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Introduction SRI E-mail

Our Starting-Point: What is CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)?    
”Responsible businesses go beyond what is required by law to make a positive impact on society and the environment through their management, operations and products and through their engagement with stakeholders including employees, customers, investors, communities and suppliers”

At the centre of this definition are three key themes

  • (1) CSR involves voluntary initiatives by enterprises which go beyond simple compliance with the law;
  • (2) CSR involves the whole business process rather than simply focussing on corporate philanthropy or charity and;
  • (3) CSR involves a close understanding of and involvement with appropriate stakeholders.

The recent crisis has drastically shown that good business behaviour is the best protection of shareholders` and stakeholders` interests.

The link between CSR and shareholders is offered by what we call “Socially Responsible Investment”:

  • it is not only traditional financial analysis of balance sheet and profit&loss account, answering the question “did the company earn money”,
  • there is also the question “how did the company earn the money” - assesssed by tools of the extra financial analysis (read more).


To establish universally accepted principles of asessing “how did the company earn money”  the United Nations launched Global Compact, an intitiative to implement 10 principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption (read more ).


This in mind an investor initiative, also backed by the United Nations, the so called “UN Prinicples for Responsible Investment”  has been established - to give asset owners and asset managers the opportunity to organise their interests worldwide (read more ).


To get on the radar of “socially responsible investors” companies need to report on their activities. There are no standards yet as we see them in the financial analysis (USGAAP, IFRS etc.). But the Global Reporting Initiative has set up a frame on what has to be disclosed - thus helping the companies to find a frame (read more ).