In the media

Banks and society - rebuilding trust - The Friend

April 2011

It is just over two and a half years since Lehman Brothers bank filed a petition for bankruptcy. The event was a defining moment in recent times and the shock waves are still affecting us...

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Churches light the path to shareholder engagement – Financial News

April 2011

The declaration by Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein in late 2009 that he was doing God’s work was perhaps at odds with most people’s understanding of banking. Unlike other investors, however, churches are naturally attuned to the post-crisis clamour about ethics and good governance...

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Giles Fraser: Get to grips with banks’ morality – Church Times

February 2011

‘The corporate tax affairs of an organisation like Barclays are com plex, and not reducible to simplistic comparisons,’ Barclays said. But it is not all that complex. Barclays has paid just 2.4 per cent corporation tax on its 2009 profit of £4.6 billion. Many people are justifiably out raged, not least because it seems that we have been round this one time and again...

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Christians can lead in investing for a better future - Independent Catholic News

November 2010

There are grounds for optimism that a ‘positive impact’ approach to investing can speed up society’s progress to a fairer and more environmentally sustainable economic system, and churches can help lead the way. This was the encouraging message from four expert speakers at a well-attended public panel debate organised by ECCR...

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Where to lay your treasure - now more opportunities for ethical investment than ever before – Church Times

November 2010

Could ethical investment be the new fair trade? Congregations all over the UK are drinking Fairtrade coffee, and selling fairly traded goods. The organisers of National Ethical Investment Week (NEIW) are hoping that ethical investment will become popular among churches and individual Christians in the same way...

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National ethical investment week - The Friend

November 2010

Britain’s third National Ethical Investment Week (NEIW) is underway with talks and seminars around the country promoting the cause of responsible investment. NEIW aims to ensure that everyone knows that they have green and ethical options when it comes to their finance and investment decisions...

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Irish Quakers tackle ethical investment issues - The Friend

November 2010

'Making our money work for a better world' was the title of a very successful gathering in Dublin during the recent National Ethical Investment Week, organised by EcoQuakers Ireland in association with the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR)...

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Right way to riches – The Tablet

August 2010

While ethical investment funds still amount to only a tenth of the market, many of the concerns that underpin this sector of the industry, such as climate change, energy and pay levels, are now increasingly being championed by the mainstream...

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Reproduced with permission - www.thetablet.co.uk

Keeping the faith – Shared Interest

Summer 2010

Sally Reith, Shared Interest Supporter Relations Officer for the South East, interviewed Miles Litvinoff, Coordinator of ECCR, to find out more about the organisation and how he sees the relationship with Shared Interest growing...

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Churches aspire to ethical investment – Financial News

April 2010 

Christian investors have been holding their heads high of late, and not just because last week they were celebrating Easter, the most important period in their religious calendar. They had a relatively good financial crisis ... The Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility, a voluntary coalition of church-based investors and ethical asset managers, has seen Co-operative Financial Services and Triodos Bank join its ranks ....

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Christian ethicists slam company in which churches have largest shareholding - Ekklesia

February 2010

As Shell faces a lawsuit in the Netherlands over alleged oil pollution in Nigeria, and a fresh challenge over plans to drill for billions of barrels of oil in the Arctic's environmentally sensitive frozen waters, a new report published today argues that the oil giant can and should take both prompt and longer-term action to reduce the negative social and environmental impacts of its operations in the Niger Delta ...

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Gangmasters need tighter controls – Church Times

November 2009

Migrant workers are still struggling in subhuman conditions, says Richard Harries. When 23 Chinese cockle-pickers were drowned in Morecambe Bay in February 2004, the country was alerted to the existence of gangmasters. These gangmasters recruited vulnerable workers - mainly migrants, both legal and illegal - with great scope for abuse...

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Columban priest tackles a mining giant - Independent Catholic News

November 2009

A Columban priest has challenged the environmental and human rights record of the world’s biggest mining company at its recent AGM on 29 October. Attending alongside other justice and peace activists and indigenous Wayuu people from Colombia, he called on BHP Billiton to respect the human rights of local people in mining areas around the world. Also, to care for water, air and biodiversity which are often polluted by large scale mining, thus destroying livelihoods ...

Report urges companies to care for vulnerable workers – Church Times

June 2009

Supermarkets and food manufacturers should do more to reduce the injustice experienced by vulnerable migrant workers in the food-production process, the latest report of the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility recommends. Vulnerable Migrant Workers: The responsibility of business urges companies that use migrant workers, often in seasonal or temporary jobs, to accept their moral responsibility towards these members of the "flexible" labour force ...

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What is the economy for? - Church of Ireland Gazette

April 2009

The 'Companies, Communities and Religious Investors' conference on socially responsible investment, organised primarily by ECCR, was attended by 80 people at All Hallows, Dublin, on 5th March. It was not about the current world financial crisis per se but about the impact the economic world makes on people and how we, as Christians, should respond ...

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