Today Emerging Markets ESG publishes an updated Database of Contacts in the Field of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI).
The Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program published an initial database of contacts in the field of SRI on the capital markets research page of the PFS Program website on October 25, 2002. It contained contact information about more than 275 organizations whose SRI activities were reported online and/or in the financial press. Thereafter, the PFS Program updated the database nine times.
Emerging Markets ESG published a 10th edition of the database in July 2010 and an 11th edition of the database in December 20101.
This 12th edition of the database, with current information as of June 30, 2011, contains 1,363 organizations divided among the following 15 categories: Academia (51 institutions); Awards and Prizes (26); Companies – Listed Companies (418); Conferences and Events (551); Exchanges (12): Financial Institutions (192); Governmental Organizations (66); Indices (53), Media (77); Networks (61); Non-Governmental Organizations (226); Professional and Trade Associations (71); Public-Private Partnerships (11); Rating and Research (87); and Standard-Setting Organizations
(12). Please note that the total number of organizations refers to organizations and therefore does not include conferences/events, since one organization might organize several events a year.
A table of contents appears as the first worksheet and a statistics worksheet appears as the last worksheet in the database.
The updated database includes institutions from 68 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.
The 11th edition of the database contained 1,240 organizations from 67 countries. Thus, this edition contains 123 new entries and 128 new conferences/events.
Several observations may be made about the updated database, which was compiled between January 1 and June 30, 2011:
First, the scope and size of the database continue to grow. The number of entries grew in each category of the database and the scope of institutions broadened. In this edition of the survey there is a noticeable increase in the number of events about and institutions engaged in cleantech, impact investing, microfinance, social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy.
Second, the geographical diversity of the database continues to expand. Fir the first time the database includes academic institutions in Australia and Slovenia; awards and prizes in Switzerland; a company in Indonesia; events in Israel and Morocco; financial institutions in Mexico and New Zealand, an index in Spain; a media company in Poland; a network in Sweden; a non-governmental organization (foundation) in Indonesia; and a research association in India. This edition of the database, like the 11th edition, includes the designation “unspecified,” since the website of several institutions does not specify a country where the institution is located.
Third, this edition of the database includes many cross-cutting and multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as the Better Cotton Initiative (networks), Finance Watch (networks), the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (ratings and research), the Green Economy Coalition
(networks), the Natural Step Canada (networks), Irish Corporate Leaders on Climate Change (companies), the Plastic Disclosure Project (networks), Social Capital Markets (networks) and SRI-CONNECT (networks).
Fourth, as noted in the four most recent editions of the database, the number of conferences and events on SRI topics continues to increase. During the first half of 2011 this trend continued. The number of conferences and events on SRI topics increased to 551, from 423 as of December 31, 2010. The figure was 281 on June 30, 2010. Of these 551 conferences/events, 185 took place in the USA, 115 in the UK, 26 in France, 21 in Belgium, 20 in Switzerland and 20 were webinars.
Due to acquisitions, consolidation and mergers in several areas, including corporate governance advisory, proxy voting and research, every effort was made to update contact information in each worksheet. If a reader notes any out-of-date information, please contact Emerging Markets ESG. We will update the entry.
The 13th edition of the updated database will be published in late December 2011.
Some ideas for the future include publishing separate databases of contacts in specific fields, such as clean energy, microfinance or social entrepreneurship. Emerging Markets ESG would appreciate your feedback and suggestions on this idea.
To download the database, please click on the link below:
(Updated) Database of Contacts in the Field of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) – June 2011.xls