Companies operate within a culture, a local community and a political system and therefore have an impact on social development.
This year, the Hellenic Network for Corporate Social Responsibility (HNCSR) celebrates ten years on promoting CSR. At their recent conference in Athens, “Doing Business socially”, I was invited to give a speech on the Norwegian experience with CSR. It was encouraging to meet Greek professionals who share the idea and vision of socially responsible business.
In this month’s newsletter, HNCSR chairman Nicolas Analytis and manager Dimitris Papadopoulos tell us that CSR is increasingly crucial to businesses competitiveness, and that the interest for CSR is rising in Greece. In our article “Companies take CSR-action” you can also read three companies’ own presentation of their CSR-action.
It is the Norwegian government’s view that state-owned enterprises must lead the way on CSR-action. Part of this lead is taken by The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global.
The assets in the Government Pension Fund stem from oil and gas revenues and belong to the future generations. The assets are therefore safeguarded for the future. Ensuring good returns on the fund over time is important, but not at any price: The fund has strong ethical guidelines, including respect for human rights and the environment, that are important criteria in investment decisions.
In 2010, the return on the Fund’s investments was 9.6 percent. It owns just over 1 percent of all global stocks. The size of the fund is now close to 400 billion euro, invested in stocks and bonds all over the world, and recently also in real estate. Just over one billion euro is invested in Greece. In our article you will find a list of the 37 investments in Greece and see the live version of the current value of the fund.
The more the fund grows, the more important it is to set a good example as a socially responsible investor.