| It is a privilege to introduce our
new company, ICValue Inc., and its service, ratings
of corporate environmental performance for conservation-minded
investors.
Many investors are happy already to have a range of
information on green investing, covering as it does
social concerns, international trade responsibilities,
and environmental management approaches. Indeed, experience
is showing very good stock appreciation by investing
in a number of small environmental conservation start-ups.
However, investment decisions for large endowments
or regional pension funds need information on the performance
of large capitalization companies, especially those
with facilities in your region. Some companies have
adopted good practices for water, air, land, biological
diversity and greenhouse gases, but few financial analysts
evaluate on-the-ground accomplishments. Other companies
with credible reputations are providing only broad brush
summaries of their management approach, greatly limiting
the data transparency needed to ensure an investor’s
confidence in their performance.
We have become aware of endowments and private holdings
whose goals are, first, to achieve a competitive financial
return, and, secondly, to be invested in support of
their mission - conservation. Accordingly, we have created
ICValue’s methods so as to determine how well
each company performs in comparison to “best in
sector” on up to 50 environment-related metrics.
These measures, evaluated in “clusters”,
and for the total set, allow ratings by which fund managers
can have these endowments or pension funds invested
in their mission, whether it is broadly or narrowly
defined.
We find it interesting that some companies do much
better than their historical reputation suggests, perhaps
because they were once a “not so good” neighbor.
Others do less well than we might have expected. Times
change, and we all have to keep informed of the changes.
A key outcome, however, is that with all aspects of
corporate environmental performance now being looked
at (at least for companies meeting reasonable standards
of transparency), the industry is at last engaging in
a competition for environmental reputation. These developments
are highly significant for restoring regional ecosystem
function, and represent a trend our company will follow,
facilitate and encourage.
ICValue Inc. is pleased to play some role in these
developments.
Dr.
Orie L. Loucks,
President
ICValue Inc.
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