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Books
Responsible Investor Handbook: Mobilizing Workers' Capital for a Sustainable World
For decades, workers’ capital stewards have invested wisely to provide a secure retirement for millions of people around the world. This money – our money – represents an enormous share of economic and capital market wealth. However, the 2008 financial crisis has seriously threatened these trusted assets and drained away prosperity. In response, a growing number of investors are moving towards responsible investment policies and strategies, addressing the rising expectations of consumers and benefiting from the financial advantages such strategies bring. Everyday citizens now want to see their investments not only do well, but do good.
But, what constitutes responsible investment, and how can it be undertaken in practice? How can trustees, managers and advisors implement these strategies in line with their fiduciary responsibilities? How can plan trustees and staff members convince all stakeholders of the need to invest in resilient growth?
The Responsible Investor Handbook is the first book devoted to aligning the long-term investment priorities of working people with capital stewards and the financial
complex that manages their assets. It is an essential read for any professional seeking a better understanding of the importance of responsible investment and its impact on capital markets. Purchase your copy today from one of the following outlets:
The Next Generation of Responsible Investing
In the face of the recent financial crisis there is increased focus on long-term investment strategies. This is particularly true for institutional investors who manage our retirement savings. Simultaneously there is increased demand that financial assets be invested with an understanding of long-term environmental and social sustainability.
Responsible investing provides a long-term sustainable investment strategy that values environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investment decision-making. Responsible Investing has always had a broad mandate. Put simply, it is a long-term sustainable investment strategy that seeks to reduce risk in investment portfolios through managing ESG issues in today’s corporations.
The Next Generation of Responsible Investing explores this topic in an edited volume intended for those with an interest in finance and business.
Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative
In 2008, as working Americans and retirees watched trillions of dollars vanish before our eyes, enveloped in the crash and burn of Wall Street's bottom line, we awake searching for answers and alternatives to the reckless loans and dicey short-term bets that ravaged savings and retirement assets.
Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative cites strategic and socially responsible investment paths that have the capacity to rebuild our economy and infrastructure, reinvigorate our cities, and create the highly-anticipated green jobs of the future. Through real-life stories and case studies, Thomas Croft illustrates how responsibly investing savings assets, pensions, insurance funds, and other trusts can generate positive social, economic, and environmental benefits - along with financial returns.
Included in the book is A Field Guide to Responsible Capital, which contains descriptions of investment funds that together are managing over $30 billion and provides a detailed analysis of some of the firms and their investment projects.
Working Capital: The Power of Labor's Capital
U.S. pension funds are now worth more than $7 trillion. Many analysts believe that the most important task for the labor movement is to harness their share of this capital and develop strategies that help, rather than hurt, workers and unions. Working Capital challenges money managers and today’s labor movement by asking how workers’ hard-earned savings can be put to use in socially and economically progressive ways.
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Responsibly managing pensions will create greater growth and prosperity in America, and the authors of Working Capitalshow that the long-term interests of pension plan beneficiaries are well served through a “worker-owners” view of the economy.
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This book builds on the work of the Heartland Forum supported by the United Steelworkers of America, the AFL-CIO’s Center for Working Capital, the Steel Valley Authority, and several foundations, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Together this will draw the wisdom of a number of experts on labor’s next best moves in the pension market.
Co-Editors
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Archon Fung is Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
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Tessa Hebb is Director, Carleton Centre for Community Innovation Carleton University, Canada
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Joel Rogers is Professor of Law, Political Science and Sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; Director, Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS)
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Leo W. Gerard is International President of the United Steelworkers of America