A Review of Israel Ministry of Finance SRI Position Paper

February 10th, 2008 | Categories: News · SRI · Israel | Tags: , , , ,
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Last week, I received an email from the Israeli Ministry of Finance of great significance. The email announced the publishing of a policy paper by a division within the Ministry to consider the implications of Socially Responsible Investing. This email quietly has the potential to change the way Israeli society views the capital markets. Currently the capital markets are viewed by Israelis as the unbridled ability to maximize profits with little concern for society’s well being or ethical standards. Little debate has taken place on this topic and sadly many efforts to raise the topic has resulted in the hijacking of the debate by corporate interests rather than an open balanced debate by all sectors of the Israeli public. I propose that people who have any concern for the well being of Israeli society ought to turn their attention to SRI as a tool for moderating values in Israeli society. As this paper proposes, having legislation enacted that allow ethical and moral considerations to be considered by a fund manager is the foundation on which our society’s economy shall reflect our desire for a just and good society. Without this legislative foundation we are very close to economic anarchy.

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Why ESG Reporting Has Reached a Tipping Point

April 25th, 2007 | Categories: CSR | Tags: , , ,
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The Social Investment Research Analysts Network (SIRAN) and KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. announced the findings of their annual report on environmental and social performance reporting of US companies at the Ceres Conference 2007 today in Boston.

The study shows that nearly half (49) of US companies in the Standard & Poors (S&P) 100 Index are now disclosing information about their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. From an Israeli perspective the significance of this milestone demonstrates that it’s time for Israeli companies to start gearing up for a new wave of regulations and standards on the horizon.

Companies such as Bank Leumi and Israel Discount Bank Ltd. have taken the lead in reporting their ESG performance. This study confirms my conviction that Israel is amongst the leading countries in the Global CSR movement.

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Competitive Advantage Through CSR

March 24th, 2007 | Categories: SRI | Tags:
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It’s not often you get mainstream business thought leaders talking about CSR in detail. Michael Porter, world renowned business competitive advantage expert writes a detailed paper on the “The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility“

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The Commodification of Corporate Social Responsibility: An Israeli Test Case

March 21st, 2007 | Categories: SRI | Tags: ,
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Following an innocent typing of the words “CSR in Israel” into google I came across this paper describing the local Israeli Corporate Social Responsibility “industry” with vivid clarity. The paper, written by Ronen Shamir of the Department of Sociology, Tel Aviv University. Ronen describes his personal experience while studying a non government organization setup to advance CSR in Israel. For anyone interested in CSR in Israel I highly recommend reading this paper as it provides a unique insight into CSR in Israel.

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