----- Original Message ----- From: "alex lantsberg" <wideye at ziplink.net> To: "LBO" <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 5:59 PM Subject: "SEC MUST ENFORCE ENVIRONMENTAL DISCLOSURE LAW," URGES CITIZEN PETITION
For Communities & The Environment 6008 College Avenue, Suite 10 * Oakland, CA 94618 510-658-0702 * rosefdn at earthlink.net * www.rosefdn.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Nadia Khatchadourian, 202-478-6187 August 21, 2002
"SEC MUST ENFORCE ENVIRONMENTAL DISCLOSURE LAW," URGES CITIZEN PETITION Rose Foundation Report Encourages Investment Managers to Push for Disclosure
(WASHINGTON, DC) - The Rose Foundation For Communities & the Environment today filed a petition with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) demanding that the SEC comply with its own regulations requiring publicly traded companies to disclose environmental liabilities to their shareholders. The push for enforcement of environmental liability disclosure was accompanied by a supporting letter from several of the United States' largest and most influential charitable foundations representing over $3 billion in combined assets including the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund, Rockefeller Family Fund and the Surdna and San Francisco Foundations. Several investment houses including Calvert, Domini, Walden and Citizens Funds with assets of over $13 billion also support enforcement. The petition comes on the heels of widespread calls for greater social and environmental disclosure from the Social Investment Forum and representatives of the $2 trillion socially responsible investment industry.
To support the petition, the Foundation also released the report, The Environmental Fiduciary: The Case for Incorporating Environmental Factors Into Portfolio Management Practices, which documents that environmental risk and liabilities can be a tremendous drag on shareholder value while pro-active corporate environmental initiatives can result in significant savings and improvements in shareholder value. The report calls on investment managers to insist on disclosure of financially material environmental risks since it is crucial in allowing markets to accurately price environmental risk, analyze competitive posture, and forecast corporate growth potential.
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So, maybe the internalizing of externalities and the era of ecological auditing by the corps. will get off the ground with this... Pigou would be proud....... http://www.rosefdn.org/images/EFreport.pdf
Ian