WWF and ethical investment

	Greenpeace campaigners joined forces with WWF for the 2000 BP-Amoco annual general meeting

The question of whether a charity’s investments could undermine its objectives and mission is one that has concerned many charities for years - and WWF-UK, with an ethical investment policy in place since 1991, is no exception.

WWF carefully screens its portfolio to assess the long-term impacts of companies’ activities on the environment. This has led to an ‘exclusion list’ of companies that WWF will not invest in. Additionally, over 10 per cent of reserves are invested directly into ‘ethical’ funds. To enhance this policy further, WWF sends an environmental questionnaire to a number of companies in which it invests. It then discusses their environmental impacts and, where appropriate, engages on issues where it thinks they could improve. Finally, all WWF staff are given the option to invest their own pension in an ethical fund.

We has also explored the use of voting rights. In 2000 it joined forces with other NGOs to support a shareholder resolution at BP Amoco’s Annual General Meeting. This called on the company to halt plans to drill for oil in the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to switch resources to renewable energy sources. WWF is encouraging all investors to engage with BP’s management on this issue, particularly those ethical investment or occupational pension funds which claim to have a socially responsible engagement policy.