Linking Our Integrity and Our Power
to Bring about Positive Change
Defining Integrity
- When
what we are doing
- What we are supposed to be doing
- What we want to do
……all match
Core Question:
How do we know
if what we are doing
is what we are supposed to be doing?
Learning to Recognize
the Gift of Joy
Living with the Energy of Urgency
SRI - Socially Responsible Investing
Takes what we believe
Applies it to our investments
Takes what we believe
And allows it to expand
our understanding of Human Rights
Declaration of Human Rights
Contains two major groups of issues:
Exotica:
Those issues we hope no one ever has to
deal with or encounter: torture, abuse,
unlawful imprisonment, etc.
Economica: Those rights which affect the daily life of
the person, the family and the community
Economica:
 Rights associated with daily life
 Rights associated with income, the ability to support
oneself and one’s family
Economica:
 Rights associated with food and nutrition
 Rights associated with clothing and protection from
the weather
Economica:
 Rights associated with education and access to
social systems
 Rights associated with having a home, employment,
and ability to earn enough for a decent standard of
living
Violation of the Economica
 Suffering often equal to suffering resulting from
violations of the Exotica
 Revealed in infant mortality rates, increased
outbreaks of disease, lowered life expectancies, etc.
Economica
 Key issues are income and
the resulting purchasing power
 Economica allow persons, families ad communities
- to have control over their lives,
- to plan for the future
Without respect for the Economica
- The value of the person is only in his/her productivity
- Thus making the worker, a person, a mere extension
of the machine
Socially Responsible Investing
Examines the policies, programs and practices of
individual companies and industries
Through the Lens of Human Rights, especially the
Economica
To Understand
A Policy
A Program
A Practice
We Need to Ask: Who Benefits? Cui Bono?
Example: Sustainability
Question: Who Benefits?
Who is being sustained?
What is being sustained?
And who decides?
If companies have a sustainability
program
Who and what are being sustained?
And who decides?
We need to ask for each company and each industry
So if companies have a
human rights policy
Are the economica included and protected
along with the exotica?
Are the workers, their families and their
communities being sustained?
SRI
- Is about being willing to ask questions
- Is about willing to work to find answers
What keeps us going in the work
 The energy of urgency: the lives of real people and
families are impacted by our work
 We are able to see beyond just ourselves
 The joy of our work…knowing it is the right work to
be doing
“The only thing required for the triumph of evil is for
good men (and women) to do nothing”
Edmund Burke
“It is not required that we complete the task,
But neither are we free to abandon it
Pirkei Avot