Is the question asked by a journalist in the unlinkable Business Times in Singapore today.  The article reviews a US faith based investment fund looking to expand in Asia. The article outlines the funds Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria but then the journalist goes a step further and details the interviews with local Churches to ask whether any ESG criteria are applied to their investments.  The resounding answer at the moment is 'No'.  It will be interesting to see whether this changes going forward.

Following an online campaign in Singapore that has collected 9,247 signatures (as of now) Resorts World is quoted in the press today as stating that "it is considering alternatives to its plan to exhibit whale sharks".  Resorts World had planned to import two whale sharks to include in it's casino park aquarium and until recently a dedicated resort website discusses why it planned to include whale sharks in the park.   The information defending the inclusion of whale sharks has now been replaced by a letter thanking the 3,000 people who wrote challenging the inclusion of whale sharks and announces that the park is considering alternatives.  It is interesting that the company is openly reviewing the inclusion of whale sharks ( the sharks are rumoured to already have been caught and awaiting transportation) and is attributing this review to the letters received (and probably the online petitions and facebook campaigns). It will be interesting to see what happens next - it is reported that animal rights groups have been consulted on alternatives- stakeholder engagement in action? 

Good corporate governance, boardroom diversity and well trained, independent non-executive directors are something that we have long been concerned with at CSR Asia. That theme has been picked up today in Singapore's Business Times who agree that those often chosen to be independent directors are too often chosen from an extemely narrow talent pool so that boardrooms soon end up looking very uniform rather than diverse. Widening a board could mean bringing in personalities from civil society groups and having more women direectors says the article. Amid the global downturn and credit crunch, investors are wary of bad management decisions and keen to make sure they don't happen again. This means greater transparency on how independent directors are chosen, as well as how companies stand on material issues.

This week CSR Asia released our 2008 Annual Report.  This is our third annual report and is our commitment to provide information to our stakeholders about the way that we manage CSR Asia and the impact of the work that we do.  For the first time this year we have included our carbon footprint and detailed the ways we are looking to reduce our environmental impact.  We have also provided information about how we promote CSR and have looked at ways in which to measure the impact of this promotion in Asia. 

The report has been presented to our Strategic Partners who provided us with useful feedback and input suggestions for the future; we hope that others will find the report useful and we look forward to any feedback you may have. A full copy of the report is available here.

After a heavy week in the news (see previous blogs on this here and here), DBS must have been looking forward to a new Monday morning. Unfortunately, when you are in the news on a CSR issue, many others seem to follow. The story in the headlines this morning is a governance issue with the disclosure that DBS Group Holdings independent director Christopher Cheng Wai Chee is a director of 152 companies. The article states that many of the companies are shell companies (i.e., not active rather; not the petroleum company), but nevertheless the number of active companies makes it difficult to see how this is physically possible. Stories about the number of director posts that an individual holds is making it into the news on an increasing basis, along with the remuneration for such positions. Expect more.