Eighteen months ago, cheers from environmentalists and their allies greeted Sir Nicholas Stern’s report on the economics of global warming. George Monbiot has taken another look at the Stern Report and not liked what he found. Monbiot is the author of Heat, a fine book on global warming and what to do about it. He writes regularly for the Guardian and is well worth following.
-Peter D. Kinder
ZNet Commentary
An Exchange of Souls
February 19, 2008
By George Monbiot
This is a column about how good intentions can run amok. It tells the story of how an honourable, intelligent man set out to avert environmental disaster and ended up accidentally promoting the economics of the slave trade. It shows how human lives can be priced and exchanged for goods and services.
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There have been at least three interesting developments over the past month in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting by companies based in developing countries, or so-called “emerging markets”.
In late January, the Social Investment Research Analyst Network (SIRAN) and KLD launched a report on the state of CSR reporting in these countries, entitled “Sustainability Reporting In Emerging Markets”.
The report, which focused on companies in three sectors in seven countries, was meant not only as a benchmark for the level of corporate disclosure on ESG factors. It was also intended to “create an advocacy campaign to encourage further improvements in sustainability reporting”.
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Mainstream investors are reportedly only interested in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues that will have a “material” impact on the company (higher or lower profits) — more specifically a near-term impact. On the other hand, traditional ESG investors do not want to invest in companies that have a negative impact on society or the environment — that are a risk to the community and ecological balance, not just to that company.
Social investors often assert that companies that manage their social and environmental responsibilities will ultimately do better financially. Sometimes it turns out, however, that the negative ESG risks are not material risks to a company in the short term.
Laws and regulations have not caught up with the latest externalization of impacts. Even where they have caught up, the legal costs and regulatory fines are often minimal as a percentage of revenues that can be obtained by ignoring and externalizing these impacts.
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“You need to really scrub your investment portfolios, because I guarantee you — as my longtime good redneck friends in Tennessee say, I guarandamntee you — that if you really take a fine-tooth comb and go through your portfolios, many of you are going to find them chock-full of subprime carbon assets….
Similarly, the assumption that you can safely invest in assets that come from business models that assume carbon is free is an assumption that is about to go splat. You have lots of assets, many of you do, in your portfolios right now that truly do deserve that epithet ’subprime.’”
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On February 12, the Unitarian Universalist Association, Walden Asset Management and KLD sponsored a talk by Laura Berry, Executive Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR).
I had the privilege of introducing her. These were my remarks.
In introducing my old friend, Laura Berry, I want to state the glaringly obvious: Without ICCR, SRI as we know it wouldn’t exist. It would not exist.
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Recently, I received two queries from a reporter on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and CSR reporting. These were my responses.
Query 1
“Why evaluate companies from the CSR point of view at all? What good does it serve, especially considering the many flaws in CSR research cited below?”
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“Finally, I hope that the great thinkers here will dedicate some time to finding ways for businesses, governments, NGOs, and the media to create measures of what companies are doing to use their power and intelligence to serve a wider circle of people.” — Bill Gates at Davos, Switzerland, “Creative Capitalism,” January 24, 2008
Mr. Gates appears now to be joining the social investing movement. What a welcome development! He wants measures because he wants recognition for these activities, because recognition brings rewards to companies: inspired employees and public approbation. And I would add: social investors investing for the long-term. His speech calls on companies to do what social investors have been asking companies to pay attention to and what KLD has been measuring for many years — the social and environmental impact of corporations, especially on low-income groups.
Microsoft Corporation’s efforts to expand its beneficial impacts for low-income citizens beyond philanthropy into its business model are recent, as Mr. Gates acknowledges in his Davos speech. These efforts are recognized by KLD in our company profile of Microsoft. KLD’s evaluation of Microsoft’s efforts is that the company is not yet a leader in this regard, but it is making a start.
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