Starting point: Bring together environmental leaders and institutional investors with a common interest in corporate accountability
Organizing strategy: Shareholder resolutions get corporations to the table to address long-term issues of global sustainability
Tools: Principles, public pressure, investment portfolios willing to pressure companies
Outcomes: Global Reporting Initiative, Investor Network on Climate Risk, flow of principled events, dialog and actions between investors, financial institutions, business, non-profits, activists, academia, government
Primary Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(organization) http://www.ceres.org/
ABOUT CERES
Ceres is a non-profit organization advocating for sustainability leadership. We mobilize a powerful network of investors, companies and public interest groups to accelerate and expand the adoption of sustainable business practices and solutions to build a healthy global economy.
OUR MISSION
Mobilizing investor and business leadership to build a thriving, sustainable global economy.
Ceres is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
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25 Years of Impact
This year marks a big milestone for Ceres, our 25th anniversary.
A quarter of a century ago, a small group of investors founded Ceres largely in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred on March 24, 1989. The idea was to bring environmentalists and capitalists together to forge a new sustainable business model, one that would protect the health of the planet and the long-term prosperity of its people.
Over our 25-year history, Ceres has introduced numerous tools to weave environmental and social challenges into company and investor decision-making and the capital markets. And we’ve enjoyed many successes.
from Wikipedia:
Ceres principles[edit]
First published in the fall of 1989, the Ceres Principles are a 10-point code of corporate environmental ideals to be publicly endorsed by companies as an environmental mission statement or ethic.[6] The 10 Ceres Principles are:
- Protection of the biosphere
- Sustainable use of natural resources
- Reduction and disposal of wastes
- Energy conservation
- Risk reduction
- Safe products and services
- Environmental restoration
- Informing the public
- Management commitment
- Audits and reports
Key accomplishments[edit]
- Launched the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), now the de facto international standard used by over 1,200 companies for corporate reporting on environmental, social and economic performance.[8]
- Founded and directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a group of 100 leading institutional investors with collective assets of more than US$10 trillion. Its members include Deutsche Asset Management, State Street Global Advisors, and TIAA-CREF, as well as the pension funds of California, Florida, and New York.[9]
- Coordinates the bi-annual United Nations Investor Summit on Climate Risk, which brings together hundreds of investor, financial and corporate leaders to address financial risks and opportunities posed by climate change. In 2008, nearly 50 leading U.S. and European institutional investors managing over US$1.75 trillion in assets released a 9-point climate change action plan that will increase investments in energy efficiency and clean energy technologies and require tougher scrutiny of carbon-intensive investments that may pose long-term financial risks.[10]
- Publishes a series of reports each year geared toward helping investors, companies and others understand the economic, environmental and social implications of climate change, water scarcity and other sustainability issues.
Programs[edit]
Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR): Is a network of investors and financial institutions coordinated by Ceres that promotes better understanding of the financial risks and investment opportunities posed by climate change.
Business For Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP): BICEP is a co-operative group of consumer facing businesses coordinated by Ceres whose primary goal is to call on the U.S. government to pass progressive energy and climate legislation. BICEP currently has 20 members.
Ceres reports[edit]
- Climate Risk Disclosure in SEC Filings: An Analysis of 10K Reporting by Oil and Gas, Insurance, Coal, Transportation and Electric Power Companies: June 2009 [1]
- Water Scarcity & Climate Change: Growing Risks for Business & Investors: February 2009 [2]
- Managing the Risks and Opportunities of Climate Change: A Practical Toolkit for Investors: April 2008 [3]
- Corporate Governance and Climate Change: The Banking Sector: January 2008 [4]
- Risk to Opportunity: Insurer Responses to Climate Change: November 2007 [5]
EXEMPLARS 