Mandatory human rights due diligence in Switzerland: Ethos and institutional investors join forces to support ambitious legislation

Ethos Foundation and 26 institutional investors with CHF 808 billion in assets under management, have sent an investor statement to the members of the Swiss upper house to ask them to support legislation for mandatory human rights due diligence. The legislation has been approved by the lower house on 13 June and will be discussed again on 18 December 2019 in Bern. The initiative committee has already indicated that it agrees to withdraw the original initiative if the proposed legislation is approved.

Climate change: Banks must transform their business models

Ethos welcomes the publication of Boston Common Asset Management's fifth study on climate risk management by the world's major banks. This new study shows that the measures taken by the banks remain largely insufficient. Ethos has participated in this international initiative and is engaging in dialogue on this issue with Swiss banks, urging them to strengthen their commitments to finance the low carbon transition.

Mandatory human rights due diligence in Switzerland: Ethos and institutional investors join forces to support ambitious legislation

Ethos Foundation and 26 institutional investors with CHF 808 billion in assets under management, have sent an investor statement to the members of the Swiss upper house to ask them to support legislation for mandatory human rights due diligence. The legislation has been approved by the lower house on 13 June and will be discussed again next Thursday in Bern. The initiative committee has already indicated that it agrees to withdraw the original initiative if the proposed legislation is approved.

Responsible business initiative: Report on the event of 13th June 2019

While the members of the Swiss lower house were approving the counter-proposal to the responsible business initiative, Ethos Foundation organised a conference and debate on Thursday 13th June 2019 in Bern on the topic of "multinational companies and respect for human rights: ethical, economic and political issues". Almost 120 people attended the event.

Ethos joins the European engagement network "Shareholders for Change"

The Ethos Foundation has joined the Shareholders for Change engagement network, which provides a collective engagement platform that allows smaller institutional investors dedicated to socially responsible investment to increase the impact of their engagement activities with European companies.

Ethos achieves top rating in PRI assessment

The evaluation of Ethos’s activity report covering the year 2017 to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) is now available. As every year, the result of the assessment in which 1462 organizations participated places Ethos among the world leaders in sustainable finance with scores well above the median in all 6 dimensions analyzed, in 3 of which Ethos even received the best possible evaluation (A+).

Ethos and the EEP International launch Engagement program with eight European electric utilities

Ethos and the members of the Ethos Engagement Pool International (EEP International) are launching a multi-year engagement program urging eight European electric utilities to develop ambitious climate strategies to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy. Several institutional investors across the globe have decided to support these efforts, in total the investor group represents approximately EUR 100 billion.

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