RESPONSIBLE INVESTING

With more and more corporations tripping over each other to promote sustainability as a core business value, I’d like to weigh in with my own unscientific and biased opinion on who’s leading this race, who’s in the pack but gaining, and who’s not in the race at all.

Ahead of the pack

1. Interface –  Global leader in reshaping the role of corporations
2. SunOpta – Providing non-GMO soya edibles
3. La Siembra – 5% dividend for supporting fair trade coffee and chocolate
4. Whole Foods Markets – First to purchase renewable energy exclusively
5. Philips – Reinventing the light bulb
6. Toyota – If you need a car they are the current global innovator
7. Carmanah Technolgies – Solar powered LED lighting hq’ed in Victoria
8. Pacific Regeneration Technologies – Reforestation nurseries
9. CN Rail – Rail trumps all for bulk transport but must improve safety
10. Virgin – Richard Branson has best coiffure in business

Gaining

• Nike and Nestle – Both have come a long way since first targeted by social activists
• General Electric – If they back up all the fancy talk could lead an energy efficiency revolution

Not in the race

1. Exxon – Melting icecaps? Easier to drill.
2. Halliburton – War is good for this business.
3. Archer Daniels Midland – Keep your hands off my corn.
4. Lockheed Martin – Can make it rain nukes from Mach 2 and 40,000 feet.
5. Monsanto – See quirky 70’s film Soylent Green.
6. Xstrata Coal – Major GHG emission challenges.
7. Pfizer – Totally annoying, Viagrahyping, pill pushers.
8. Suez SA – Supplying water and maximizing profit not compatible.
9. Cameco – Mining uranium for various enrichment projects.
10. Coca Cola – Still rather drink the water from my tap, but good with rum.

SRI in the NEWS

• More clean energy investments have arrived on the market, the latest is Criterion Global Clean Energy Fund, Canada’s first actively-managed mutual fund based on this sector
• CIBC has introduced their Climate Change Growth Deposit Notes, ten global companies they say are positioned to benefit from the global reaction to the threat of climate change
• Empire Company (EMP.A.TO) is the holding company for the new owner of Vancouver Island-based Thrifty’s Foods.