SRI Assets Under Management Up 18% in the US, Versus 3% for Overall Asset Management Industry

A recent report from the Social Investment Forum in the US, painted a clear picture of the growing importance of responsible investing. It showed that in the United States, $1 out of every $9 is now invested in a socially responsible investment, and that socially conscious investment assets grew by 18% in 2005 and 2006, to a total of $2.7 trillion. While the overall universe of professionally managed assets in the US increased by less than 3%, to $25.1 trillion. When you combine this information with the fact that there are now over 300 institutions representing $13 trillion in assets backing the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment, it is easy to see that responsible investing has truly become a key trend driving the global asset management industry and investors.

However, for most investors the challenge to visualise and evaluate corporate ESG performance remains. As the carbon emissions example in this newsletter demonstrates, with the ASSET4 information and tools it is quite easy to compare and graph ESG performance for an entire sector or for any of the 2,000 companies now in the ASSET4 universe — a more than 50% increase in companies since last summer. We at ASSET4 believe that it is only with this level of information that investors can evaluate overall ESG performance to create a more holistic investment approach.

Peter Ohnemus ASSET4 CEO and President

Carbon Emissions and Their Possible Impact on the Utilities Sector

When examining carbon emissions across a sector, it is helpful to visualise the information in a variety of ways in order to produce some very interesting comparisons that may be useful in evaluating corporate performance. In the example to the right, we focused on the Utilities sector and used the assetmasterProfessional™ Excel Add-In to import the carbon emissions data from companies directly into an Excel spreadsheet from which we generated the graph.

To view this and other graphs on this sector, click here.

Ethical Funds Enhances Its Review Process by Acquiring ASSET4’s Investment Information Solution

The Ethical Funds Company, a national investment firm and leader of the socially responsible investing (SRI) industry in Canada for over 20 years and ASSET4 AG, the leading provider of objective and measurable environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) information, today jointly announced that Ethical Funds acquired a subscription for the ASSET4 information solution. Ethical Funds plans to integrate ASSET4 information into its proprietary Corporate Sustainability Scorecard processes that it uses to manage its $2.7 billion in assets under management.

Click here to read the full press release.

ASSET4 Speaking Engagements

ASSET4 is speaking around Europe and North American in the coming months. To keep track of these speaking engagements we have added a new page to our site: www.asset4.com/events.

Sustainability Alpha in Turbulent Times Breakfast Seminars

Come hear from two leading Swiss experts, ASSET4 and INrate AG, how to efficiently integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into your investment analysis – www.asset4.com/seminars