On September 21, Newsweek introduced its landmark Green Rankings of the 500 largest publicly-traded US companies. This project, for which KLD was the lead research partner, was guided by an advisory panelof academic and non-profit policy leaders, including Wood Turner of ClimateCounts.org.

The Green Rankings are a recognition that public interest is the key to better corporate environmental practices.

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On September 16, Senator Max Baucus unveiled a newly revised federal health care reform bill. I’ll leave it to others to give the bill a thumbs-up or a Bronx cheer. I was intrigued, though, with one of its provisions: out-of-pocket spending on health insurance would be capped at 13% of household income for most Americans.

This is a recognition that the nation’s health crisis is not about cost – it’s about price.

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Earlier this year, a powerful business was brought low by its leader’s admission of an elaborate fraud, enabled by falsified financial statements. Management had hidden its crimes so well that the firm had won a 2008 award for its good governance. The boss’ confession crushed the company’s market value, erasing shareholder equity worth billions.

The man described above is B. Ramalinga Raju, and the technology firm he plundered was India’s Satyam – “truth,” in Sanskrit. To Americans, Satyam’s collapse offers an overseas echo of scandals like Enron and Madoff. The multinational flavor of Raju’s business – and his fraud – adds a further warning about the globalization of governance-related investment risk.

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On August 31, Fast Company published a critique of socially responsible investing (SRI) by Timberland’s Jeff Swartz. The New Hampshire-based shoemaker is rightly famous for its commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR). But, Mr. Swartz believes that too many investors – including social investors – ignore such efforts. (Timberland has long been a KLD Index constituent.)

Mr. Swartz makes clear his support for SRI. Nonetheless, he argues, SRI focuses too much on “punishing” poor CSR performers, rather than rewarding and encouraging firms that take environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues seriously.

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