CNBC’s Trevor Curwin on eco-improvements in railroad cars – and quotes HIP CEO R. Paul Herman:

EXCERPT: “With more efficient construction of next-generation railway cars, there is more room for larger customer loads and cutting rail operators’ operational costs.

“There continues to be pressure on companies to reduce their cost structures,” says R. Paul Herman, founder and CEO of sustainable investment firm HIP Investor. … READ THE FULL FEATURE

THE NEWS: The SEC voted on Wednesday, January 27^th, 2010, to issue “interpretive guidance” to corporations — essentially requesting that firms include risks pertaining to climate change in their public filings. The Securities and Exchange Commission – and federal law –   has long required the corporate disclosure of “material risk“ to potential investors, so this vote does not impose any new legal requirements technically speaking. The SEC guidance advises companies to disclose risks relating to climate change regulation and legislation, international accords, “Indirect Consequences of Regulation or Business Trends,” and the physical effects of climate change.

THE REACTION: The vote was met with great appeal from large institutional investors and environmentalists who have been petitioning the SEC for several years to require an increase in such transparency. Anne Stausboll, CEO of pension fund CalPERS said:

“Investors have a fundamental right to know which companies are well positioned for the future and which are not.”

Some speculation by DailyFinance’s Zac Bissonnette and The Wall Street Journal’s Kara Scannell and Siobhan Hughes have deemed the SEC’s ruling as political feuding and a terrible waste of time, while Triple Pundit touts the vote as a hard fought victory for investors. Reuters and other news stations have been covering the petitions initiated during the George W. Bush administration.

WHAT’S NEXT? With this new information being published and discussed by corporations, look for a shift of investments towards companies with better environmental performance – and away from those with lesser eco-results. Large institutional investor petitioned for this SEC ruling, so do not be surprised when they shift their portfolios based on increasing disclosure about risks – and opportunities.

What do you think?   Reply below:

CNBC.com’s Trevor Curwin interviews HIP about managing the pollution associated with carbon and greenhouse gasses, upcoming carbon legislation and competitive positioning across industries – and how it will affect investor portfolios.

“With carbon cap-and-trade legislation before Congress and increasing pressure from shareholders, US companies know they’ll have to deal with their greenhouse gas emissions, or carbon footprint, and many are jumping the gun to change their carbon liability into an asset.

“The best-managed companies are evaluating their carbon footprint,” says R. Paul Herman, founder and CEO of HIP Investor Inc., a Californian investment advisory firm that has created two sustainability indexes tracking the S&P 100 and S&P 500 constituent companies. “And they’re managing it lower to save energy and costs, reduce their future volatility of materials costs, mitigate potential environmental liabilities, and create new competitive advantages.”

Getting a handle on these emissions, however, takes work. …

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL FEATURE

HIP Commentary: “The New Fundamentals of Investing” What are 10 indicators to evaluate for your portfolio when seeking Human Impact + Profit? Read HIP CEO R. Paul Herman’s commentary in Sustainable Industries’ Money Issue. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FEATURE

HIP Commentary in Sustainable Industries

“Cleantech Grows In the Investor Community”

Where are the opportunities for an investor seeking “clean-tech” innovations? They may already be in an investor’s portfolio today – including GE, Honeywell, and Caterpillar.   These and other S&P 500 companies are generating top-line revenue from products that are more efficient in energy, water and waste.   Many of these products are also profitable, generating shareholder value.

Read HIP CEO R. Paul Herman’s commentary in Sustainable Industries magazine and learn how S&P 500 companies are becoming more HIP (Human Impact + Profit) and portfolio choices for investors.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FEATURE

How does LifeCycle Analysis (LCA) benefit corporations and investors? Read Rahilla Zafar’s feature in INSEAD Knowledge, the magazine of the leading European business school.

HIP’s CEO R. Paul Herman explains how LCA thinking and analysis could have helped General Motors and AIG avoid some of the gripping issues both face today.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL FEATURE

 Danny Bradbury of BusinessGreen.com summarizes the slowdown among smaller solar ventures – and quotes HIP CEO R. Paul Herman on the solar stimulus and a  sunnier future outlook.

READ THE FULL STORY

Forbes staff writer Lisa LaMotta features the latest scoring of “corporate social responsibility” at large corporations – including environmental sustainaiblity and social impact – and how leading firms outperform on shareholder value.

In this Forbes feature, HIP CEO R. Paul Herman encourages companies to engage employees at the “grassroots” for their ideas about how best to realize Human Impact + Profit (HIP).

(HIP research finds that leading companies like Herman Miller, Salesforce.com and eBay have employee “green teams” that generate, implement and record the human impact and profit of sustainability initiatives.)

Want to be more HIP at your organization? See “For Companies” in the above tab, or email us: Jessica@HIPinvestor.com

READ THE FULL FORBES FEATURE HERE

CLEANTECH FUNDING BOOM – OR M&A TIME?

Danny Bradbury of BusinessGreen.com highlights the cleantech investment boom likely to result from Obama’s stimulus – and quotes HIP CEO R. Paul Herman on cleantech investing trends.

READ THE FEATURE

Former Wall Street Journal reporter David Bank profiles a leading innovator in banking “green” – both environmentally and financially – with his feature on Peter Liu of New Resources Bank for Ode magazine.   HIP’s CEO R. Paul Herman is quoted on how green banking is spreading with investors, depositors and entrepreneurs seeking HIP capital.

http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/59/making-money-a-renewable-resource/all

The magazine INSEAD Knowledge, published by  the leading global business school, interviewed HIP’s CEO R. Paul Herman at the Net Impact conference in Philadelphia.   Rahilla Zafar  explores how large corporations like Walmart and Coca-Cola Enterprises are  pushing forward in sustainability.      Read the full INSEAD Knowledge feature at this link:

http://knowledge.insead.edu/GlobalCrisisSustainability081125.cfm

IN THE NEWS:   HIP CEO’S CLEANTECH MEMO
TO PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA
BusinessGreen.com, November 7, 2008 issue

What should U.S. President-elect Barack Obama do about clean technology, renewable energy and the environment?

Danny Bradbury, of online cleantech publisher BusinessGreen.com: “We tracked down several of the leading players in the US cleantech and environmental movement to find out what they want to see from an Obama administration and what they expect to get.   From signing Kyoto to awarding Presidential Medals of Freedom for clean tech heroes, here are their responses:”

R. Paul Herman is chief executive and founder of HIP Investor, a San Francisco-based financial firm with a number of green funds and indices:

“We need an integrated economic-environmental-social strategy across all three sectors (business, NGOs and government) that tracks results with an overall performance scorecard. By measuring the quantifiable improvements in environmental, social and human effects ““ and how they drive economic vitality ““ an Obama administration could better design the tax code, regulatory framework, and cross-sector incentives to stimulate an improved society.

If the government could shift its focus to managing outcomes (such as reduced cost per mile driven for vehicles) instead of picking and choosing products (avoiding ethanol subsidies), then we could unleash the full innovation of entrepreneurs everywhere to solve problems with a wide diversity of breakthrough solutions.

Cleantech is the perfect testing ground for this approach, since increased eco-impacts naturally correlate also with high ROIs for customers and increased profits for clean tech businesses.

Obama’s immediate challenges are to restore US credibility and leadership by signing Kyoto and securing immediate Senate approval by 31 January ““ to send the signal that the US is onboard globally, as Australia did with its new prime minister.

The new President must stop the backslide by intercepting ““ and reversing ““ the Bush and Cheney relaxations of industry regulation and reduced reporting.

Obama must accelerate eco-efficiency by kickstarting the auction process for a greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) trading system ““ even if it’s baby steps like the European version. We need the bidders’ money in the Treasury starting in 2009, and to begin rewarding the early movers (including the US CAP participants).

The new President should create eco-benefits by designing tax incentives for corporates who clean or restore the land, air and water. If clean tech products can pump cleaner water out than it was going in, why can’t we start applying these upstream in rivers and downstream in wastewater facilities?

Finally, Obama should reward the highest-performers in environment, social impact, job creation and economic vitality with Presidential Medals of Freedom. It’s appropriate for our cleantech heroes, and speeds the race to the top.”

Read the full text at BusinessGreen.com :

http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/analysis/2230045/clean-tech-titans-deliver-obama

The October issue cover story of Treasury and Risk magazine, written by Anne R. Field, profiles the opportunity to “green” your organization’s supply chain – and implement supplier scorecards. HIP’s CEO R. Paul Herman is interviewed:

“Mandating changes in supplier practices can deliver 90% or more of your greenhouse-gas reductions”

In addition, the feature analyzes Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard and Federal Express.

READ THE FULL COVER STORY HERE:

http://www.treasuryandrisk.com/Issues/2008/October%202008/Pages/What’sYourGreenStrategy.aspx

Fallout from the Lehman Brothers’ collapse will result in tighter credit conditions and falling share prices for cleantech firms, but experts are confident that the longer-term outlook still looks solid, Danny Bradbury of BusinessGreen reports.     Learn more and read HIP CEO R. Paul Herman’s expert analysis on what to expect in the short- and long-term.

Read the full article in BusinessGreen.com HERE

Wharton Professor Uncovers Link between Employee Satisfaction and Shareholder Value

Dr. Alex Edmans, an assistant professor at the Wharton School at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, just released a new analysis demonstrating that companies with high employee satisfaction and recognized by Fortune magazine’s “Best Companies to Work For” list, tend to have higher long-term shareholder value.  

In addition, these “intangibles” appear not to be priced into the short-term valuations of equities (along  with other environmental, social and governance issues).   This gives investors applying a HIP framework an advantage to buy in at a discount and later benefit if they hold for the longer term.

This study reinforces the tenets of the HIP methodology and approach – that focusing on Human Impact leads to Profit and shareholder value.   Since employees are the core engine of a company, the developers of its intellectual capital, the face to the customer, and the managers of its assets, the focus of keeping them satisfied (like Southwest Airlines – NYSE: LUV) will typically result in investor benefits over the long term.

Read the insightful abstract and download the full fascinating paper here.

In October of 2007, the Rockefeller Foundation convened investors who were seeking financial as well as social and environmental returns on their investments, to determine how to effectively bring more capital into sector. The group, later named the Rockefeller Impact Investing Collaborative (RIIC), identified a lack of clear, consistent, ‘credible impact information as the strongest impediment to achieving greater scale in this sector.’ RIIC commissioned Social Venture Technology Group (SVT) to conduct a study of the top existing methods to measure impact and advise the group on how to move forward.

SVT’s thorough analysis culminated in the recent release of Catalog of Approaches to Impact Measurement. 24 methodologies were chosen after investors, practitioners, social entrepreneurs were interviewed in some 16 countries across 5 continents. The result: HIP was identified as the “best hope” in terms of a methodology that can systematically surface the interrelationship between impact and profitability, which investors identified as a top priority.

“All the Rockefeller impact investors and other investors we consulted said that impact information would be most valuable if it illuminated the relationship of financial return to impact. However, our analysis identified only one approach that explicitly intends to address this need: the HIP (Human Impact + Profit) Framework.”

READ MORE (see the bottom of page 11!)

“The HIPâ„¢ (Human Impact + Profit) Scorecard and Framework quantifies human, social and environmental impacts, how those impacts drive financial results, and what management systems are required to sustain success over time. The HIP approach is founded on the premise that boosting net positive human impact drives higher profits for business, and increased economic sustainability for organizations…For investors, the HIP Scorecard and Framework can be applied to investment strategy, asset allocation, due diligence, portfolio review and reporting to social investors (including philanthropic donors and, for governmental entities, taxpayers). HIP Investor plans to implement the Framework as a management system in 2008.”

To view or download the full publications CLICK HERE. See HIP on page 38!

NOTE: SVT Group has been a collaborator with HIP on several projects.   This SVT report was completed independently of this relationship.

Muhammad Yunus  won  the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate for “creating the conditions under which peace can occur: economic independence and self-sufficiency.”

Professor Yunus  is famous for his work at Grameen Bank and  several other Grameen ventures, most famously  in microcredit (small loans to low-income citizens around the world) and is aptly known as the “banker to the poor.”   Author David Bornstein wrote an award-winning  book about Yunus, before penning “How To Change the World.”

In  Yunus’s recently published book entitled “Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism”, Yunus highlights HIP Investor Inc.  and its HIP Scorecard in Fast Company magazine as a leader in measuring social impact.

Check out HIP Investor on page 177!

** NOTE: You may need to search the term “HIP Investor” in the left-hand column of Amazon’s search-inside-the-book feature to view the reference. **

Prachachart Thurakit, Thailand’s second largest business newspaper interviewed R. Paul Herman (CEO, HIP Investor) and Sara Olsen (Founding Partner, SVT Group) in January 2008. CLICK HERE to read the February article on the innovative HIP methodology and how businesses are maximizing Human Impact AND Profit.

**Please note the coverage is in the native Thai language**

Paul Herman (www.HIPinvestor.com) and Sara Olsen (www.SVTgroup.net) presented at the Thailand Stock Exchange in Bangkok on January 24, 2008,  on  how corporations can capture the full value of its human, social and environmental value – as well as its financial returns.

Thammasat University, the leading business school in Thailand, organized the first formal regional competition for the Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) in Southeast Asia (www.gsvc-sea.org)   Kaos Capital, a group focused on early stage social venture capital & investment brokerage, recorded and broadcast this presentation which was also organized by the TRN Institute.

Check out the latest approach on capturing an organization’s blended value in terms of social and environmental impact, enabling business to express their impact in such a way that can be clearly understood by the investment community.

WATCH THE PODCAST  (video is approx. 90 minutes in duration)

Check out HIP + SVT on CNBC (link below: original run date, Monday, January 28th at 10:50AM EST).

Squawk on the Street interviewed Amy Feldman (contributing writer, Fast Company magazine) and Brett Galimidi, SVT Partner, about the HIP analysis of global energy  firms — focused on integrated oil companies — and  how investors can maximize their portfolio’s Human Impact + Profit.

Watch it on CNBC.com!

Oil prices are soaring. Returns on energy stocks have been robust. The 30 largest oil companies account for some 6% of the entire global equities market. In building wealth to pay for your kids’ college or your own retirement, ignoring energy stocks can be costly. If you’re a mutual-fund investor, you probably already own a chunk of Big Oil, even if you don’t realize it.

Fast Company asked the sustainability experts at HIP Investor Inc. and the Social Venture Technology Group for help. These firms have together developed an exclusive methodology they called HIP — Human Impact + Profit — for measuring the environmental and social impacts of business. HIP and SVT founders R. Paul Herman and Sara Olsen argue that, over the long term, companies’ willingness to grapple with environmental and social issues translates into higher net income, through new products and lower costs, and stronger stock returns. We asked the HIP/SVT team to analyze the world’s 10 largest oil companies.

THE ARTICLE: An in-depth look at the HIP factor of BIG OIL

PODCAST: Check out HIP + SVT’s take on how investors can and are sustainability to judge the viability of investing in oil.

HIP GUIDE TO BIG OIL:   A concise look at HIP Investor’s   assessment of the 10 largest oil companies.

SLIDESHOW: Can Big Oil become green?   The following slides provide some innovative ideas for sustainable, profitable growth.

AND MORE!!!!

HIP Investor CEO Paul Herman is quoted today in the Wall Street Journal on Google.org’s innovative and potentially controversial entry into the traditional energy sector. To read, “Google, From Don’t Be Evil, to How to Be Good,” by Kevin Delaney, January 18, 2008, CLICK HERE.

This year, Fast Company embarked on an experiment: to apply to the for-profit sector the rigorous methodology developed by our partner Monitor Group for the Social Capitalist Awards. With help from Sara Olsen at Social Venture Technology Group and R. Paul Herman of HIP Investor, they assessed 31 for-profit applicants, from big corporations that graft socially responsible practices onto a traditional investor framework to smaller for-benefit outfits that explicitly place social good ahead of shareholder return. Here are the 10 companies that passed our test. READ MORE

HIP joint-venture partner Social Venture Technology Group (SVT Group) has two media features this month:

SVT Partner  Brett Galimidi showcases how carbon credits can be augmented with poverty alleviation projects that create both social and environmental value.   Hear more about the breakthrough Sierra Gorda Biological Reserve in Mexico:

http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/14188

With Brett, SVT Founding Partner Sara Olsen SVT synthesizing how non-profits can measure their human, social and environmental impacts – and generously credit HIP for the attention on Management Practices leading to compelling results:

http://www.alliancemagazine.org/members/pdfs/0712/pages42.pdf

It’s HIP to BE Green:

Driving Revenue Through Positive Human Impact

Earlier this year, the magazine FastCompany partnered with two San Francisco investment firms to fill a glaring gap in business metrics: there was no single way to measure a company’s net impact on people and the planet, much less tie such a metric to financial performance. The result is the HIP Scorecard (Human Impact + Profit), a new way to look at how human impact drives innovation, shareholder value, and the bottom line.Sustainable Life Media sat down with Paul Herman of HIP Investor, one of the developers of the HIP framework, to find out how companies can use this new metric to competitive advantage, and what it means for socially responsible investors.

CLICK HERE to read the interview!