SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE FUND

A mutual fund that invests only in companies that meet pre-determined ethical or moral standards. For instance, a socially responsible fund may not invest in cigarette manufac-turers or companies that sell alcoholic beverages. Green funds may invest only in companies that are deemed to be environmentally friendly. Socially responsible funds have become popular during the last decade.

GREEN INVESTING

Is mainly focused on investing in companies and technologies that are deemed to be good for the environment. This includes individual companies that have a solid track record of reducing the environmental impact of their operations, as well as companies that offer alternative energy technologies such as solar and wind power. Green investors will also avoid investing in companies that have a negative impact on the environment, such as companies with poor emissions standards.

BUSINESS ETHICS

Business ethics is a form of the art of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment

SOCIAL RESPONSABILITY

Is an ethical or ideological theory that an entity whether it is a government, corporation, organization or individual has a responsibility to society

 

COMMON GOODS

Common goods are defined in economics as goods which are rivalrous and non-excludable. Thus, they constitute one of the four main types of the most common typology of goods based on the criteria:

whether the consumption of a good by one person precludes its consumption by another person (rivalrousness)
whether it is possible to exclude a person from consumption of the goods (excludability)

MASLAHA

Maslaha (Arabic, 'public interest') is a concept in traditional Islamic Law. It is invoked to prohibit or permit something on the basis of whether or not it serves the public's benefit or welfare. The concept is related to that of Istislah. While the meaning of maslaha is 'public interest', the meaning of istislah is 'to seek the best public interest'

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Environmental science is the study of interactions among physical, chemical, and biological components of the environment. Environmental Science provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems.
Environmental Scientists monitor the quality of the environment, interpret the impact of human actions on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and develop strategies for restoring ecosystems

 

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an assessment of the likely positive and/or negative influence a project may have on the environment. “Environmental Impact Assessment can be defined as: The process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made.”[1] The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision-makers consider environmental impacts before deciding whether to proceed with new projects

BIODIVERSITY

Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome or for the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems.
Biodiversity found on Earth today consists of many millions of distinct biological species, the product of four billion years of evolution

SOIL CONTAMINATION

Soil contamination is the presence of man-made chemicals or other alteration in the natural soil environment. This type of contamination typically arises from the rupture of underground storage tanks, application of pesticides, percolation of contaminated surface water to subsurface strata, leaching of wastes from landfills or direct discharge of industrial wastes to the soil. The most common chemicals involved are petroleum hydrocarbons, solvents, pesticides, lead and other heavy metals. This occurrence of this phenomenon is correlated with the degree of industrialization and intensity of chemical usage

NATURAL RESOURCES

Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified (natural) form. A natural resource's value rests in the amount of the material available and the demand for it. The latter is determined by its usefulness to production. A commodity is generally considered a natural resource when the primary activities associated with it are extraction and purification, as opposed to creation. Thus, mining, petroleum extraction, fishing, hunting, and forestry are generally considered natural-resource industries, while agriculture is not. The term was introduced to a broad audience by E.F. Schumacher in his 1970s book Small is Beautiful

WASTE MANAGEMENT

Waste management is the collection, transport, processing, recycling or disposal of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, aesthetics or amenity. Waste management is also carried out to reduce the materials' effect on the environment and to recover resources from them. Waste management can involve solid, liquid or gaseous substances, with different methods and fields of expertise for each

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Sustainable development is a socio-ecological process characterized by the fulfilment of human needs while maintaining the quality of the natural environment indefinitely. The linkage between environment and development was globally recognized in 1980, when the International Union for the Conservation of Nature published the World Conservation Strategy and used the term "sustainable development."[1][2] The concept came into general usage following publication of the 1987 report of the Brundtland Commission — formally, the World Commission on Environment and Development. Set up by the United Nations General Assembly, the Brundtland Commission coined what was to become the most often-quoted definition of sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."[3] Although commendable, this definition is not operational and has created much antagonism and cognitive dissonance

BUSINESS CASE FOR DIVERSITY

The "business case for diversity", theorizes that in a global marketplace, a company that employs a diverse workforce (both men and women, people of many generations, people from ethnically and racially diverse backgrounds etc.) is better able to understand the demographics of the marketplace it serves and is thus better equipped to thrive in that marketplace than a company that has a more limited range of employee demographics

CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (U. S. CPSC) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government created in 1972 through the Consumer Product Safety Act to protect “against unreasonable risks of injuries associated with consumer products”

GOVERNMENT-CONTROLLED FUNDS

Government-controlled funds such as pension funds are often very large players in the investment field, and are being pressured by the citizenry and by activist groups to adopt investment policies which encourage ethical corporate behaviour, respect the rights of workers, take environmental concerns into account, and generally avoid violations of human rights. One outstanding endorsement of such policies is the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, which is mandated to avoid "investments which constitute an unacceptable risk that the Fund may contribute to unethical acts or omissions, such as violations of fundamental humanitarian principles, serious violations of human rights, gross corruption or severe environmental damages."

MUTUAL FUNDS

Socially responsible mutual funds counted by the 2003 Trends Report increased in number to 200 in 2003, up from 181 in 2001, 168 in 1999, and 139 in 1997. Assets in socially screened mutual funds identified by the Trends Report grew by 19 percent, to $162 billion, up from $136 billion in 2001. More than half (51 percent) of this growth is attributed to both newly identified and newly created funds, and 49 percent represents growth in existing assets. In terms of attracting investor assets, socially screened mutual funds grew on a net basis in 2002 while the rest of the mutual fund industry contracted. According to Lipper, socially responsible mutual funds saw net inflows of $1.5 billion during 2002. Over the same time, U.S. diversified equity funds posted outflows of nearly $10.5 billion

POSITIVE INVESTING

Positive investing involves making investments in activities and companies believed to have a high and positive social impact. Positive investing activities tend to target underserved communities. These efforts may support activities designed to provide mortgage and small business credit to minority and low-income communities

SCREENING

Screening excludes certain securities from investment consideration based on social and/or environmental criteria. For example, many socially responsible investors screen out tobacco company investments. This is an example of a social screen at work

 

DIVESTING

Divesting is the act of removing stocks from a portfolio based on mainly ethical, non-financial objections to certain business activities of a corporation. Recently, CalSTRS (California State Teachers' Retirement System) announced the removal of more than $237 million in tobacco holdings from its investment portfolio after 6 months of financial analysis and deliberations