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About the Report

Investing in the Future
Business in the Environment's research into City attitudes to social and environmental issues

'Investing in the Future', published in May 2001, draws on the results of a MORI survey commissioned by BiE and supported by ACCA, CGNU and the Environment Agency. The research covered interviews with over 200 analysts, investors, investor relations managers and City and business journalists, in industry groups ranging from those where environmental and social issues are well understood to others were they are still emerging, these were

Construction & Extraction
Manufacturing & General Retailing
Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT)
Finance & Property
Transport
Utilities

Background

In autumn 1994, Business in the Environment conducted a survey of sell-side analysts' attitudes to environmental issues. The 1994 research revealed a lack of reliable, standardised information that would enable a company's performance to be compared with that of its peers. As a result, BiE developed the Index of Corporate Environmental Engagement, now in its 6th year and used widely to track companies environmental management and performance.

Structure of the report

The report is structured around five key themes:

City Attitudes: the relevance of environmental and social issues to investment decisions
Information Use: the sources and use of environmental and social information by City audiences
Information Needs: how to change the financial community's agenda on environmental and social issues and provide it with the information it needs
Barriers to Future Use: the factors that stand in the way of companies providing the right type of environmental and social information
Impact of legislation: the impacts of changes to the Pensions Act on analysts and investors.

Each theme forms a separate section of the report and includes commentary from a leading expert, body or organisation with a relevant viewpoint. The report also includes a selection of business perspectives which can be view on line in our case studies section.

Read the press release

Derek Higgs, Senior Advisor in the UK to UBS Warburg and Chairman, BiE comments 'As a business-led campaign, BiE aims to help businesses to help themselves by promoting greater understanding of their environmental and social performance. In this instance we are focusing on the needs of their investors. The survey highlights the complexity of the ways in which the City sources its information and the 'perception gap' that exists between what analysts need and what the business community thinks they want.' BiE is helping to address this emerging gap in a conference on the 2 October looking at how companies can build relationships with the City through effective corporate communication.

more about the conference