International Investor Initiatives

As far as possible, Ethos tries to participate to international investor initiatives mobilised on environmental and social issues. Ethos is member or signatory of the following investor initiatives:

4 Carbon Disclosure Project - CDP

4 Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change - IIGCC

4 Principles for Responsible Investment - PRI

4 Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - EITI

4 Access to Medicine Index - AtM

4 Freedom of Expression and Internet

4 Social Investment Research Analyst Network - SIRAN

4 Climate Risk Disclosure Initiative

4 Pharmaceutical Shareowners' Forum - PSF

4 Institutional Investor Group on Myanmar (Burma)

Every year since 2003 the CDP has sent a questionnaire to the largest world capitalisation concerning their greenhouse gas emissions, so as to obtain the information necessary to a thorough analysis of the risks and opportunities linked to climate change. In 2008, the CDP sent out its sixth questionnaire to over 3000 companies. The CDP currently comprises 385 members the fortune of which totals to 57,000 billion USD. Ethos became a member of the CDP in January 2005.

The IIGCC includes 46 pension funds and other institutional investors representing more than 4,000 billion EUR in assets on issues related to climate change. It seeks to promote a better understanding of the implications of climate change amongst institutional investors and encourage companies and markets to address material risks and opportunities associated with climate change and a shift to a lower carbon economy. Ethos became a member of the IIGCC in 2003.

The «Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)» have been elaborated by an international group of institutional investors in order to meet increasing concerns of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues for investment decision-making. This process was initiated by the ex-Secretary General of the United Nations Organisation, Mr. Kofi Annan. Ethos’ support for these principles is a matter of course insofar as its Charter of 1997 has already largely integrated the principles formulated in 2006. In fact, the Charter stipulates that the Foundation shall integrate environmental and social factors into its investment policy in order to promote sustainable development.

The EITI aims to increase transparency in transactions between governments and companies from the extractive sector. The EITI was announced by Tony Blair, British Prime Minister, at the 2002 Earth Summit in Johannesburg. The EITI published an investor declaration, ratified by 36 signatories, including Ethos who signed it in 2003.

The aim of the «Access to Medicine Index» project is to provide key stakeholders, such as the investment community, with a data base specific to the access to medicine issue. This data base shall allow the creation of an index for benchmarking companies on their policy of the access to medicine issue. This will allow investors to ascertain that companies have really assessed the risks and opportunities linked to access to medicine. The declaration supporting this project was signed by Ethos in 2007.

Following Reporters without borders' lead, 25 North American, Australian and European investment funds managing around 21 billion dollars in assets have endorsed a joint statement in which they affirm their commitment to freedom of expression on the Internet. They commit, among other things, to monitor the activities of Internet companies in repressive regimes. Ethos signed this declaration which was published in November 2005.

The SIRAN is a SRI (Socially Responsible Investment) analyst network. It published a joint declaration on the behalf of 23 investment companies (USD 435 billion) clarifying SRI analysts’ expectations in terms of environmental and social reporting. This declaration encourages companies to report in line with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Ethos signed this declaration in 2005.

The Global Framework for Climate Risk Disclosure is a statement released by a group of leading institutional investors in October 2006. The Framework encourages standardized climate risk disclosure to make it easy for companies to provide and for investors to analyse and compare companies. Investors require this information in order to analyze a company’s business risks and opportunities resulting from climate change, as well as the company’s efforts to address those risks and opportunities. Ethos is a signatory of the Global Framework for Climate Risk Disclosure in the context of its membership to the IIGCC.

The PSF is a group of European institutional investors with CHF 1.3 trillion under management. It published a declaration to exert pressure on pharmaceutical companies in order to facilitate access to medicines in developing countries. The declaration urges companies to take proactive measures, in partnership with governments, and in particular to set up a differential pricing policy to improve urgent access to certain medicine in developing countries. Ethos joined the PSF in 2003.

In 2001, Ethos along with seven other institutional investors (Morley Fund Management, Co-operative Insurance Society, Friends Ivory & Sime, Henderson Global Investors, Universities Superannuation Scheme in the United Kingdom and PGGM in the Netherlands) joined forces to launch a statement which outlines the concerns raised by the presence of a military dictatorship in Myanmar and highlights the risks to shareholders in investing in companies that have interests in the country. The group asks companies to establish policies and risk management processes to make sure that their investments do not contribute to human rights violations in Myanmar. Ethos raised this issue directly with companies in which it holds stock and that are involved in Myanmar.