FTSE4Good Index Undergoes Spring Cleaning

Notable among the firms being ousted from the index due to a failure to comply with environmental mandates were Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brother and AIG.   The companies were dropped a year after they failed to respond to the heightened environmental criteria, which includes having a detailed policy and a board member responsible for monitoring the environment, according to a news release from the index, which seeks to spur investment in firms it deems “ethical.”

Those financial services firms were particularly hard hit this year because of how FTSE scrutinizes environmental policies.  Not only are companies being looked at for the direct damage they do to the environment, but also on whether policies exist to monitor environmental damage done by the companies in which they invest .   Joining the trio of financial service firms ousted for environmental reasons was Applera Applied Biosystems Corporation and Goodrich Corporation.  

Also on the list for failing to meeting heightened environmental concerns was Avon Products, which was also on the list of companies excluded for not meeting human rights criteria, as well as Anheuser-Busch, Delphi Corporation, Manulife Financial, and Nortel Networks.   FTSE said to remain on the list, c ompanies have to monitor human rights in countries where they either employee 100 employees or have revenue of over $180 million.   The aforementioned firms have large-scale operations in China, which is often cited for inadequate human rights policies, according to FTSE.

Overall, FTSE removed 29 companies from it list.   More information on the March 2004 housecleaning operation at FTSE4Good is available at  http://www.ftse.com/index.jsp .