Abstract
Every fall, my company First Affirmative Financial Network (in collaboration with the non-profit Social Investment Forum) produces a major conference for financial professionals interested in learning more about ‘sustainable and responsible’ or ‘socially responsible investing’ (SRI). The conference is called ‘SRI in the Rockies’ because of this focus, and because it has usually been held somewhere in the Mountain West of North America. For the last several years, the official conference themes have had something to do with ‘sustainability’ - for example, in 2009 the theme was From Crisis to Opportunity: Investing for a Sustainable Economy. Since sustainability as it is usually understood has broadly positive connotations and is generally seen as a good encapsulation of a wide variety of environmental issues, this has seemed like a good thing to most attendees. The SRI industry in general certainly should pay attention to environmental sustainability.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
See Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (2004). See also Benedict XVI (2006).
- 3.
For the online full text of the resolution, see Enbridge (2009)
- 4.
‘Development’ in this context means economic and social growth: increasing economic activity, to be sure, but also thereby reducing unemployment, poverty, and social inequalities as well. For an early discussion of this definition of ‘development’, see Seers (1969).
- 5.
Notice the resemblance between this formulation and the ‘Lockean Proviso’: the requirement that we leave ‘as much and as good’ available for others, if our appropriation of property is to be justifiable. See John Locke (1689/1924: 128).
- 6.
There are, of course, many different variations on these themes; R. Kerry Turner, for example, identifies four main forms of sustainability existing in a spectrum from weakest (total substitutability) to strongest (no substitutability at all). I will speak only of a ‘very weak’ and a ‘fairly strong’ version, trying to avoid attacking straw men. See Turner (1993).
- 7.
This quotation is close to the end of the book (p. 49, though the pages are unnumbered).
- 8.
For more on the implications of The Lorax for environmental philosophy, see Klaassen and Klaassen (forthcoming).
- 9.
For an interesting recent take on the concept of social capital, see Lewandowski and Streich (2007).
- 10.
See, for example, Eilperin (2006); see also Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (2004).
- 11.
For more on the Rosetta Disk, see http://www.rosettaproject.org
- 12.
Because I am an Investment Advisory Representative of First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC, an SEC-regulated Registered Investment Advisory firm, I must make the following legal disclaimers: I do not own any of the securities mentioned in this article. Nothing in this article should be interpreted as investment advice, or as an offer to buy or sell securities. Any performance figures contained herein are based on information sources believed to be reliable, and are not to be interpreted as a guarantee of future results. The views expressed are my own, and not those of First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC, or of anyone else associated with First Affirmative. Many thanks to Angela Klaassen, Christie Renner, Jeremy Bendik-Keymer, Gary Matthews, Andy Loving, Susan Taylor, the discussants at the Colorado Springs Philosophy Discussion Group, and the editors of this volume, for their extraordinarily helpful comments on earlier versions of this essay.
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Klaassen, J.A. (2012). Sustainability and Social Justice. In: Vandekerckhove, W., Leys, J., Alm, K., Scholtens, B., Signori, S., Schäfer, H. (eds) Responsible Investment in Times of Turmoil. Issues in Business Ethics, vol 31. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9319-6_11
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