How does performance in sustainability and ethical areas impact investor confidence?
A good indicator for investors attitudes towards companies performance in ethically related areas is the behavior of large institutional investors such as mutual and pension funds. 2002 data estimate that well over $2 trillion invested in U.S. funds are subject to some form of corporate governance or CSR screening or socially responsible investment criteria. Even governments have actively supported socially responsible investment. Since 2000 the British Government requires that pension funds include socially responsible investment in their Statement of Investment Principles. The increasing number of ethically-directed funds and the emergence of indices including companies according to their ethical records, such as the large FTSE4Good family, Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Domini Index and the recently launch FTSE ISS Corporate Governance Index and the similar new Brazilian Bovespa Index further show that ethically-related investments are increasing. Estimates are that inflows into so
