ABSTRACT
PENSION FUNDS CONTROL a significant part of the economies in many developed countries by their stock holdings, and they are thus an essential institution for making large corporations accountable to the public (see, e.g., Hawley and Williams 2000). By definition, pension funds must take a long view with regard to investment strategies, and this has already contributed to the integration of sustainability criteria into the asset management policies of some of these funds. How is this currently done in North America and Europe, and what future trends can be expected? This chapter discusses how sustainability assessments are currently used by institutional investors, and it suggests how future assessments could be improved for their use by investment professionals.
