Faith, Funds and the Environment: How Religious Investors are Turning Green

Posted on 10. Feb, 2009 by Ross in Corporate Policy

One of the world’s leading faith-based investment groups, the Interfaith Centre for Corporate Responsibility, announced last week that it would begin to use an index measuring just how green the credentials of publicly traded companies were as part of its’ investment decision-making process, primarily to help push for more environmentally friendly business practices.

The index, based on ratings compiled by independent environmental data analysts Trucost, will guide the investment decisions of the coalition: over 300 separate faith-based institutions with a combined investment portfolio exceeding $100 billion.

Trucost has analysed 150 target companies from General Motors to Google using a model assessed and refined over the last eight years, with the companies in question all the target of shareholder resolutions sponsored by faith-based investors. The climate change indicators for the companies were developed using data on greenhouse gas emissions, as well as over 700 other environmental indicators including water use, waste disposal and pollutants that cause smog and acid rain. The Interfaith Centre for Corporate Responsibility then made the results publicly available here.

With more and more investors factoring environmental concerns into their investment decisions, the ability of companies to justifiably project green credentials is becoming ever-increasingly important.

Somar International Ltd is a market-led company offering intelligent energy-saving technology which defends profits, reduces carbon footprints and augments operational environments.