[발췌: R. Sparkes's] Socially Responsible Investment: A Global Revolution

출처: Russell Sparkes (2003). Socially Responsible Investment: A Global Revolution. John Wiley & Sons.

자료: 구글도서

※ PIRC. Pensions and Investment Consultants (PIRC)

CF. What is Pirc ? (Telegraph, 13 Jul 2011)

Pirc, a powerful shareholder group, has demanded that James Murdoch stand down as chairman of BSkyB in a bid to clear up the "questionable governance practices" at the company. Here, we look at what Pirc does.

Pensions and Investment Research Consultants (Pirc) is one of the largest pension representation and lobby groups in the UK. Its clients include pension funds, faith-based investors, trade unions, banks and asset managers. Formed in 1986, it now deals with more than £200bn of assets invested by pension holders, and hails itself as "the UK's leading independent research and advisory consultancy providing services to institutional investors on corporate governance and corporate social responsibility". On July 13, 2011, Pirc said that pension schemes should challenge their fund managers who voted in favour of James Murdoch's appointment as chairman of satellite television broadcaster BSkyB. Recently, it has also issued guidance to shareholders at fashion house Burberry and retailer Tesco.

※ 발췌 (excerpts): 

Some people may be surprised to see Pensions and Investment Consultants (PIRC) described as an SRI research provider, as it it best known for its UK corporate governance work. PIRC's Corporate Governance Service(CGS) was launched in 1991 at a conference addressed by Sir Adrian Cadbury, and is now used by private and public sector pension funds and investment managers with combined assets of over ￡300 billion. In fact, however, PIRC has always seen SRI as a core concept of its activities, according to PIRC managing director Alan McDougall: 

We had an imperative to make socially responsible investment financially acceptable ... It was our view that there was nothing socially responsible about losing money. If we were dealing with money, it had to be commercial. PIRC aims to enable it pension funds clients to develop prudent long term investment strategies which both meet the wider economic best interests of beneficiaries and which recognise pension funds' wider responsibilities.[n.18]

PIRC publicly entered the SRI market with the launch of its SRI service in January 2000, as it recognised that the data compiled by CGS could easily be used for SRI purposes. PIRC's CGS databae contains detailed reports on each of the over 800 companies that constitute the FTSE All-Share Index, not just on corporate governance but also on issues of shareholder concern such as environmental policy, and the appointment of women to the board. PIRC's SRI service is based on the belief that 'wealth creation for the benefit of shareholders is achieved by companies establishing best practice standards in relations with key stakeholders. Institutional investors thus have a common interest with other stakeholders in issues of corporate responsibility and corporate performance over the long therm'.[n.19] Its SRI reporting is based on the following issues: [n.20]