Pax World loosens standards; Domini switches strategy.
Two leading socially-responsible funds are moving to arrange more investing flexibility, in part to compete more effectively against growing numbers of exchange-traded funds with a social and sustainability focus .
Shareholders of three Pax World funds based in Portsmouth, NH, are being asked to approve “a more proactive and engaged approach to socially responsible investing,” according to proxy materials. The change would, among other things, no longer exclude investments in companies with alcohol and gambling interests, but would examine a company’s “entire social responsibility profile.”
The current alcohol-investment exclusion forced Pax World last year “reluctantly” to sell a more than $20 million investment in Starbucks Coffee Co. when it entered into a deal to sell a coffee-based alcoholic beverage. Pax World said its new social screening policy would add corporate governance, community and product integrity screens, broaden environmental and workplace screens, and bring in issues such as climate change, sustainable development, global human rights standards and non-discrimination based on sexual orientation “that were not fully appreciated at the time when the screens were first adopted in 1971.”
See full Article.