SIO conference update: Corporate governance focus seen as opportunity for social investment

Corporate governance focus seen as opportunity for social investment State of the SRI nation: SIO boss reviews social investment industry on eve of conference (June 2, 2003) The recent push toward improved corporate governance provides a foot in the door for the social investment community, delegates attending the Canadian Social Investment Conference heard yesterday in […]

By Doug Watt | June 2, 2003 | Last updated on June 2, 2003
2 min read
  • Corporate governance focus seen as opportunity for social investment
  • SRI advisors bemoan lack of product
  • Fund manager offers strategies to combat SRI naysayers
  • SRI – Time for a new name?

    Bonus tool A template letter to discuss SRI with your clients and prospects Back to CSIC Coverage main page

    Chan-Fischel called on social investors to lobby for changes to securities laws and to get directly involved in rewriting market regulations. “It’s one of the most powerful steps the ethical investing community can take to become finally relevant and to change the course of human events.”

    Also during the opening session, Michael Leeman of Frater Asset Management in Cape Town, reported on the SRI landscape in South Africa. Ironically, the country whose apartheid policies galvanized the social investment movement in the 1980s is now “pretty much off the SRI map,” Leeman said.

    The South African SRI market is small, due to a lack of retail demand and a shaky history. “We’ve had very negative past experiences,” he said. “There have some ill-considered investment funds that have performed badly.”

    Advocates don’t even use the word “social,” because it’s equated with soft returns, Leeman said. “Despite all our efforts, investors are quite passive.”

    • • •

    Filed by Doug Watt, Advisor.ca, dwatt@advisor.ca

    (06/02/03)

    Doug Watt

  • State of the SRI nation: SIO boss reviews social investment industry on eve of conference
  • Corporate governance focus seen as opportunity for social investment
  • SRI advisors bemoan lack of product
  • Fund manager offers strategies to combat SRI naysayers
  • SRI – Time for a new name?

    Bonus tool A template letter to discuss SRI with your clients and prospects Back to CSIC Coverage main page

    Chan-Fischel called on social investors to lobby for changes to securities laws and to get directly involved in rewriting market regulations. “It’s one of the most powerful steps the ethical investing community can take to become finally relevant and to change the course of human events.”

    Also during the opening session, Michael Leeman of Frater Asset Management in Cape Town, reported on the SRI landscape in South Africa. Ironically, the country whose apartheid policies galvanized the social investment movement in the 1980s is now “pretty much off the SRI map,” Leeman said.

    The South African SRI market is small, due to a lack of retail demand and a shaky history. “We’ve had very negative past experiences,” he said. “There have some ill-considered investment funds that have performed badly.”

    Advocates don’t even use the word “social,” because it’s equated with soft returns, Leeman said. “Despite all our efforts, investors are quite passive.”

    • • •

    Filed by Doug Watt, Advisor.ca, dwatt@advisor.ca

    (06/02/03)