Today, Friday, December 28, 2012 Emerging Markets ESG publishes the 15th edition of its Updated Database of Contacts in the Field of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI).
The Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program published an inaugural Database of Contacts in the Field of SRI on the capital markets research page of the PFS Program website on October 25, 2002. The inaugural database 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, a 13th edition in December 2011 and a 14th edition in July 2012.
This 15th edition of the database, with current information as of December 28, 2012, contains 1,654 organizations and 956 conferences/events divided among the following 15 categories: Academia (78 institutions); Awards and Prizes (34); Companies – Listed Companies (444); Conferences and Events (956); Exchanges (30): Financial Institutions (240); Governmental Organizations (73); Indices (62), Media (84); Networks (97); Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) (256); Private-Public Partnerships (14); Professional and Trade Associations (88); Rating and Research (132); and Standard-Setting Organizations (22).
The updated database includes institutions from 79 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Events and institutions in the following eight countries appear in the database for the first time – Azerbaijan, Barbados, Chile, Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal, Oman, Venezuela and Yemen.
The 14th edition of the database contained 1,539 organizations and 807 conferences/events in 71 countries. Thus, the 15th edition contains 116 new organizations and 149 new conferences/events.
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.
Several observations may be made about the updated database, which was compiled between July 7 and December 28, 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 conferences/events as well as organizations broadened. As was the case with the four previous editions of the database, in this edition there is a noticeable increase in the number of events about and organizations engaged in clean energy, cleantech, impact investing, microfinance, social entrepreneurship, sustainable finance and venture philanthropy.
Second, the geographical diversity of the database continues to expand. In addition to the first entries from the eight countries mentioned above, the 15th edition of the database also includes the following new entries, each of which represents a first entry from that country in the respective category: academic institutions in Brazil and Singapore; a company in Mexico; an event in Slovenia; exchanges in Malaysia, Poland and Thailand; financial institutions in Costa Rica and Hong Kong; a media organization in Italy; networks in Denmark and Luxembourg; a private-public partnership in Canada; a professional and trade association in Spain; and rating and research firms in China and South Africa. The 15th edition of the database also includes new European, global, UK and US standard-setting organizations. This edition of the database, like the previous three editions, includes the designation “unspecified,” since the website of several organizations does not specify the country where the organization is located.
Third, this edition of the database includes many cross-cutting and multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as the Ethical Trading Initiative (networks), Global Footprint Network (networks), Global Initiative for Sustainability Ratings (GISR) (standard-setting organizations) and International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) (professional and trade associations).
Fourth, the database includes 14 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 132 rating/research institutions in 25 countries.
Fifth, as noted in the seven most recent editions of the database, the number of conferences and events on SRI topics continues to increase. During the second half of 2012 this trend continued.
The number of conferences and events on SRI topics increased to 956, from 807 as of June 30, 2012. The figure was 657 on December 30, 2011; 551 on July 29, 2011; and 423 on December 31, 2010.
Of the 956 conferences/events listed in the 15th edition of the database, 303 took place in the USA, 169 in the UK, 43 in France, 39 in Switzerland, 34 in the Netherlands, 32 in Germany, 24 in Belgium, 24 in Canada, 18 in Australia, 15 in South Africa and 89 were webinars.
Acquisitions, consolidation and mergers in several areas, including corporate governance advisory, proxy voting and research, continued throughout 2012. 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 16th edition of the updated database will be published in early July 2013.
To download the database, please click on the link below:
Emerging Markets ESG – Updated Database of Contacts in the Field of SRI – December 2012