NASDAC listed electronics supplier, Flextronics, has been setting out its ethical commitments while hosting the inaugural Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSER) Conference in Shenzhen, China.

Singapore based Flextronics, which delivers complete design, engineering and manufacturing solutions to a range of industries – including consumer product producers like household name LG, has reported on its ethical policy in its first CSER report.

The global electronics giant is focusing on a range of ethical issues such as supply chain accountability, sustainable development, community partnership and employee centred schemes across the region; and in other developing markets.

“At Flextronics, we believe that a sustainable approach to business is essential to our company’s success and forms a core part of the way we do business, says CEO Mike McNamara.

“Adherence to the highest level of sustainable business practices also creates additional value for our customers that we believe increases their market competitiveness.

“A strong culture of ethics will encourage, support and reward ethical decision making… I am proud to have had the opportunity to share these with stakeholders through our Shenzhen conference and through our report that is available.”

The company has issued its 2009 report to update stakeholders on the company’s key social, ethical and environmental achievements and look at its core areas of ethical policy.

Of these are its supply chain CSER compliance policies and procedures established to adhere to CSER practices through supplier training, assessments, site audits, and corrective action measures when required.

Community partnership programs include the Flextronics’ Foundation supporting outreach programs enabling the building of sustainable communities in developing regions.

An international conference at Columbia University, New York, is set to debate the future of ethical investing facing the oil, gas and mining industries, including ways of improving partnerships and cooperation; and dealing with conflict.

The fifth Columbia International Investment Conference will have a special focus on the oil, gas and other extractive industries and the issues and challenges facing them in terms of sustainable development.

The conference is planned for October 27 – October 28, 2010.

The purpose will be to discuss and assess how past and ongoing initiatives to promote cooperation, transparent, equitable, and efficient Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the extractive industries have succeeded and how investments can achieve even better development outcomes.

The conference brings together important stakeholders, including corporate executives, investors, government ministers, administrators and regulators, and representatives of NGOs and international financial institutions.

The forward looking conference will look at issues such as transportation, refining, processing and exportation for the oil, gas and minerals industries, with sessions given over to issues such as limiting disputes and achieving better resolutions; and ensuring countries and companies get what they bargained for when ethical programmes are put in place.

A spokesperson for the University said:

“The challenges of poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability and governance can and should be addressed in an effective sustainability framework for foreign investment.

“The shared goal of companies, host-country Governments and civil society is an investment framework that promotes sustainable development and the mutual trust needed for long-term investments.

“The extractive industries face a special need for such trust, given the massive long-term investments that they undertake in poor and potentially unstable countries.”

The hosts say for investors to succeed and for host-countries to reap the potential benefits of such investments, better cooperative solutions needs to be found.

Thus, implementing a framework for sustainable development for extractive industries should be a cooperative effort among companies, governments and civil society in general.

UKSIF, the sustainable investment and finance association, have commented on the IMA’s quarterly statistics, which identify a growing interest in ethical investments.

The Investment Management Association (IMA) recent quarterly statistics issued show that net retail sales of ethical funds totalled £98 million in the second quarter of 2010.

This is well above the average of the past four quarters and the highest net sales figure since the fourth quarter of 2007.

Deputy Chief Executive of UKSIF Adam Ognall says:

“Investment in ethical funds has returned to levels not seen since the credit crunch took hold in 2007. It is a very positive sign that increasing numbers of investors want to make money and make a difference.

“As the economy continues to stutter, consumers are increasingly aware of the impact of their investments and the opportunity for their finance and investment decisions to have a positive long-term impact.

“Modern green and ethical investment is now an attractive choice for mainstream investors.”

UKSIF, the organisers of National Ethical Investment Week, says that it is exactly these sorts of issues for ethical investors that will be discussed as part of the annual National Ethical Investment Week which runs this year from November 7-13.

UKSIF is the coordinator of National Ethical Investment Week which includes more than 200 members such as financial advisers, asset managers, charities, banks, research providers, pension funds, and other non-governmental organisations who get involved in a week of promotions and activities.

UKSIF promotes responsible investment and other forms of finance that support ethical economic development.

Ethical investment advisors at Barchester Green Investment, the ethical funds specialists, have published their latest best and worst list for the current crop of ethical and environmental funds available to UK investors.

Jupiter Ecology was voted the best fund based on recent research. Jupiter, an environmental and ethical fund with an already impressive record, invests throughout the UK, Europe, North America and the Far East. The fund received praise for its transparency and pro-active ethical investment record as well as a good rate of returns.

The classifications were not based simply on financial performances but also to the degree to which Barchester advisors believed the better funds had built in ethical or environmental integrity.

The ethical funds which met the list were all ones excluding companies involved in certain areas of business which were considered unethical by prospective investors.

Barchester says it tends to prefer funds where, among other things, there is an in-house research team rather than just reliance on EIRIS, the Ethical Research and Information Service, for guidance; and also funds where fund managers could communicate openly about their ethical strategies.

Second on the list of recommended funds was The IM WHEB Sustainability Fund. Third was Black Rock New Energy Technology. Fourth on the recommended list of ethical funds was the AEGON Ethical Equity Fund and the fifth best, in the eyes of Barchester’s team, was Impax Environmental Leaders.

The funds labelled as having the worst ethical record were mainly named and shamed for holding stocks in oil producers such as Shell and BP; as well as other companies with a less than impressive environmental record.

Zurich Environmental Opportunities Pension Fund headed up this list. More information on funds receiving both a thumbs up and a thumbs down from Barchester can be found at their website: barchestergreen.co.uk.

F&C Stewardship Income and F&C Stewardship Growth funds have been enjoying a strong performance of late relative to the FTSE All-Share Index, with one analyst suggesting overall market volatility is partly responsible for an interest in ethical investment fund options.

The F&C fund which has a strong ethical bent, pushed performance ahead over the last year, again showing that ethical investment funds can be strong players in the current market, with so much market uncertainty over ethical and especially environmental factors, which can have a devastating impact on company performance.

Ethical Fund Manager, Catherine Stanley, says: “The BP crisis has highlighted the concerns of ethical investors around resource stocks and having no position has of course been a significant positive contributor to performance.”

Performance has been strong for the F&C funds despite the funds not being able to hold tobacco, beverages and pharmaceutical stocks, traditionally seen as safe havens during weaker market conditions. This is due to good performance from a number of small and mid-cap stocks, towards which stewardship has a natural bias due to greater ethical compatibility in these areas.

Ethical Fund Manager, Catherine Stanley, says investors have to be cautious though: ”I will continue to seek out opportunities in areas where structural growth can be found; however, there are increasing uncertainties around the impact of reducing Government spend and its effect on the domestic economy.”

With the markets uncertain recently – the financial crisis in Greece, fears of domino effects across Europe and the new UK Government rolling out its austerity plan, there may be signs that investors are looking to the long-term security of environmentally and ethically aware investments.

China are among the worst performers in terms of responsible ethical investment policy, according to EIRIS, the London based investment research specialists.

Research published by EIRIS shows that amongst leading emerging market economies, China along with Egypt and Vietnam, are struggling to achieve a good rating for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) indicators.

The 2010 version of the EIRIS Country Sustainability Profiles for investors in sovereign wealth bonds includes a comparison of the most important of the emerging market economies. The countries analysed for the comparison were: Brazil, China, Philippines, India, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, South Korea and Vietnam.

EIRIS Co-Head of Research Carlota Garcia-Manas says: “The poor performance of China, particularly in the area of governance but also scoring low on environmental indicators should be of particular concern to investors given that its economy is due to overtake the USA as the world’s largest over the next 20 years.”

The three best performing emerging market countries were South Korea, Brazil and Mexico. Both Mexico and Brazil scored higher on environmental indicators than Canada and the USA. Of all 68 countries surveyed on the 49 environmental, social and governance indicators the best three performers were Sweden, Austria and Switzerland.

The EIRIS Country Sustainability data can be used to create views and weightings for particular issues, giving the investor a bespoke rating and profile for each country.