There is no doubt that socially responsible investment (SRI) in Holland, like everywhere in the western world, is growing. Figures from the Dutch Association of Investors for Sustainable Development (VBDO) are indisputable. From NLG (Dutch/Netherlands guilders) 750 million invested in 1987, amounts invested jumped to NLG 10.2 billion in 2000, with the most rapid growth seen in the last few years.

Holland has a long history of ethical investment, going back to 1960 when ASN Bank was launched, offering ethical retail products. The Triodos Bank followed suit in 1980 and now all major Dutch banks and investment houses offer some kind of ethical vehicle encompassing all shapes and sizes of retail financial product.

The biggest single boost to the sector, however, is seen as the government’s 1995 Green Savings and Investment Plan, which works as a double tax incentive to investment according to very strict green investment categories such as wind energy, solar energy and organic farming. The Dutch tend to split the socially responsible investment sector into ‘green’, which are projects that qualify for the government tax breaks, and ‘social or ethical’, which are projects that might not qualify for the tax break but still have a wider social and environmental purpose.

Upcoming Ethical Corporation conferences & events:
How to manage Social & Environmental Risk in the mining, oil & gas, steel and other heavy industries
London, 22-23 March 2010 The Responsible Business Summit 2010
Novotel West Hotel, London, 4th – 5th May 2010 The Inaugural Ethical Corporation Awards
Novotel West Hotel, London, Evening of 4th May 2010
The Awards will be held at the Responsible Summit -
on the evening of the first day
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