Responsible investing for newbies -- share your ideas

The Greenwash Brigade

I’ve been invited to do a short presentation to an investing club on “sustainable stuff and investing.” My plan is to define socially responsible investing, then to move on to Corporate Sustainability Reporting and to demonstrate it by reviewing reports for one or two of the companies they already invest in.

A while ago, the Brigadiers discussed corporate sustainability and I had my first and very frustrating foray into trying to find the reports for Seventh Generation. (Update - as predicted, I haven’t tried it since then.) We identified a host of websites and resources that I found overwhelming to navigate.

I’m asking my fellow Brigadiers and all our readers: If you had 15-20 minutes to share the two best, most accessible resources, what would you pick? URLs, comics, and memorable phrases — I’m open to anything!

September 25, 2009 by Janne K. Flisrand
5 comments

tags: corporate responsibility CSR investing

Comments (5)

Stephanie Baron | Respond
September 25, 2009 10:25 AM PT

Those guys are my reference in Canada: http://www.investissementresponsable.com/textes/who.html

Heidi Siegelbaum | Respond
September 26, 2009 1:06 PM PT

Janne

I found a goldmine of CSR information at this site: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-jarvis/innovative-thinking-corporate-volunteering/51-great-sites-corporate-social-respons.

It hyperlinks some wonderful sites including csrwire.com and http://3blmedia.com. As far as understanding the reports, you'll have to seek out a CSR glossary of terms.

Janne Flisrand | Respond
September 27, 2009 7:33 PM PT

Are there any search terms that are particularly useful?

Sarah Thompson | Respond
September 28, 2009 7:58 AM PT

You can find Seventh Generation's Corporate Responsibility report here: http://www.seventhgeneration.com/corporate-responsibility/2008. Please let me know if you have further questions.

Michael Kelberer | Respond
October 10, 2009 6:21 AM PT

Actually, the 7th Generation CR report is here: http://www.seventhgeneration.com/files/assets/pdf/2008_SevGen_Corporate-Consciousness.pdf

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Meet the Greenwash Brigade

Our hand-picked environmental professionals, each part of the Public Insight Network, are on the hunt for "greenwash" as they examine eco-friendly claims by companies, governments and other groups. They ask tough questions about the mainstreaming of green, from the perspectives of people in the trenches who are focused on these issues 24/7.

Jim Nicolow is a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design and leads the sustainability initiative for Lord, Aeck & Sargent, overseeing the incorporation of sustainable design strategies and features into the firm’s design projects. He is a LEED® Accredited Professional with extensive knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating system.

Janne K. Flisrand has worked as an affordable housing and urban planning research consultant for five years, primarily supporting local non-profits. Her focus is on transit, transit-oriented design, affordable housing, and sustainability. Currently, she’s the program coordinator for Minnesota Green Communities, a program promoting affordable, healthy, sustainably built housing throughout Minnesota.

Dennis Markatos-Soriano recently completed a Master's in Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. He is now launching Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) to help individuals and institutions move from dependence on oil and gas to an efficient use of renewables. Previously, he co-founded SURGE (Students United for a Responsible Global Environment), which aims to bring young progressives together across issues of environmental and social justice throughout North Carolina and beyond. In the summer of 2006, he helped to start a small green company, Greenway Pedicabs, to provide a greenhouse gas-free transportation option for people in the Triangle of North Carolina.

Heidi Siegelbaum is a principal with Calyx Sustainable Tourism and works primarily on advancing sustainable tourism practices. She also specializes in science translation, cross-border indicators with Canada, cross-disciplinary planning and environmental technical assistance to businesses. Previously, she was in-house legal counsel for EPA for industrial chemicals and biotechnology and the senior performance measure analyst with the Washington State Department of Ecology. She is on the technical advisory committee of the Seattle Culinary Academy and a long standing member of the Chefs Collaborative.

NOTE: The opinions expressed by the Greenwash Brigade bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of American Public Media or its employees. American Public Media is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the Greenwash Brigade bloggers.

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