Ethical brands – How Green & Black’s struck chocolate gold Creativity, pragmatism and zeal define social entrepreneur Craig Sams, founder of iconic chocolate maker Green & Black’s by Ben Cooper Asking whether “social entrepreneurs” created ethical consumerism or vice versa is a bit like asking which came first, the organic chicken or the free-range egg. …
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Category:Responsible Investing
A Modest Proposal for Wealth Managers
I like the Fiduciaries “Hippocratic” Oath in this article. Maybe all fiduciaries should sign it when taking on a client. Soapbox: A Modest Proposal for Wealth Managers In “A Modest Proposal,” written in 1729, the noted Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift suggested that the impoverished Irish could ease their economic troubles by selling their children as …
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Products for the other 3 billion
A couple of ideas about high tech products for emerging market consumers. Products for the other 3 billion A new breed of idealistic technologist is building ultracheap baby incubators, medicine dispensers, and solar-powered lamps. Welcome to entrepreneurship circa 2009. By Michael V. Copeland, senior writer, Fortune Magazine Jim Patell is perhaps the only member of …
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Shell dumps wind, solar, hydro
Shell oil company which has made a big deal out of its commitment to alternative energy for the past decade, has decided to deemphasise its investment in wind, solar and hydro technologies. Their rationale is economic and we may therefore conclude that the drop in consumption symptomatic of the economic recession is driving this decision. …
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Entrepreneurship
A Special Report by The Economist. While it is the big companies and their CEO’s that get the headlines and the red carpet treatment, it is the small and medium sized businesses that make up the bulk of the world’s economy. They are the employers of most people, produce the most goods. They also are …
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Why sustainability is still going strong.
From the Financial Times In the wake of the deepening economic crisis, many commentators are warning of the demise of corporate sustainability, the practice of balancing profit with the social and environmental impact of doing business. Companies obsessed with their own short-term survival, they suggest, cannot possibly support long-term, “feel-good” initiatives to protect the environment …
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Microfinance: Banking on the poor – Ethical Corp
Microfinance – Banking on the poor As the global financial system buckles, microfinance institutions continue to grow on the back of their record for low risk and solid returns by Rajesh Chhabara, Ethical Corp Microfinance gives small-scale financial services such as loans, savings, insurance and money transfer to poor customers who would otherwise not have …
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Crunch Time For Ethical Investing – Ethical Corp
Financial crisis: Social investment – Crunch time for ethical investing Social investors will have to refocus on the nuts and bolts of companies in which they invest if they are to survive the current market turmoil Jon Entine is an adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, and founder of the sustainability …
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Auction rate securities scandal shows we’ve learned nothing from the sub-prime mess.
The recently breaking news story about leading financial institutions selling auction rate securities with misleading marketing shows that neither financial institutions, nor investors have changed their behaviour since the financial meltdown caused by excessive credit and the sub-prime implosion. Several leading financial institutions have been fined and forced to repay investors their investments in auction …
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Winners from the credit crunch.
As always, some weather downturns better than others, and the credit crunch has benefited those able to take advantage of it: those with cash, those who provide value and those who said it was coming. It is unfortunate that at the top of that list are the rich. In other words, the rich have got …
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