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Brazil is to get its own sustainability index this summer. The benchmark, being set up by Bovespa, the Brazilian stock exchange, is expected to be introduced in July or August as the Brazilian Sustainability Index.
Bovespa’s decision brings the number of countries with such indexes to around half a dozen.
A ‘deliberative council’ was formed in late 2003, following initial talks with the ABN-Amro bank about creating a stock index of ‘long-term sustainable and socially responsible’ companies on the Sao Paulo stock exchange.
Along with Bovespa, the Brazilian Association of Pension Funds, the Ethos Institute, the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis, and the International Finance Corporation are all on the council, which will use criteria devised by sustainability research body Fundacao Getulio Vargas to select index constituents.
They will pick the 40 best performers from the index universe of the 150 most liquid stocks traded on the exchange. Companies will be selected on the basis of their responses to an annual questionnaire on relationships with employees, suppliers and the community, corporate governance and environmental impact.
The council has yet to decide whether companies that derive a large part of their revenues from environmentally or socially harmful activities are eligible.
Sustainability indexes are now becoming more widespread. In February the Tel Aviv stock exchange published its first Index for Social Responsibility (EP6, issue 10, p3), and in the same month Sustainable Asset Management, the Swiss company that compiles the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, set up the first Australian SRI index.
The Australian SAM Sustainability Index – known as AuSSI – comprises 72 of the 184 companies on the Australian stock exchange, selected using the best-in-class approach developed by the DJSI.
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, BHP Billiton, Billabong International (retailing), CSL (pharmaceuticals), Fosters (brewing), Mayne Group (healthcare), Qantas (airlines), and West Australian Newspapers are among constituents.
Meanwhile the Melbourne-based social responsibility rating agency RepuTex is to set up The RepuTex SRI Index, which will assess Australian and New Zealand businesses on the Australian stock exchange, with oversight by a committee of stakeholders.
Three companies have been removed from the FTSE4Good global index series for failing to meet its human rights criteria. BlueScope Steel (Australia), Brascan (Canada) and JS Group (Japan) were all deleted following last month’s semi-annual review. While one company, Ashtead Group (UK) was also deleted for not satisfying criteria on stakeholder relations, the vast majority of the 27 firms removed were found to have breached environmental criteria. There were 61 additions, among them Air France, Wella (Germany), Mazda (Japan) and Morgan Crucible (UK). A third of new entrants were Japanese companies.
Bovespa’s decision brings the number of countries with such indexes to around half a dozen.
A ‘deliberative council’ was formed in late 2003, following initial talks with the ABN-Amro bank about creating a stock index of ‘long-term sustainable and socially responsible’ companies on the Sao Paulo stock exchange.
Along with Bovespa, the Brazilian Association of Pension Funds, the Ethos Institute, the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis, and the International Finance Corporation are all on the council, which will use criteria devised by sustainability research body Fundacao Getulio Vargas to select index constituents.
They will pick the 40 best performers from the index universe of the 150 most liquid stocks traded on the exchange. Companies will be selected on the basis of their responses to an annual questionnaire on relationships with employees, suppliers and the community, corporate governance and environmental impact.
The council has yet to decide whether companies that derive a large part of their revenues from environmentally or socially harmful activities are eligible.
Sustainability indexes are now becoming more widespread. In February the Tel Aviv stock exchange published its first Index for Social Responsibility (EP6, issue 10, p3), and in the same month Sustainable Asset Management, the Swiss company that compiles the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, set up the first Australian SRI index.
The Australian SAM Sustainability Index – known as AuSSI – comprises 72 of the 184 companies on the Australian stock exchange, selected using the best-in-class approach developed by the DJSI.
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, BHP Billiton, Billabong International (retailing), CSL (pharmaceuticals), Fosters (brewing), Mayne Group (healthcare), Qantas (airlines), and West Australian Newspapers are among constituents.
Meanwhile the Melbourne-based social responsibility rating agency RepuTex is to set up The RepuTex SRI Index, which will assess Australian and New Zealand businesses on the Australian stock exchange, with oversight by a committee of stakeholders.
Three companies have been removed from the FTSE4Good global index series for failing to meet its human rights criteria. BlueScope Steel (Australia), Brascan (Canada) and JS Group (Japan) were all deleted following last month’s semi-annual review. While one company, Ashtead Group (UK) was also deleted for not satisfying criteria on stakeholder relations, the vast majority of the 27 firms removed were found to have breached environmental criteria. There were 61 additions, among them Air France, Wella (Germany), Mazda (Japan) and Morgan Crucible (UK). A third of new entrants were Japanese companies.Super Featured
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