Statements on SRI in general, the platform and its aims:
(in alphabetical order)
In the dialogue section the issue is approached from a broader perspective. We invite experts to comment on SRI and the platform. Statements on specific funds, indices, companies or research-providers will not be published in this section.
Max Deml (ÖKO-INVEST-Verlag)
"In the German speaking areas this database is number one of all free information services with its unique content and its technique in the field of ethically and ecologically orientated investment funds, shares and indices. The sustainable investment platform can be certain to be a permanent recommendation in the Internet chapter of our yearbook 'Grünes Geld' [Green Money].
I wish that there will be a 'sustainable' and wide response to the Institute from within and beyond the specialists' community and I hope that for all, who do not wish to take the risks which go with an investment in shares or those who wish to invest in a more direct way, e.g. fixed income and non-listed stocks of wind parks, that in the future there will also be an offer of information, which is as comprehensive and independent as this one."
Dr. Alois Flatz (SAM Sustainable Asset Management)
"This information-platform closes a gap. Everyone who likes to find out more on Sustainable Investment without spending too much time and effort has now the perfect tool. This website is valuable especially because it promotes one of the most important principles of long term success: transparency. In addition its layout is clear, easy to use and based on scientific principles, which are applied in a pragmatic way. The platform does a great job for the segment of Sustainable Investment, which is growing despite of the bear market. I would like to congratulate the initiators and wish them a lot of success for the future."
Kirein Franck
(imug consulting mbH)
"Transparency will play a decisive role in the development of the SRI-market. There seems to be enough information about financial investment, but few relating to the quality of the investment. And as information may contain evaluation, there is a uncertainty in the market. Our representative surveys have shown that many private and institutional investors don´t know where to get reliable information on SRI-funds. Currently we are developing in cooperation with rating-agencies in Europe and with the support of the European Commission voluntary quality standards for investment research regarding sustainable development topics. The internet platform www.sustainable-investment.org will certainly play an active role in revealing the relation between ecological, social and economical responsibility to the public."
Dr. Rainer Grießhammer, Christian Hochfeld, Kathrin Graulich
(Institute for Applied Ecology e.V.)
"A euro is a euro is a euro!? Not if it is invested differently. At least this is the hope of those seeking to make sure that their investment not only yields acceptable profit but also contributes to sustainable development through the way companies run their operations. The great hopes currently placed in such forms of investment will only be justified if it can be verified over the medium and long term that sustainable investment is indeed the key to tapping the potential of financial markets to solve global problems or limit unsustainable effects. Transparency among the providers of sustainable financial products, combined with transparency concerning the sustainability performance of specific investments, is an essential precondition to picking up and amplifying the signals, weak as yet, that point towards a sustainable development of this segment of the market. We now stand at the very beginning of the environmental and sustainability transparency of financial markets. We therefore welcome the web-based transparency initiative. This is a valuable contribution, provided by independent scientists, to promoting transparency and objectifying the discussion on sustainable investment and on more sustainable production patterns in companies. We hope that the work of the Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut) may contribute to the success of this initiative."
Robert Haßler (oekom research AG)
"SRI lives from transparency. In spite of all tendencies of standardization this investment style is a value based approach. The idea of what sustainability means can vary from investor to investor. In this respect it is decisive for the development of the market, that investors have the possibility to get informed easily and quickly about the existing approaches of SRI and to find the offer which goes best with their own ideas. In the long-term, this platform can contribute to achieving this in an important way. In this respect I hope, that www.sustainable-investment.org will establish as an information center on SRI which is supported by all market players and which creates the necessary transparency."
Gabi Hildesheimer
(Swiss Association for Environmentally Conscious Management)
"The longstanding, consequent and convincing commitment of many companies in ecological and social matters has not yet been fully recognized by the market. The demand for corresponding investments is an important instrument to strengthen the sustainability in the economy. Thanks to this accessible, user-friendly tool we hope to get an increasing amount of funds for sustainable financial products and we look forward to a positive feed-back for the companies."
Walter Kahlenborn (German Sustainable Investment Forum)
"It does not take the new European Constitution to realize that the European financial markets are growing together. What seemed quite unrealistic some years ago, to buy and sell mutual funds across borders, is becoming an increasingly common investment pattern for private individuals in the EU. However, to obtain the necessary information for investment activities beyond the home market the investor needs high quality, international information providers. www.sustainable-investment.org will produce this information for the European SRI market, which despite recent setbacks on the share market is growing rapidly. The German Sustainable Investment Forum very much welcomes the new website."
Thomas Loew (Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IoeW) Berlin)
"As many others, I would also like to praise transparency provided by this website. For science as well as for financial institutions the information provided represents an outstanding data basis for further market analysis. The new perspectives on the SRI market will be a starting point to develop new ideas e.g. for new innovative SRI products or for intelligent measures promoting this sustainable market segment. For this reason I would appreciate that the SRI-Funds regularly update their information on this website in order to maintain transparency on the long run."
Prof. Dr. Lorenz M. Hilty
(Head of Department Sustainable Informationtechnology, Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt)
"This platform for sustainable investment is a perfect example for the use of information and communication technology to create more transparency. This transparency helps investors, who would like to act in a responsible manner, to decide on a very high level of information. I wish the platform a great success and hope that it will stay neutral all the time."
Dr. Christa Liedtke, Timo Busch (Wuppertal Institute)
Volkmar Lübke (Member of the Executive Board of Verbraucher Initiative)
"This online-database is an important and overdue first step towards more transparency in a market, in which ethical, commercial and PR-motives can hardly be isolated (e.g. under the term 'sustainability' which is very 'fuzzy'). The first - and with regard to consumer-interests - important step for more market transparency on the supply-side is done. Therefore I would like to congratulate the initiators of the platform. Still missing, according to consumer interests, is a wide range of generally accepted principles, which helps the users to judge the large variety of offers. We all know that independence, research quality and the quality of advice of the actors in this market can be judged very differently. We will be fond of participatly the further development of this platform towards this direction."
Dr. York Lunau, Dr. Stefan Streiff
(civis® / Institute for Business Ethics, University of St. Gallen)
"A portal like Sustainable Investment really fills a gap! Especially interesting: the list of criteria for investing (consciously not: 'criteria of exclusion'). Although nowadays it`s hard for a feasible selection system already to avoid the exclusion logic, several elements could be transfered to positive requirements (e.g. instead of "obstruction of sustainable behaviour" perhaps "above-average active clarification and implementation of sustainable business patterns"). In this case other important aspects could be integrated like: "maintainance of dialog with affected and interested citizens leading to serious results". Maybe the user of the website once can enter a sophisticated profile of the desired investment offer and learns a lot about modern requirements on management. What is so much important from the view of the Integrative Business Ethics, this way would be integrated in the system much better: to regard meaningful and responsible business practices not only as question of restrictions (guard rails) but also of deserved success (lodestar)."
Klaus Milke (Head of Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit)
"Sustainability and foundations have many common features. Foundations preserve capital with a certain purpose eternally. Sustainability is a long term concept as well. Many foundations have social, ethical and ecological causes. Why shouldn't they invest according to their causes and shape society in a way which helps future development?"
Dr. Reinhard Paulesich (University of Vienna)
"There is an historically determined reason for the low rate of shareholders in Austrian society compared with the German or Swiss one. Several monetary crises and crashes on stock markets up to the fifties of the last century have scratched trust and confidence. It can be understood that Austrian private investors first observe international trends to raise certainty for deciding. Therefore there is no wondering about trust and confidence still dominating motivations to invest or to shift from simple savings to a little more risky asset formation.
This is the background for a neutral information platform on the web. Transparency and communication on socially responsible, environmentally friendly investment are the most required criterian of people stick in savings when they are asked how they are to motivate for a change. The structure provided by this web site therefore supports our activities to animate Austrian financial market towards 'sustainable development'.
Andrea Ramisberger (INrate)
"Until recently, individuals interested in sustainable investments were forced to do extensive research on an increasingly diversified market when looking for products corresponding with their own guidelines and objectives. This new online-platform offers real support hereto because it provides rapidly transparency and information."
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger von Rosen (Deutsches Aktieninstitut)
"After some difficult years we presently experience an upswing at the stock market. This includes an increasing number of shareholders. Much more often than in the past shareholders think about how to invest their money. This development is quite in the interest of the German stock market as a whole. Admittedly, a prerequisite is a high degree of information and transparency. Therefore the platform www.sustainable-investment.org made it their business to establish a market transparency for SRI funds. The more successful the platform is, the better it is for the equity culture in Germany."
Stefan Rostock (Germanwatch)
"Climate change is happening. Its direct and regulative consequences have an influence on investments. Every investment decision carries risks, which are up to now not taken into account, like the questions: How is the company affected by the increasing number of violent weather phenomenon? Which are the greenhouse gas risks of the company?
Transparency is a prerequisite for sustainability. Sustainable investment has become a question of economic intelligence."
Prof. Dr. Henry Schäfer
(University of Stuttgart)
"Sustainable Investment in Germany is a topic, maybe even a phenomenon, which has been neglected for a long time by the financial community. But, nevertheless, an obvious dynamic has evolved within this segment of the capital market. The fact that the group of sustainability orientated investors stayed with their investments in spite of the bear market may indicate a 'sustainable tendency towards a sustainable investment'. Like with every dynamic market development an increasing number of frictions appear, which can be seen when analyzing the confusingly high number of criteria (for sustainability) and the ever increasing offer of investment products. This platform is certainly an important step towards an increased market transparency and serves to protect the investor."
Dr. Michael Schröder
(Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Head of Dept. International Finance, Financial Management and Macroeconomics)
Carl-Albrecht von Treuenfels, Werner Zidek (WWF Germany)
"The bundling and making available of information on sustainable investment funds via Internet closes a gap for every market participant, who is interested in this field. It is an important step to an increased market transparency for private and institutional investors alike. With it there is an additional opportunity for the timely and deliberate preparation of investment decisions under the primate of environmentally sound orientation of economic actions. The WWF welcomes very much that the Institute for Environmental Management and Business Administration at the EUROPEAN BUSINESS SCHOOL gives new impulses to this important market segment with the introduction of a platform, which is freely available to the public."
Jürgen Trittin (German Federal Minister for the Environment)
"The market for sustainable investments has evolved favorably in spite of the bear market for the last years. These investments were, up to now, mostly of interest to ecologically, ethically and socially involved investors. To promote the advantages of ecological Investments among a broader group of customers media like the platform and the second and extended version of the brochure "Mehr Wert: Ökologische Geldanlagen" represent an important resource of information. They contribute to a environmental modernisation of the economy. I think it is important to ask for and give answers to potential investors on the contribution of the selected investment to the sustainability of the economy as concrete as possible in order to facilitate their decision making process."
Dr. Gerhard Voss, Dr. Hendrik Biebeler, Dr. Mahammad Mahammadzadeh
(Institute for Business Research)
"It is of great interest for investors, financial service providers and the public to know how the principle of sustainability is adapted by the private sector and how sustainability affects the business success. So far, condensed and rapid information about the sustainability management within firms is still rare. An internet platform will broaden this knowledge and promote sustainable development in the corporate sector. It is, therefore, welcome that the Institute for Environmental Management and Business Administration at the European Business School has accepted the task of providing the information in the web in a transparent, objective and scientific manner."
Prof. Dr. Ernst-Ulrich von Weizsäcker (Member of Parliament)
"Markets need transparency. This also holds for ethical aspects of markets. Institutional investors and private households should be grateful obtaining reliable data relating to ethical and ecological criteria. What is more, ethical investment and corporate social responsibility can help stabilize the market system which has come under attack from millions of loosers worldwide."
Axel Wilhelm (scoris GmbH)
"Sustainable Investment will be a central topic in the field of finance for years to come. At the same time in this young industry there is a lot of change and the need for information is enormous. This is why the idea of the platform of informing both, market participants and a broader public, and of giving a first orientation within the broad subject of sustainable investment is very valuable. I hope that the platform will not only be an information market-place but become a forum for the necessary exchange of ideas on this topic."
Peter Zollinger (Executive Director SustainAbility Ltd. London, New York und Zürich)
"Independent and credible sources of information that allow transparent appraisal of sustainability performance are rare and valuable. As recent history has shown, even financial information that is free of conflict of interest can be a scarce resource. This is particularly true for investors who are seeking to make decisions on sustainable investments. It is a challenge for those investors to find clear and credible information and advice in an area that is so complicated by different perceptions and appraisals of societal values and views around the world.
This new platform is a promising step in the right direction. We hope that over time more information will be provided both on the performance of investment vehicles and on the sustainability performance of individual companies. This could be supported usefully by comments and opinions from selected stakeholder groups."