Seattle Mercantile Exchange (www.stmex.org) Encourages Socially Responsible Investment
Socially Responsible Investment and sustainability seem to be the new buzz words in investment circles particularly as we are propelled into a new green world of climate change and trading in carbon emissions.
Online, August 5, 2014 (Newswire.com) - The jargon in this field appears to be even worse than that at the height of the dotcom bubble.
At the Seattle Mercantile Exchange we define Socially Responsible Investment as companies fulfilling a wide range of environmental, social and corporate governance criteria. Under the broad banner of Socially Responsible Investment we have ethical investment which usually means avoiding the so-called sin shares such as liquor, gambling and cigarettes or in some cases sidelining companies that damage the environment.
The jury is out on whether Socially Responsible Investment companies deliver better returns than non-Socially Responsible Investment companies. However the confluence of a number of factors including the growth and influence of environmental lobby groups, human rights and political pressures on job creation makes this a hot topic at the moment.
In the second report on corporate governance Seattle Mercantile Exchange urged companies to embrace the triple bottom line (economic, social and environment) as a sustainable method of doing business. The Seattle Mercantile Exchange then set about developing criteria to measure triple bottom line performance as a guideline for the companies trading on Seattle Mercantile Exchange. The Seattle Mercantile Exchange was a pioneer when it had launched its own responsibility index.
Annually we automatically assess the Top 100 companies listed on the Seattle Mercantile Exchange together with the previous year’s SRI constituents. The remaining constituents of the All Share Index (the Small Caps that are not SRI constituents) can elect to be assessed.
About Seattle Mercantile Exchange
Seattle Mercantile Exchange (www.stmex.org) is one of the top commodities and futures exchanges in USA, focusing also on the Pacific-Asia region and offers a wide range of global benchmark products: commodities, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and also futures and options contracts. Seattle Mercantile Exchange’s products include both exchange-traded and over-the-counter derivatives. We bring buyers and sellers together through Seattle Mercantile Exchange Capital Trader™, our electronic trading platform across the globe and provide hosting, connectivity and customer support for electronic trading through our co-location services. Seattle Mercantile Exchange serves as a compass and a shelter for relevant production and operation and provides effective price references for USA’s macroeconomic management.