Emerging Markets ESG publishes extensive database of ESG practitioners
On Friday, December 30, 2011 Emerging Markets ESG published an updated Database of Contacts in the Field of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). To download the database, please visit the Research of Emerging Markets ESG.
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 and a 12th edition in July 2011.
This 13th edition of the database, with current information as of December 30, 2011, contains 1,428 organizations and 657 conferences/events divided among the following 15 categories: Academia (55 institutions); Awards and Prizes (28); Companies – Listed Companies (424); Conferences and Events (657); Exchanges (17): Financial Institutions (196); Governmental Organizations (69); Indices (56), Media (78); Networks (68); Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) (232); Private-Public Partnerships (12); Professional and Trade Associations (76);Rating and Research (104); and Standard-Setting Organizations (13). 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.
The updated database includes institutions from 70 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.
The 12th edition of the database contained 1,363 organizations and 551 conferences/events in 68 countries. Thus, this edition contains 171 new organizations and 106 new conferences/events. Two countries, Ecuador and Liechtenstein, appear in the database for the first time.
Several observations may be made about the updated database, which was compiled between August 1 and December 29, 2011:
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 12th edition 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: an Australian award; conferences and events in Columbia, Ecuador (the first entry from Ecuador), Kenya, Nigeria and Portugal; a Turkish exchange; a Mexican index; NGOs in Australia and Japan; and rating/research institutions in Israel, Liechtenstein (the first entry from Liechtenstein), Mexico, and the Philippines. This edition of the database, like the 12th edition, 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 30% Club (network), the Asset Owners Disclosure Project (NGO), the Finance Alliance for Sustainable Trade (NGO), the MicroFinance Network (professional and trade association), the Responsible Endowments Coalition (network) and the Tax Justice Network (network).
Fourth, the database includes 17 new organizations from 20 countries engaged in ratings and research This is a significant expansion vis-à-vis earlier editions of the database.
Fifth, as noted in the five most recent editions of the database, the number of conferences and events on SRI topics continues to increase. During the second half of 2011 this trend continued. The number of conferences and events on SRI topics increased to 657, from 551 as of July 29, 2011. The figure was 423 on December 31, 2010. Of these 657 conferences/events, 220 took place in the USA, 133 in the UK, 32 in France, 25 in the Netherlands, 25 in Switzerland, 23 in Belgium and 32 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.
The 14th edition of the updated database will be published in June 2012.
Some ideas for the future include publishing separate databases of contacts in specific fields, such as SRI consulting and SRI databases. Emerging Markets ESG would appreciate your feedback and suggestions on this idea.
Geoffrey Mazullo
Principal – Emerging Markets ESG
Adjunct Professor – School of American Law (SAL) – Poland
Internet: http://www.emergingmarketsesg.net