One of the signs that there’s more activity around social finance in the last few months is that there are more jobs available in this line of work.

Three great organizations – the MasterCard Foundation, the Community Power Fund, and the Centre for Sustainability and Social Innovation at UBC – are all hiring for a number of exciting positions.

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Investment in renewable energy continues to make the headlines across the world, and recently even more so in Ontario. Al Gore has called the Green Energy Act "the single best green energy [program] on the North American continent. A recently-announced $7 billion deal with Samsung to manufacture and deploy renewable energy technologies is a clear sign of government commitment to building a renewable energy sector. How can private sector finance take advanatge of these developments?

This Friday January 29th, the Green Energy Act Finance Forum will present financial sector attendees with information about the investment opportunities presented by the new Ontario Green Energy Act, and methods of participation in the market. Attendees will learn about the risks and rewards of investment in Ontario's FIT market from experienced international renewable energy financiers including Dexia, Deutsche Asset Management, Ernst & Young UK, and others.

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There’s been a subtle semantic shift over the past few years in the SRI movement, as more companies and industry leaders choose to talk about sustainable investing, rather than socially responsible or responsible investing.

It may seem unimportant on the surface, after all, what’s in a name?, but it’s an issue many people take very seriously.

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For investors looking at socially responsible investing, the one question that never seems to go away is: Do you have to sacrifice performance to invest in SRI mutual funds?

In seeking to answer this question within a specific fund category, another issue emerges. That is, to what extent is performance likely to vary among competing SRI offerings?

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Canada's senior executives seem to be getting the message that sustainability issues are important to their businesses. But there's a major gap between understanding and action, according to a survey released this week.

The study, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) and the Canadian Financial Executives Research Foundation, reveals that 90% of Canada's senior financial executives believe their companies should be reporting on environmental and social impacts. However, only half said they have sustainability reporting systems in place, even though most also believe the average investor does not have enough information about the environmental and social performance of Canadian companies.

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