SustainabilityHQ.com Weekly Highlights August 18, 2011

Newly Added Profiles

Sovereign Wealth Funds

• Mauritania National Fund for Hydrocarbon Reserves
  The fund is managed by the Mauritanian Central Bank Ministry of Finance. The fund is financed through a variety of oil-related sources.

• International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC)
  The International Petroleum Investment Company, which is wholly owned by the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, invests in “…hydrocarbons industries across the globe.” The firm claims that the estimated worth of its portfolio is over USD$50 billion – of which the balance sheet “grew from US$23 billion December 2009 to US$47 billion by December 31, 2010.”

• Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund 
  The Statens Pensjonskasse (SPK) administers programs for pensions, insurance, and housing 970,000 government workers and many researchers. Money is automatically deducted from paychecks and deposited in the pension fund. Membership is mandatory, and the fund falls under the purview of Norway's Ministry of Government Administration and Reform.

Asset Managers

• La Compagnie Benjamin de Rothschild
  Compagnie Benjamin de Rothschild introduces its strategies this way: "Compagnie Benjamin de Rothschild continues the Rothschilds' prestigious tradition of serving industry. We have taken five major principles of company risk management on board, because, in our view, the only way to achieve long-term profitability is to control risks." The five risk management principles are prevention, transparency and liquidity, realism, adaptability, and partnerships.

• Green Century Capital Management & Green Century Funds
  Green Century describes itself as providing "a new option for investors, empowering you to use the power of your investment dollars to encourage environmentally responsible corporate behavior. Green Century recognizes that business as usual will not create the green future we seek." Green Century takes a long-range view of investments.

• Global Environment Facility
  The Global Environment Facility “provides grants to developing countries and countries with economies in transition for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants.”

ESG / Sustainability

Wal-Mart Top 10 Sustainability Projects Underscore Global Leadership
(Source: Forbes)  If you’re one of those people with an irrational but nonetheless bone-deep hatred of Wal-Mart, then don’t read this Top 10 list. Because it’ll only hyperstimulate that reflexive foaming at the mouth and dyspeptic rage that bubbles up inside of you whenever the company’s name is mentioned—and particularly when what’s being said about the employer of 2.1 million people is positive.

Fitch affirms U.S. AAA rating
(Source: Jacksonville Business Journal) Less than two weeks after Standard & Poor's rocked financial markets by downgrading its ratings on U.S. long-term debt, rival ratings service Fitch Ratings affirms its AAA credit rating for the United States. The affirmation "reflects the fact that the key pillars of the U.S.'s exceptional creditworthiness remains intact: its pivotal role in the global financial system and the flexible, diversified and wealthy economy that provides its revenue base," Fitch said in a statement.

Arabia CSR Network Leads the Way for GRI Framework in the Middle East
(Source: Zawya)  The Arabia CSR Network - with its vast experience of working with organizations to improve their CSR systems - has been certified by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) headquarters in Netherlands to provide trainings to organizations that wish to use the GRI framework for their sustainability reporting requirements.

Commentary

The Economic Upheaval – Who’s Fault, is it?
(Source: Ken Cynar, Governance and Accountability Institute)  There is a problem when a group of people sitting in a conference room can make such a pronouncement and potentially bring down the world economy...not to mention the savings and futures of a lot of regular guys and gals.  Nobody elected them and nobody appointed them to be the financial arbitrators of the world economy. Associated Profiles :Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc.

Research/Reporting

Using GRI to Compare Apples to Apples in Sustainability Reporting 
(Source: Triple Pundit)  Sustainability reports are as different as each of us. They vary in format, material issues selected, boundary and scope, and cultural orientation which makes it very difficult to judge performance based on a common set of indicators. Investment institutions like Bloomberg, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index or FTSE4Good have some of the more widely recognized methods of reviewing corporate sustainability. But they aren’t the only companies in the game.  Associated Profiles : UN - Global Reporting Initiative GRI, Dow Jones Sustainability Index

This is just a sample of four articles from this weeks SustainabilityHQ Highlights.  You can view the full Highlights by using the following links.  Sustainability | ESG, Highlights for the Week of August 18, 2011