The Good Companies Guide
The Co-operative Asset Management
The Good Companies Guide, launched with the Observer on Sunday based on research by The Co-operative Asset Management*, ranks the UK top 350 companies according to a range of responsible investment criteria. Socially responsible business practice is becoming an increasingly influential factor on company bottom line performance. Indeed, we believe it offers a chance for businesses to gain competitive advantage that can help them weather the current economic storm and it could prove short-sighted for companies to scale back CSR initiatives as they look for opportunities to lower their cost bases.
At The Co-operative Asset Management we consider companies demonstrating effective management of environmental and social impacts and sound governance to be best placed for growth in current market conditions and fully integrate ESG analysis alongside financial analysis when selecting companies for investment prospects across our range of funds. We believe this distinctive approach enables more informed investment decision-making.
The results published are based on the comprehensive analysis carried out on an ongoing basis by The Co-operative Asset Management's Responsible Shareholding team. The Guide rates companies against peers in their respective sectors, as well as providing an overall ranking. This year's overall winner is utility firm Scottish & Southern, which has led the way on CSR issues. Details of the top 100, top and bottom 20 companies and selected market sector overviews can be found via the links on this site.
The Good Companies Guide illustrates the depth of our work to establish how companies perform on social responsibility. We believe the analysis gives us more insight into companies in which we invest and helps us to identify additional risks and opportunities that can affect their long term financial performance.
The Co-operative Asset Management's core range of unit trusts are available through a number of sources, for details contact one of our financial advisers. The funds available include the CIS Sustainable Leaders Trust, which became the first ethical screened fund to top the UK All Companies sector and is managed by Citywire 'A' rated fund manager Mike Fox; the CIS UK Income with Growth Trust managed by Andrew Moffat, recently named in Investment Week's The Consistent 50; and the CIS UK Growth Trust managed by Joe Walters, a top quartile performing fund over 1 and 3 years and since launch.
* The Co-operative Asset Management is our fund management arm and manages the investment funds of the products available through The Co-operative Investments. Through it's parent company, it has managed retail funds for almost 20 years.
The good companies guide:
