources
Example of a bank in Germany with ethical ecological orientation:
GLS Gemeinschaftsbank e.G.
http://www.gls.de
Example of a bank in Portugal with ethical and social responsible orientation:
http://www.montepio.pt/ePortal/v10/PT/jsp/montepio/ResponsabilidadeSocial.jsp
The project "InnoTrain CSR" is organized by GILDE GmbH and has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 12/2010
,
InnoTrain CSR
www.csr-training.eu