But charity financial advisers could do more to help ensure charities invest in line with their mission, survey finds.  
 
Latest research from the EIRIS Foundation Charity Project and the Charity Finance Directors Group (CFDG) finds that 87% of UK charities with an ethical investment policy said that their financial adviser has asked them about incorporating ethical issues within their investments. However, for those charities without an ethical investment policy, only 43% of charities said their adviser has asked about ethical investment.
 
Socially responsible investment (SRI) enables charities to invest in line with their mission, avoiding conflicts with their work and risks to their reputation. Over 90% of the general public believe that charities should invest ethically, but practice still falls a long way short of this.

Investment advisers and consultants can play a crucial role in the
decisions that charities make about their investments and whether to
consider social, environmental, ethical or governance factors. However,
some advisers have been criticised for discouraging charities from
considering ethical or socially responsible investment (SRI) and
linking their investments with mission.

Are Charity Consultants
Helping or Hindering the Development of SRI probes charity advisers’
current thinking on SRI, how they see their role in the evolving SRI
market and what would increase the take up of SRI by charity investors.
It compares the views of charities and evidence from the wider SRI
sector to explore the real and perceived barriers to change.

Key findings

§        
15% of charities without an ethical policy said that advisers were
discouraging or very discouraging. This compares to 4% of charities
with an ethical policy.
§         Some advisers do not see it as
their role to ask charity investors about SRI particularly if it is a
charity with broad aims and objectives.
§         Advisers are less
likely to ask charities about SRI if they don’t already have an ethical
investment policy – and may be more likely to be discouraging where no
such policy is in place.
§         Advisers agree that the
consideration of social and environmental risks should not harm returns
in the long-term, and could improve them. But many focus charity
clients’ attention more on short-term potential risks of
under-performance and volatility, even though studies repeatedly show
that investing ethically does not mean that financial performance has
to be sacrificed.  
§         Advisers identified a lack of
appropriate products as a key limiting factor to the promotion and
take-up of SRI.       

Advisers also feel that some trustees
are uncertain about their role in ‘imposing ethical considerations’.
But as one adviser commented, ‘Trustees need to change their view of
their obligations – they are not in a moral vacuum and they can go
beyond their governing documents.’

Report author Sam Collin
said ‘Many of the challenges raised by advisers could be easily
overcome. The intermediary role of advisers means that they could be
doing more to breakdown the perceived barriers, provide clear and up to
date information to trustees and communicate gaps in unmet demand to
service providers.’

‘Issues such as corporate governance and
climate change are more high profile than ever before in the investment
community. As the significance of ESG issues is increasingly recognised
by mainstream investors the market for advice on responsible investment
is also set to grow. Being at the forefront of new developments could
help advisers take advantage of this growth’ she concluded. 

The report recommends that advisers could do more to:

§         Raise SRI issues with all charities
§         Provide information and training to trustees
§         Include environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in standard reviews of investment managers
§         Keep informed of the latest developments
§         Communicate market gaps to fund managers

Click here (http://www.charitysri.org/homearea/documents/charityadviserdiscussionpaper.pdf) to download a copy of the research.

Global responsible
investment specialists EIRIS has been awarded top honours in this
year’s World Finance Awards. Created in 2007 by World Finance Magazine,
the Awards are designed to identify industry leaders, individuals,
teams and organisations that represent the benchmark of achievement and
best practice in the financial world.

This year, the awards highlighted Socially Responsible Investments (SRI)
for the first time. The panel of independent awards adjudicators
considered a range of criteria including adoption of the UNPRI
principles, meeting the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
demand of institutional investors and quality of research. Other criteria
included innovation, originality and quality of products, as well as
proof of market development and excellence in client representation.

Over
the last few years, EIRIS has continued to develop the scale and scope
of its research to match the needs of investors wishing to mitigate ESG
risks and maximise investment opportunities. EIRIS’ extra-financial
research is based on a fully transparent and robust methodology and in
2008 EIRIS became the first ESG research house in the UK to be awarded the CSRR-QS 2.1 Quality Standard.

EIRIS’
global extra-financial research is used by more than 100 institutional
investors around the world. Developed with direct input from investors,
EIRIS has recently launched a new Climate Change Toolkit to enable
investors to fully integrate climate change, as well as a UN PRI
Toolkit to help asset owners and asset managers implement their
commitments to the Principles for Responsible Investment. 

Peter
Webster, EIRIS’ Executive Director said ‘We welcome this award as a
reflection of EIRIS’ dedication to producing high-quality, relevant
research on a broad range of environmental, social, governance and
other ethical issues.’

For more information on the 2009 World Finance Awards visit www.worldfinance.com 

Don’t forget if you are new to Pure Design and haven’t used your
welcome discount yet, you are entitled to 10% OFF your first purchase. Simply
type ‘purewelcome01′ when
prompted on checkout. 

And this month’s Members Offer (valid until 31/07/09) entitles you to
an amazing £50 OFF Julia Smith’s gorgeous organic cotton
summer dresses. Simply use codes ‘pureloulou’
or ‘purerenae’ and receive
almost a third off Julia’s limited edition LouLou or Renae dress! This
offer is available exclusively to Pure Design members.

This month the G8 Summit agreed the first steps towards a
significant global strategy on climate change by agreeing that global warming
temperatures should not exceed 2C of 1900 levels and that member nations will
work towards an 80% reduction of green house gas emissions by 2050. The USA has
taken a major step-change in its attitude towards the climate and President
Obama who chaired the discussion stressed that the issue of climate change could
no longer be ignored and that we should look towards December and Copenhagen.

This is positive news for the environment and energy
industry. It shows a real commitment at last, by the world’s most powerful
nations to act to arrest global warming and this commitment can only add to the
industry’s growth. But how are we going to supply the world with renewable
energy?

When Dr. Czisch first published his ideas outlining a
European “Supergrid” a few years ago, in which he explored a concept to supply
the continent’s electricity demands by using only the renewable energy
technologies that are now available, the world didn’t take much notice. However
now, European policy-makers, as well as the global business community, are
gradually taking note of the significance of his ideas.

Mark Vidler, Energy Group Manager at Allen & York
Environmental Recruitment took the opportunity to speak to Dr Czisch on a recent
visit to the UK:

Mark Vidler –
What is the Supergrid and why is it important to us?
Gregor Czisch – We are faced with the
fact that Renewables are not steadily producing; there are fluctuations
depending on where you are in the world, what the climate is, whether it is
summer or winter for example. In the longer term we need steady, smooth
production of energy which can be employed to cover the demand at any time. In
order to achieve this to best effect it is important to expand the range of
energy sources, to have a strong mix of climate zones and to expand the km2 of
land for wind and solar energy. In summary the creation of a Supergrid, a place
where ‘the world’ could feed its renewable energy into, would solve the problems
of source intermittency and smooth out the production to a consistently high
level.

MV – Who will
be the main beneficiaries?
GC –
The main beneficiary is the climate, because the Electricity
sector is currently emitting about 50% of the world’s carbon emissions from
fossil fuels. The Supergrid – preferably a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC)
Transmission System – will only be fed by renewable energy sources and would
therefore ‘clean’ the environment significantly.

Consumers would also benefit, firstly because it would be
cheaper and because they are getting fully renewable electricity.

Lastly the economies of some countries would benefit. If we
think about establishing wind and solar farms in Africa for example, then there
could be investment made in these countries and so they could profit from an
extra growth in their economy and significantly reduce their unemployment by
exporting parts of their energy to European countries.

International corporate business would also benefit as they
have the potential to invest in global energy production and fight climate
change which could ultimately be very costly for them.

MV – What in
your view is preventing this from happening?
GC – There are many players, firstly
the decision makers – The first applications for the concept of the renewable
Supergrid – as it resulted as being the best solution from my research – were
made in late 2001 and it has been very difficult get the facts in front of the
politicians to create awareness and crucially to give them the correct
information on the huge potential of this shared international and
intercontinental grid.

The utility companies, who have their own grids and own
production, often resist strong links to other countries and competitors.
Consequently they will not lead on this at least not as a fast approach, however
I believe that if the politicians lead the corporate organisations would have to
follow and ultimately might also benefit.

Ideologists and de-centralists are also looking at this from
a ‘small is beautiful’ perspective and nothing else. They fight the large scale
renewables, which are sometimes far away from the consumer, believing the home
grown production is better.

MV – How
financially viable is this?
GC –
There is a simple answer. If the international system is properly designed the costs
of renewable electricity are not higher than the today’s costs of electricity.
Therefore it basically is absolutely viable.

A key to this is provision of capital outlay provided by
financial backers such as governments and corporate business. An internationally
agreed feed-in tariff (e.g. the amount of money a renewable energy producer is
paid for the energy they supply to the grid) that guarantees that the costs of production and
transmission are covered would be extremely helpful to attract investment. If
you have good tools for investment based on loans renewable electricity will be
cheaper than supply from oil, gas and coal with their fluctuating prices.

MV – Do we
have the right skills?
GC –
All the necessary technology is there, some parts have to be
adapted to the highest HVDC voltage available today e.g. the circuit breaker
necessary for a meshed HVDC system. Another engineering project will be
developing the cables for this voltage to connect under the sea between
countries. However, no crucial part of the technology is missing and there is no
question that we have the right skills for the job.

Summary 
GC –
Really it is all about co-operation between energy supplies and
political backing groups and countries. Increasing awareness and knowledge are
crucial and I am confident we are moving in the right direction. If I could make
one change now it would be the introduction of an international feed-in tariff,
which I believe would make a huge difference.

Cyclists who break down are now able to call out a recovery lorry in much the same way as car drivers use the AA.

The Cycle Rescue service is included for free with a new type of cycle insurance launched this week by ilovemybike.co.uk in time for National Bike Week (13-20 June).

Director at ilovemybike.co.uk, Andrew Davis said: “Motorists get all manner of extras thrown in for free when they buy insurance – the service for cyclists should not be any different.”

A poll conducted on behalf of ilovemybike.co.uk ahead of Bike Week found that over 4 million British motorists would be prepared to cycle more to cut their motoring costs.

5 reasons to cycle:

1. Bicycles can be very cheap to buy, they don’t need an MOT or fuel and can be parked almost anywhere for free.

2. Cycling is a low-impact activity, which means it doesn’t put a strain on your joints. It’s cheaper than the gym, too.

3. 75% of all personal journeys are less than 5 miles long – that’s half an hour on a bike.

4. Cycling helps to reduce noise and air pollution as well as traffic congestion

5. It makes you feel young

Have you ever wondered how much green energy you could generate at your home or business? How much money this could save you? Not to mention whether you could reduce your carbon footprint? Well the team at Better Generation believe they have the device that can answer all these questions! The Power Predictor is a new site assessment tool that measures both wind and solar energy, while being low cost, accurate and easy to use.

Collecting accurate data from your site is essential in
assessing its potential for a turbine or solar panel, to avoid making a
very expensive mistake. Small wind turbines have received a
considerable amount of bad press over recent years due to their
installation in a whole number of unsuitable locations (think David
Cameron’s rooftop turbine).

On the other hand, the UK
has some of the best renewable resources in Europe, and the Power
Predictor can help to find the most appropriate technology – solar or
wind – for your site, maximising the money and CO2 you can save.

The
Power Predictor allows you to collect real life solar and wind data
from your site. Once a month of data has been collected it can be
uploaded onto an online account at www.powerpredictor.com where a power
report is automatically generated.

The power report compares
the main wind turbines and solar panels on the market today, terms of
payback time, annual energy generation, cost savings and effect on your
carbon footprint.

To find out more visit www.bettergeneration.com. The Power
Predictor is available for just £99.95.

Naturally safer and stronger eco-friendly anti-insect camouflage products from incognito selling at record levels

People are defying the recession and the cold weather by planning holidays abroad, and with the euro so high, tropical holidays are on the increase. incognito, creators of 100% natural, ethically produced anti-insect products have noticed a surprising surge in sales of their most popular items, many selling out before Christmas last year.

Selling both in the UK and abroad, including recently in Hawaii and
the Caribbean, the fresh, pleasant smelling incognito products use a
secret blend of 100% natural ingredients, all containing an organically
certified citronella only found on the volcanic island of Java, which
is much more effective against insects than ordinary citronella found
elsewhere.

So how does incognito work?  Says Patricia Carter,
Director: “A female mosquito can detect human kairomones (similar to
pheromones) up to one kilometre away!  Our products mask these
kairomones, camouflaging the wearer so they remain incognito –
unrecognisable – to the blood thirsty mosquito!  They also do not have
the unwanted negative side effects and health risks associated with
chemical repellents such as DEET.”

As well as smelling much
better than pungent chemical-based repellents, incognito camouflage
products are ideal for people, especially babies and young children,
who do not wish to expose themselves to the potential hazards of
chemically manufactured toxins.  They prefer to invest in an infinitely
safer product.  Those with sensitive skins or skin conditions will also
benefit from the gentler, natural formulations, without compromising on
efficacy. 

Rigorously tested by the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, incognito works on all insects, not just
mosquitoes.  The range includes a 100ml camouflage spray, citronella
incense sticks, after-sun moisturiser, and a 3-in-1 shampoo,
conditioner and camouflage, as well as soaps: jasmine rice, ginger and
citronella; lemongrass and citronella; and luxury loofah soap, which
contains skin conditioning loofah for exfoliation as well as cleansing,
and therefore the perfect minimalistic product for light travelling -
you can even recycle the loofah as a gentle pan scourer when all the
soap is gone!

All soap packaging is made from biodegradable Saa paper, made from
sustainable mulberry bark harvested in fair trade conditions by
impoverished Thai women.

incognito products are transported ethically, fashionably and
practically in their roll-up travel bags which can be hung on a wall or
door, or unrolled flat.

Sold direct through their website or through
Wholefoods in Kensington, Fresh n Wild, Planet Organic, John Bell &
Croydon and most chemists, sales have been steadily rising since winter
began.  All products except the luxury loofah soap (which contains
honey) are certified by the Vegan Society.

 From April 29th, Wholefoods and Fresh n Wild will be selling the
exfoliating scrub at half price for only £3.62.  These two outlets
along with John Bell & Croydon in Wigmore Street also stock the
entire incognito range.

Article 13 Report
12th February 2009

Sustainable Development, Climate Change, Environmental protection – just a few of the terms currently being linked to global droughts, floods, fires and other climate related natural disasters occurring more and more across the globe.

With an increase in world population and urban development, heightened environmental risks and vulnerabilities are demanding long-term, sustainable management of natural resources. Natural Resource Management (NRM) involves managing complex and intertwined systems such as biodiversity, desertification, just to name a couple.

This month Article 13 is focussing on two of the issues surrounding
Natural Resource Management (NRM) and briefly explores the
technological and organisational responses from business to help combat
environmental degradation.

Water management
Water management refers to the sustainable management, governance and
utilisation of water resources, including rivers, lakes and estuaries,
coastal and marine waters; sewage treatment; and reservoir safety.
Water management is an issue of the global commons, which means it’s
outside national jurisdiction and there is an ever increasing battle
for access to fresh water resources. Initiatives must cross borders and
boundaries to make any real difference. The United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), partners with over 150 businesses and concentrates on
the potential risks associated with water scarcity and the strategic
importance for businesses to act responsibly. Businesses and
Institutions need to start acknowledging the interconnectedness of
water resources with many of the world’s major issues, including
climate change, energy, economic development, environmental health, and
social justice. For businesses to tackle the challenges surrounding the
depletion of water resources, there needs to be the following:

• Financial investment into a water supportive infrastructure.
• Partnerships with water management coalitions. 
• Integrate water management systems into the business, in order to minimise environmental risks

So how are businesses managing water resources? Some examples include:

BAA: A water management scheme at Terminal 5 reduces BAA’s reliance on
mains water and economically harvests water from rainfall on campus and
boreholes on its own land
(http://www.article13.com/A13_ContentList.asp?strAction=GetPublication&PNID=1364).

AWG: “RiverCare” programme a community approach to involving
communities in cleaning up watercourses
(http://www.article13.com/A13_ContentList.asp?strAction=GetPublication&PNID=1314).

United Utilities: Establishment of a multi-partner sustainable water
catchment management programme to deliver improved water quantity and
quality. (http://www.article13.com/A13_ContentList.asp?strAction=GetPublication&PNID=1360)

Land management
Land management refers to the sustainable management and development of
land resources. Land management practices often include, conserving and
enhancing the natural environment, ensuring that industrial processes
do not exploit land resources and foster social and economic well
being. It is in a business’s and individual’s best interest to act
responsibly with land resources and manage them effectively. Poor land
management practices can lead to heightened environmental risks with a
rise in CO2 emissions and the destruction of ecosystems, biodiversity
and plant diversity. Also businesses can be affected greatly through
poor land management, with high cleanup costs, consumer boycotts and
increased pressure from environmentalists and NGOs. Alternatively,
sustainable land management can have beneficial factors in terms of
climate change impacts, wildlife, biodiversity, social well-being,
social equity and help the bottom line; for example:
Wangari Maathai: “Promoting ecologically viable social, economic and
cultural development”
(http://www.article13.com/A13_ContentList.asp?strAction=GetPublication&PNID=1091).

For more information please contact Fiona Banyard on
fionab@article13.com or call 020 8840 4450. Please also see Article
13’s website www.article13.com

All we are saying is give Bees a chance this Xmas

Help fight the decline in the bee population with a range of habitats and homes from ecotopia.co.uk

While Albert Einstein did not say “if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left” there is a lot of truth in this comment. Here are Ecotopia we are seriously worried are the decline in the bee population and encouraging people this Christmas to consider that a bee is not just for summer, they are needed for life – Life of the ecosystem.

We are in serious trouble without our friends. Not only are they the only insects that produce food for humans in the form of honey, they pollinate more than 100 crops as well as 90 percent of all flowering plants. We couldn’t begin to duplicate the work accomplished by bees – every bee makes 10 or more flights per day and each flight lasts more than one hour, visiting between 50 to 100 flowers.

So what can we do to help the bee population survive the current climate? It isn’t difficult to make your yard, garden or even patio space a haven for beneficial bees. You’ll be helping these important insects, as well as bringing more nature to your backdoor.

We are now doing some great deals on bee habitats to encourage customers to support these beautiful creatures. Try our wooden Bumblebee Nester at £19.99 or the ceramic nester at £16.59. These nesters are ideal to attract bees to your garden. Check out our other bee homes like the solitary beehive at £19.53, the insect theatre at £29.31 or pollinating bee log at £14.67.

And don’t forget we have a whole host of Burt’s Bees’ Product for Bee lovers!

Article 13 are CSR experts in the areas of Sustainable Development, Governance, and Corporate Responsibility

Part of our commitment to advocacy is to opinion-form for CSR – identifying the key issues and emerging trends in CSR and sustainability through our work with international business and government, our original research and strong networks.

We are looking for a dedicated and enthusiastic researcher to conduct a body of research in the first half of 2009. If you are interested please contact Fiona Banyard at fionab@article13.com or call 0208 840 4450