EUROPE – The European Social Investment Forum has launched a European Commission-backed “toolkit” to help pension trustees integrate socially responsible investing into their investment policy.

“Based on research conducted in ten European countries during 2004, this toolkit allows the reader to better grasp the meaning of fiduciary risk, decision making criteria as well as potential strategies to employ in order to include social, environmental, ethical and corporate governance issues in a pension plan,” Eurosif stated.

“Eurosif's toolkit is a must-read for board of trustee members willing to learn about the practice of SRI by pension funds across Europe,” ABP Investments’ Rob Bauer was quoted as saying by Eurosif.

It added: “The project was completed with the help of the European Commission and is in line with the Commission’s Social Policy Agenda as part of the integrated European approach towards raising awareness about how to integrate social and environmental criteria into financial analysis.”

“With increasingly unpredictable markets and a trend shifting from define benefit plans to defined contribution plans, European pension fund trustees and under increasing pressure to understand and manager the many risks that companies face,” states the introduction to the 39-page document.

And the Commission has awarded Eurosif additional funding for 2005 to continue its work with pension funds – which Eurosif will use to implement the toolkit with trustees.

It plans to work with different European trade unions to help expand SRI into the workers’ groups so that a ‘responsible’ shareholder culture is developed.

Eurosif’s members include large pension schemes, asset managers - as well as consulting firms, non-governmental organisations and trade union bodies.