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There is a danger that, in global terms, the stock markets are being seen as the only source of value. Money, they say, makes the world go around. But the experiences of the original sponsors of the Foundation in this area were not particularly happy. The insurers who helped launch the Foundation in the early 1980s were badly burned. Indeed, some 20% of the losses that nearly destroyed the Lloyd’s insurance market can be traced back to environmental insurance policies that went wrong. The industry failed to appreciate the scale of the risks it was underwriting in such areas as asbestos, radioactive waste and contaminated land. Even so, to date, the financial sector has been a hard nut to crack. It has often resisted calls for greater environmental sensitivity. But there are signs of change. In the wake of the losses incurred by Lloyd’s, insurers, not surprisingly, were the first to wake up to the risks implicit in the environmental regulation of industry. But, as we saw in the Fifth Consultation, banks and other lenders are also becoming concerned. The financial analysts are taking longer, because of the very nature of their business and because of the precariously short time-scales often involved. However, the Ninth Consultation confirmed that, with pension fund trustees setting the agenda for a new set of investment principles, investment professionals could become increasingly active in the drive for corporate social responsibility and for sustainable development. This phase of our 2001-2005 programme will aim to convince more analysts and other financial sector actors that triple bottom line issues will have a real impact on profits and dividends in the future, hopefully helping to change the language of business success. Some of the issues addressed in the Values & Money programme in 2002 will include:
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