Today, Friday, July 6, 2012 Emerging Markets ESG publishes the 14th edition of its 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 eight times.
Emerging Markets ESG published a 10th edition of the database in July 2010, an 11th edition of the database in December 2010, a 12th edition in July 2011 and a 13th edition in December 2011.
This 14th edition of the database, with current information as of June 30, 2012, contains 1,539 organizations and 807 conferences/events divided among the following 15 categories: Academia (65 institutions); Awards and Prizes (29); Companies – Listed Companies (428); Conferences and Events (807); Exchanges (25): Financial Institutions (220); Governmental Organizations (70); Indices (58), Media (82); Networks (82); Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) (244); Private-Public Partnerships (13); Professional and Trade Associations (83); Rating and Research (124); and Standard-Setting Organizations (16).
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. Each worksheet is sorted alphabetically by institution; each worksheet may also be re-sorted alphabetically by country.
The updated database includes institutions from 72 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Ethiopia and New Zealand appear in the database for the first time.
The 13th edition of the database contained 1,429 organizations and 657 conferences/events in 70 countries. Thus, the 14th edition contains 110 new organizations and 150 new conferences/events.
Several observations may be made about the updated database, which was compiled between January 1 and June 30, 2012:
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 organizations broadened. As with the 13th and 12th editions of the database, in this edition there is a noticeable increase in the number of events about and organizations 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 China and South Africa; a company in Mauritius; events in Ethiopia (the first entry from Ethiopia) Ireland, Liechtenstein and Russia; exchanges in Austria, Brazil, India, Israel and South Korea; financial institutions in New Zealand (the first entry from New Zealand) and Nigeria; a network in India; professional/trade associations in Brazil and Japan; and research/rating agencies in Australia, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, India and United Arab Emirates. This edition of the database, like the two previous editions, includes the designation “unspecified,” since the website of several organizations does not specify a country where the organization is located.
Third, this edition of the database includes many cross-cutting and multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as the Partnership Brokers Association (professional and trade associations), the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (standard setting organizations) and Voluntary Principles for Security & Human Rights (networks).
Fourth, the database includes 21 new organizations engaged in ratings and research. Thus the number and geographic range of institutions engaged in ratings and research continues to grow. The database now includes a total of 123 rating/research institutions in 25 countries.
Fifth, as noted in the six most recent editions of the database, the number of conferences and events on SRI topics continues to increase. During the first half of 2012 this trend continued.
The number of conferences and events on SRI topics increased to 807, from 657 as of December 30, 2011. The figure was 551 on July 29, 2011 and 423 on December 31, 2010. Of these 807 conferences/events, 260 took place in the USA, 157 in the UK, 37 in France, 33 in Switzerland, 28 in the Netherlands, 23 in Belgium, 23 in Germany, 21 in Canada and 60 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.
Emerging Markets ESG would appreciate your constructive criticism and feedback regarding the database.
The 15th edition of the updated database will be published in late December 2012.
To download the database, please click on the link below:
Emerging Markets ESG – Updated Database of Contacts in the Field of SRI – June 2012