Otto Veldt, group director corporate investment at Achmea, part of the Eureko Group, commented: “Constructive engagement with our investor companies is a practical and effective way of implementing socially responsible investment (SRI) and corporate governance policy.
The decision to choose a ‘reo’ programme rather than a ‘sin’ stock exclusion strategy was taken “primarily as it fits well with our own strategy of corporate socially responsibility (CSR) and ethical investment”, said Lorrie Morgan, Eureko spokesperson.
Scott McAusland at the Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS) in London, said: “Responsible overlay is perfectly valid for some types of ethical investors, although it is just one of the approaches to ethical investment that an investor can take.”
Engagement is becoming “an increasingly popular” way of managing funds, Mr McAusland added. Excitingly, he said today it goes beyond the ethical funds that a fund manager will oversee - applying to a raft of funds. Latest figures from the UK Social Investment Forum (UKSIF) show the total value of institutional SRI assets in the UK were £225bn (1997: £23bn).
Ms Morgan and Mr McAusland concurred that the pursuit of engagement stemmed not just from investors wanting to feel good, but reflected a search for improved investment performance as well as a response to consumer demand.
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