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Frequently Asked Questions
Forum ETHIBEL's aim is to inform the general public about
the importance and possibilities of socially responsible
investing and sustainable entrepreneurship. On these
topics we are happy to answer as many questions as possible.
In this section you can read the anwsers to the most
frequently askes questions sent to Forum ETHIBEL.
Do you have other questions? Can't you find the answers
you are seeking?
Let us know.
We will try to answer your question directly.
- Is the ETHIBEL quality label meant
for companies or investment funds?
- What's wrong with nuclear energy?
Under research criteria
nuclear energy comes under "controversial technologies".
Involvement in the production of nuclear energy could
lead to the possible exclusion of a company from Ethibel's
investment register. Why does Forum ETHIBEL have a
problem with the involvement of companies in nuclear
energy programmes? Energy from fossil fuel is surely
just as polluting and nuclear energy can also be used
for positive purposes...
- I am writing a paper/thesis about
SRI and/or sustainable entrepreneurship. Can Forum ETHIBEL
help me and send me information? Can I consult Forum ETHIBEL's
library? Can I ask Forum ETHIBEL some questions?
- Why is company X not in the Forum ETHIBEL
investment register?
1. Is the ETHIBEL quality
label meant for companies or investment funds?
The European ETHIBEL quality
label is meant for SRI funds. It is not a quality
label for companies. The quality label for SRI finds offers
the investor a real guarantee that the funds carrying
this label only have shares and bonds in their portfolio
included in the Ethibel investment
register.
For the composition of this register, Forum ETHIBEL looks for
companies that are leaders in their sector and region
in the field of socially responsible entrepreneurship.
Inclusion in the investment register means that a company
fits in a sustainable investment fund but this does not
make a company "ethical" or "sustainable"
in itself.
2. What's wrong with nuclear energy?
‘Under research
criteria nuclear energy comes under "controversial
technologies". Involvement in the production of
nuclear energy could lead to possible exclusion in ETHIBEL's
investment register.
Why does Forum ETHIBEL have a problem with the involvement
of companies in nuclear energy programmes? Energy from
fossil fuel is surely just as polluting and nuclear
energy can also be used for positive purposes.
"Socially responsible investing" means investing
in sustainable companies. For that reason, Forum ETHIBEL selects
companies for its investment register with a consistent
policy of sustainable investment. By screening companies,
Forum ETHIBEL concentrates in the first place on an extensive
set of positive sustainability criteria. It is investigated
to what extent a company has a good internal and external
social policy, a consistent environmental policy and
a convincing ethical economic policy.
At the same time, we check whether or not a company
is involved in controversial practices and technologies
and especially if they are unacceptable for a sustainable
society in the widest sense of the term. In this context,
the arms trade and production, nuclear energy programmes,
animal testing, child labour or genetic manipulation
of organisms comes to mind.
This list is no arbitrary choice and is never exhaustive.
It is the result of intense contacts with various groups
of stakeholders, persons, organisations, various groups
of people directly involved in how a company operates
and on whom company policy has a direct or indirect
impact - employees, people living near the company,
suppliers, consumers, etc. In practice, Forum ETHIBEL is not
only constantly keeping in touch with new discoveries,
standpoints and arguments of trade unions, environmental
organisations, peace and third world movements, consumer
associations, etc. but in principle as many pros and
cons as possible are noted. Naturally trade and industry,
lobby groups in favour of genetic manipulation and nuclear
energy, etc. are contacted and questioned. If necessary,
Forum ETHIBEL will adjust its research and evaluation methods
as a result of these social discussions.
Being involved in the aforementioned practices does
not necessarily lead to a company's automatic exclusion.
However objectionable these may be at first sight, every
activity is looked at and judged in a wider context.
If it appears that this practice in its practical application
has demonstrable positive effects on human beings and
the environment, the company may be included after all.
"Involvement in nuclear energy programmes"
can mean, for instance, that activities connected to
the medical use of nuclear energy will not lead to a
company being excluded.
More pertinent questions are asked in the case of nuclear-powered
electricity production. There can be no doubt that this
technology is a controversial one. It gives rise to
serious problems. As far as sustainability is concerned,
the two main problems are the safety aspect (although
the chance of accidents in nuclear reactors in the west
may be small, every accident has potentially enormous
consequences) and the long-lasting radioactivity of
nuclear waste with the result that future generations
may be confronted with current problems caused by nuclear
energy.
Forum ETHIBEL is not alone in holding this view. The construction
of nuclear reactors has been called to a halt in all
West European countries. A whole series of countries
decided to dismantle (or never to start) their nuclear
energy programmes after the near disaster in Harrisburg
in 1979. Governments listened to the will of the people
expressed via referenda (Sweden) or debates in parliament
(Netherlands). In Harrisburg, the safety mechanism fortunately
worked properly but it became all too clear what a tremendous
catastrophe would have occurred if this had not been
the case. Residents of Chernobyl got a taste of such
a catastrophe. The disaster of 1986, the consequences
of which will be felt for several generations to come,
pushed the remaining West European countries over the
edge and they consequently decided to stop investing
in nuclear reactors. Only in Eastern Europe where there
is a lack of investment, are governments forced to use
the existing park of nuclear reactors to the full.
But even without disasters and referenda, nuclear reactors
have not been given a long life. The average nuclear
reactor has a life expectancy of 35 to 40 years while
investments required for their construction and maintenance
are gigantic. Furthermore, the costs of storage or processing
of nuclear waste is not passed on to the consumer. Due
to these considerations, questions are therefore raised
about the actual economic viability of this source of
energy in the long term, an essential criterion for
a sustainable society.
Taking all this into consideration, nuclear energy can
hardly be regarded as a sustainable way of providing
our electricity needs. For Forum ETHIBEL, this is the basic
reason not to consider those companies for its investment
register which are actively involved in the production
of nuclear energy. Forum ETHIBEL checks if a company is active
in producing electricity in nuclear reactors, using
nuclear energy to drive vehicles and the production
and handling of nuclear weapons. This includes activities
connected with nuclear fuel (extracting, enriching,
processing), radioactive waste (processing, storage,
transport), the construction and maintenance of reactors,
safety and security of staff and installations, as well
as the production, trade and services connected to vital
components of reactors and reactor buildings including
research, consulting and monitoring.
This only concerns electricity producers. Companies
that use nuclear-based electricity may well be included
in the Forum ETHIBEL register and the same applies to electricity
distributors who due to the nature of their activities
cannot make a distinction between the origins of the
electricity they distribute.
Forum ETHIBEL does not give any moral judgements on the whole
nuclear energy sector when choosing which companies
to include. Nor does it maintain that nuclear energy
should be forbidden from one day to the next or that
there are enough alternatives nowadays to make the use
of nuclear energy completely unnecessary in the short
term. Forum ETHIBEL does not offer any views in this respect.
It is just concerned with the question what sort of
companies deserve to be included in an ethical and sustainable
investment fund of the fourth generation. Producers
of nuclear energy in principle do not belong in such
a fund.
This does not mean that companies producing electricity
by other means can be automatically included in the
investment register. In the case of electricity production
based on fossil fuels, there are serious sustainability
problems. We just have to think of the possible exhaustion
of natural raw materials and the considerable emissions
of CO2 that contribute to global warming, aspects that
have been highlighted after the various climate conferences
and have opened up the debate on the subject. In judging
companies in this sector, extra attention will be paid
to measures limiting the emission of CO2 and using raw
materials as efficiently as possible. We take account
of the efforts made by all companies when screening
them to switch to renewable energy sources and limit
the use of electricity.
More information on nuclear energy can be found on the
Greenpeace website.
3. I am
writing a thesis about sustainable investment and entrepreneurship.
Can Forum ETHIBEL help me and send me information? Can I consult
Forum ETHIBEL's library? Can I ask Forum ETHIBEL some questions?
We get a lot of these requests and we are pleased that
topics such as corporate governance, sustainable entrepreneurship
and socially responsible investing are the subject of
growing interest. We gladly help out if possible but
we are unable to answer all these questions.
Students and other researchers are referred to the comprehensive
introduction to Forum
ETHIBEL which includes our opinion on SRI
and to the explanation of the methodology
behind the ETHIBEL quality label for socially responsible
investment funds. In addition, the list of recent
articles in the Belgian press that examine these
subjects from various angles, can be consulted.
Students who still have specific questions for Forum ETHIBEL,
can consult us providing that the questions relating
to their paper or thesis are sent to us beforehand.
Forum ETHIBEL's library is in the first instance meant
for the company research connected to the ETHIBEL quality
label and is not really suited to accomodate visitors.
The libraries of universities and institutes of higher
education, for example, the ‘Chaire
Hoover d’Ethique Economique et Sociale’
of the Univesité Catholique de Louvain, are undoubtedly
better equipped for all scientific research concerning
SRI. However, if you can't find the information you
need, you can always make an appointment
to consult our material.
4. Why
is company X not in the ETHIBEL investment register?
Ethibel's investment register contains more than four
hundred businesses listed on the stock exchange, spread
over several different regions and sectors. The selection
of a company from the register is based on an extensive
set of sustainability
indicators and a clearly described selection
procedure.
On this basis, Forum ETHIBEL looks for two types of businesses
in every sector and region:
- 'pioneers', i.e., businesses which are clearly leading
the field in their sector as regards corporate social
responsibility;
- 'best in class': these are businesses which make the
greatest efforts in every field of sustainable enterprise
compared with competitive companies in the same sector
and region.
Therefore business are always judged in relation to
their sector and region. In order to allow this comparison
to be made even more accurately Forum ETHIBEL also carries
out more extensive sectoral
analyses.
Businesses which are not included in the register therefore
do not comply with these conditions, i.e.:
- they are not pioneering businesses in the field of
corporate social responsibility;
- they have a lower score than other businesses in the
same sector in various fields of sustainable enterprise.
Another reason why certain businesses are not included
in the Forum ETHIBEL register is that they are not suitable
for investments, for example because they are too small,
or not registered on the stock exchange.
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