Financial analysts press corporations to report social responsibility
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 12/1/2004 12:00:00 AM
A coalition of analysts from 17 socially responsible investment firms—representing more than $147 billion in assets—is urging publicly traded companies to follow the lead of Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Ford, General Motors, and 600 other companies in meeting a higher standard of reporting on corporate governance, environmental, labor, and other key issues.
The coalition—which includes Calvert Group, Dreyfus Premier Third Century Fund, and Trillium Asset Management, among others—is promoting the use of Sustainability Reporting Guidelines developed by Amsterdam-based Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), an independent group that developed the guidelines in collaboration with representatives from business, accounting, investment, environmental, human rights, research, and labor organizations from around the world.
Demand for such information is growing, the coalition states, but the manner in which companies provide it varies widely.
"Companies have been asking us for guidance on how to meet the skyrocketing demands for information," says Steve Lippman, senior social research analyst for Trillium Asset Management. "At the same time, a growing set of investors is relying on data on companies' social and environmental performance to make investment decisions."
The use of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines provides a means "to increase the credibility, comparability, and utility of their reporting," adds Lippman.
