Al Gore to speak at Social Investment Forum Conference next week

Next week, Barb Brown and Margie Flynn are attending the Social Investment Forum 2011 Conference: “Responsible Investing: Impact & Innovation” at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Al Gore, Chairman and Co-founder of Generation Investment Management, is the keynote speaker at the Conference Kickoff dinner on June 9. GIM is a partnership focused on a new approach to sustainable investing. Mr. Gore has many accolades and credits to his name, and no doubt will be interesting to listen to.

BrownFlynn is proud to be a sponsor of this year’s SIF Conference, and feels it will be a worthwhile and informative event. UBS is the lead sponsor, with other sponsors such as Bloomberg, PAX, MSCI, Calvert, Boston Common Asset Management, TIAA-CREF, Towers Watson, Walden Asset Management, Campbell’s, Nasdaq OMX and more.  Some speakers include:

• Elizabeth Warren, Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Luis Aguilar, Commissioner, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• Janet Cowell, State Treasurer, North Carolina
• Michael Jantzi, CEO, Sustainalytics
• Roger Urwin, Global Head of Investment Content, Towers Watson
• Dave Stangis, Vice President of CSR and Sustainability, Campbell Soup Company

For more information about the conference and to register (there’s still time!) please click here. Hope to see you there!

MSCI Reveals new ESG Indices and Branding

Responsible-Investor reported last week that MSCI unveiled a suite of ESG indices that includes specialist environmental benchmarks under a newly branded division called MSCI ESG Research. This is following its acquisition of RiskMetrics Group in March. The benchmark series was publicly rolled out September 7 after being shown to clients.

Within this suite of environmental benchmarks is the MSCI Global Climate Index of 100 larger companies considered as leaders in environmental business, as well as a pure play Global Environmental Index covering companies with more than 50% of revenues from environmental technologies. MSCI has transitioned over the KLD Index family that includes three main sustainability indices: MSCI ESG indices that are calculated on a best-in-class basis from the broader MSCI Global Investable Market Indices (a series of values-based indices including the KLD 400 Social index), and the new Environmental Indices.

The new MSCI ESG Research division will include existing RMG work on ESG research and ratings on companies as well as ethical screening and compliance. To read the complete article please click here.

What do you think? Does it seem like new sustainability indices are popping up everyday? How do you know which ones to follow? Tell us your thoughts!