Green Investment Firms Recognize Performance Track
Recognition | Networking | Regulatory and Administrative Benefits | Services | Green Investing
Green Investing Resources
A March 17, 2005 article in
SocialFunds.com
describes Performance Track's role in
social investing.
For general information on trends in
socially and environmentally responsible
investing, visit the
Social
Investment Forum.
A
presentation
(PowerPoint file, 184 KB, 19 pp.)
by Innovest CEO Hewson Baltzell at the
2004 Performance Track Members Event
provides an overview of how Innovest
rates firms and how Performance Track
membership may make companies more
attractive to investors.
The Global Environmental Management
Initiative (GEMI) has published a paper
entitled
Clear
Advantage: Building Shareholder Value
(PDF, 468 KB, 41 pp.)
that helps businesses understand how
to measure, manage, and communicate EHS
to the financial community.
EPA's Strategy for Determining the Role of Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) in Regulatory Programs (PDF, 169 KB, 20 pp.) will help EPA identify the benefits and pitfalls of providing options in permitting and regulatory requirements for organizations with EMSs, such as Performance Track members.
An EPA report, Green Dividends? The Relationship Between Firms' Environmental Performance and Financial Performance (PDF, 155 KB, 33 pp.), published in 2000, explores the environment-finance connection.
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Investment research and advisory firms are increasingly considering environmental and social performance as an indicator to evaluate and rate companies. This practice can benefit top-performing publicly traded companies, including many Performance Track members, by making them more attractive to investors and increasing their brand recognition.
Four leading financial firms, Calvert Group, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, KLD Research & Analytics Inc. and Trucost Plc all use Performance Track data in their research methods. These companies find the Performance Track data to be one effective way to assess a company's value and overall environmental performance. See EPA's press release of March, 2004 for more details, and read the individual descriptions below.
EPA is willing to cooperate with other investment firms to encourage the development of programs that promote environmental protection. Please note that U.S. EPA cannot endorse the purchase or sale of products or services of any specific investment firm. The Agency urges the public to carefully read the prospectus and other relevant materials before investing.
Calvert Group, Ltd. - A Bethesda, MD based company, Calvert provides investment products and information on socially responsible investing to shareholders, financial advisors, institutional investors, and individuals. Calvert has been using Performance Track data for the past couple of years as an indicator of a company's environmental performance and quality of management. The environment is one of seven factors that Calvert uses to determine if a company is eligible for investment in a Calvert mutual fund. Calvert considers a company's decision to participate in Performance Track as a good indicator of its overall corporate environmental management and gives credit to those companies that have enrolled two or more facilities in Performance Track. Calvert uses data from several other EPA voluntary programs to gauge a company's commitment to going beyond compliance.
For more information about Calvert and its
products and services, visit
www.calvertgroup.com
.
Innovest Strategic Value Advisors -
Headquartered in New York, NY, Innovest is an
investment research and advisory firm specializing
in analyzing companies' performance on
environmental, social, and strategic governance
issues. Innovest evaluates companies using a Wall
Street approach and uses benchmarking to compare
companies with their peers. Many of Innovest's
clients are money managers that use Innovest's
research and grading as a way to incorporate
environmental research into their financial
investment processes. Innovest evaluates a
company's management performance by identifying
negative or positive management trends. Innovest
has been using Performance Track data since it was
originally released. They believe that membership
in Performance Track shows that a company is
proactive and confident about their environmental
management program. Innovest encourages companies
to take advantage of Performance Track because it
can result in added value, increased profits,
reduced risks, new product development, and cost
savings.
For more information about Innovest and its
services, visit
www.innovestgroup.com
or contact Marc Brammer, Senior Analyst at
mbrammer@innovestgroup.com.
See EPA's press advisory on Innovest and Performance Track, dated August, 2003.
KLD Research & Analytics Inc. - KLD,
located in Boston, MA, is a provider of social
research for institutional investors. KLD serves
institutional clients who wish to integrate social
criteria into their investment decisions. By
providing positive and negative ratings on
companies, KLD is able to offer investors an idea
of how a company performs on social and
environmental issues. KLD began using Performance
Track in 2001 as part of its research process to
categorize companies and to understand how the
companies operate. KLD uses Performance Track data
because it provides information about a company's
waste reductions, including how those reductions
are achieved. Specifically, Performance Track data
provides detail about the actual pollution
prevention methodologies that a company uses to
avoid and reduce waste, which allows KLD to
identify genuine pollution prevention versus
pollution control or waste shifting. KLD considers
corporate participation in Performance Track a
positive indicator that a company's Environmental
Management System is well implemented. Corporate
participation in Performance Track also provides
detailed information about how well a company
addresses such issues as waste and pollution
prevention.
For more information on KLD, visit
www.kld.com
or contact Andrew Brengle, Senior Research
Analyst at (617) 426-5270,
abrengle@kld.com.
Trucost Plc is an environmental
research organization that helps companies and
investors measure the environmental impacts of
business activities in quantitative and financial
terms.
Founded in 2000, Trucost has developed
considerable experience and expertise in the area
of environmental performance, analysis, and
reporting, offering advice and research to major
corporations, both public and private,
institutional investors, and two UK Government
bodies: the
Department for
Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra)
, and the
Environment
Agency
.
Trucost has worked with leading multinational companies in a range of business sectors, as well as major institutional investors that use Trucost’s research to support due diligence and active engagement activities by incorporating environmental performance measurement into their investment decisions.
Over the past six years Trucost has built up a database of the environmental impacts and disclosures of over 3000 companies from the FTSE All-Share, S&P 500, Nikkei 225, DJ EuroSTOXX, and MSCI indices, with the greenhouse gas database being the world’s largest repository of quantified and comparable data. Data quality from companies based in the United States is ensured by using Performance Track to verify the provided information.
For more information about Trucost, visit
www.trucost.com
or email Mike Wallace at
mike.wallace@trucost.com.