About us & our network

SRI-CONNECT really isn't about us.  It’s about you, your needs and your industry engagement.

However, before using the platform, you may want to know something about who we are, what we understand about sustainable investment, what our motivation is and how our business operates.

With that in mind, here’s a quick introduction:

Over 10 years, SRI-CONNECT has been developed and run by an iterative network of experienced sustainable investors who share the belief that high-quality investment research and efficient communications between companies and investors and through the investment value chain will be critical contributors to the process of reallocating capital to deliver a sustainable economy.  The current team includes:

Mike Tyrrell, Editor

Connect with Mike

Mike Tyrrell has been a sustainable investment analyst for the past 30 years.

He started his career on the 'buy-side' at Jupiter Asset Management before moving to the 'sell-side' at HSBC Global Equities to establish the first SRI/ESG research capability on the ‘sell-side’ in Europe.  After this, he set up the global sustainable investment research capability at Citi Investment Research.

After leaving Citi in 2008, Mike set up www.sri-connect.com as a communications platform to facilitate communication between investors, companies and research analysts and to enhance the flow and quality of investment research on sustainability and corporate governance issues.  With 6,000+ users globally, the platform has become one of the key pieces of infrastructure in the effective 

Fundamentally, Mike believes that:

• rigorous sustainability analysis
• conducted by intelligent individuals
• embedded within ‘mainstream’ investment institutions and
• supported by active and constructive dialogue between investors, companies and independently-minded research provider experts

... will lead to better investment outcomes for practitioners and a more sustainable society for everyone.

Guided by these principles and by a strong belief that sustainable investment will be stronger when everyone's analytical voice is heard, Mike now oversees a network of digital platforms that sit at the nexus of sustainable investment research and communications:

• www.sri-connect.com - to support sustainable investment research and communications
• www.sustainable-ir.com - to guide companies on best practice in communicating on sustainability
• www.sita-training.com - to train investors (on integrating sustainbility factors into valuation) and companies (on effective sustainable investor communications)
• www.sri-research.com - for market research on trends and developments in sustainable investment

Andy White, Research Editor

Connect with Andy

Andy White of sri-consulting.co.uk guides and delivers much of the primary research content undertaken by SRI-Connect and curates SRI-Connect's Weekly Research Highlights email.

Andy worked for many of the now major sustainable investment research providers in their formative days and was involved with LAPFF campaigns on remuneration, the launch of the first CDP reports and Access to Medicine Index.

On the asset management side he built innovative sustainable investment strategies with HSBC, Credit Suisse, UBS, Barclays Global Investors and Societe Generale among others. More recently he developed a carbon neutral fund, green real estate fund and labour rights fund as Head of ESG Research at Groupe La Francaise, a large fund manager based in London and Paris.

Andy brings a breadth of experience from different parts of the value chain, an understanding of what sustainable investment research providers need and how they can leverage their knowledge and insights across different asset classes.

If you are a provider of sustainable investment research that wants to stand out - in an increasingly crowded marketplace - by virtue of the quality of your ideas and analysis, please get in touch with Andy today.

As well as helping your team build profile through research, he can also help your analytical teams with their own access to research and ideas, with their access to companies and with their training needs (whether on sustainability or 'mainstream' valuation).

Sustainable and responsible investment can play a major role in achieving sustainable development, if it puts, at its heart, intelligent and constructive dialogue between companies and investors.

Society must emerge from the current economic situation with an advanced strategy for tackling climate change and other sustainable development challenges. Companies and capital markets, in spite of their recent failings, will play a critical part in this process.

Indeed, the interface between progressive investors and businesses has already demonstrated that it is a powerful force for the development of sustainable practices within companies – and has been strongly influential in the emergence of published sustainability strategies and of sustainability reporting processes that have driven underlying performance.

Looking forward, for companies to pursue a progressive course of action, they will need investor support. Equally, for asset owners and managers to give such support they will need sustained assurance that progressive action by companies will enhance investment returns.

All of this depends on the existence of efficient and meaningful communication between companies and investors on how sustainability is to be achieved and on the impact that this will have on corporate strategy and performance. Sustainability needs to be put at the heart of the investor communications process; equally financial considerations need to be at the heart of the sustainability agenda.

In short, we need more ‘sustainable and responsible’ investment – and it needs to be bigger, bolder and better.

Four things are needed to drive sustainable investment forward and enable the integration of sustainability with mainstream investment decision-making:

• Better data
• A credible concept for and the execution of investor 'stewardship'
• Better research
• Better relationships between the different participants in the industry

Hundreds of people and much money are being deployed to supply data to the SRI industry and to deliver stewardship.

Our differentiators

SRI-CONNECT (comprising two people with little money) enables better research and better relationships by:

• Creating an online market place where analysts and portfolio managers can come together with company executives and experts on different aspects of sustainable development to present themselves, to exchange views, to report on their progress and to listen to and learn from the experiences of others
• Facilitating SRI/ESG communications processes that reach far beyond the inadequacies of CSR reports, questionnaires and investor initiatives to engage both parties in detailed and considered dialogue that leads to sustainable development becoming a fundamental part of investment decision-making.
• Combining
  • the growing will to tackle climate change and create the conditions for sustainable development with
  • the need to position financial services around new concepts of simplicity, trust and transparency and
  • the collaborative capabilities of digital media

Through these, we are catalysing a rapid acceleration in the way sustainability factors are incorporated into ‘mainstream’ investment analysis, into capital allocation and into company behaviour.

SRI-Connect is free to join and use and will always remain so.  So, in the interests of transparency, here's how we keep the show on the road.

Low-cost

It's amazing how much you can achieve if you keep your costs low and your activities targeted.  We prioritise the expertise of our team over fancy offices and we don't pay ourselves much.

A generous funder

The recent rebuild of SRI-Connect together with a number of contributory projects were funded by the Finance Hub of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation as part of the Moulding Markets programme.

Some selected revenue

Then, we earn our revenues from carefully selected sources - where the selection criteria are that nothing must compromise our ability to be wholly impartial editors of SRI-Connect.  These include:

• Training - through our work with Sustainable Investment Training Associates
• Best practice in sustainable investor relations - via www.Sustainable-IR.com
• Market research - through our IRRI partnership with Institutional Investor and through bespoke consultancy projects - such as recent work for the European Commission
• Research into sustainability in instrinsic valuation and best practice in sustainable investor relations - funded by the WBCSD under the Building Bridges programme

Registration with SRI-CONNECT is free and open to all with direct professional exposure to SRI/ESG & corporate governance.  This includes pension, insurance and endowment funds, asset managers, investment consultants, research providers, investment banks, listed companies and their respective advisers.

By registering with the site, you introduce yourself to the global SRI/ESG & corporate governance community and will have access to the site's primary research and communications tools (profile updates, 'buzz' filtered to your interests, the industry directory, discussion groups, messaging etc.)

As well as giving them access to the research, ideas and insights of these individuals, SRI-Connect also enables industry professionals to raise their own profile within this rapidly growing global community.

Get started...

To get started, new users should:

• Register here
• Update your personal profile
  • ...with a picture of yourself and details of the sectors and issues that you cover
• Join a few discussion groups
• Make a few connections
  • (Use the Directory: All connections to find people that you know and people that interest you)

Contact us via here with any further questions about registration or to discuss your specific SRI/CG needs.

Capture the value - Engagement is free...

SRI-CONNECT is designed to reward (with industry profile) those that engage (by presenting themselves, contributing or seeking research or sharing analysis of the industry).

To capture the benefits of this, site users should:

• Update your firm’s profile
• Search the buzz – to find research on subjects and stocks that you cover
• Post research or reports to Market Buzz - these will be highlighted to the global SRI & corporate governance community
• Share questions or discussion themes via discussion groups
• Use the Research Marketplace to commission bespoke research from a global provider base

Supporting value creation - through the investment value chain

SRI-Connect welcomes professionals from across the sustainable investment value chain from pension funds and investment consultants to listed companies and their advisors.  So, the site is built to meet the diverse needs of these diverse community participants.

For details on how, see how SRI-CONNECT helps...

• ... asset managers create and deliver value to their clients
• ... independent research providers create and deliver value to their clients
• ... sell-side brokers create and deliver value to their clients
• ... headhunters create and deliver value to their clients
• ... SIFs create and deliver value to their members
• .... listed companies create and deliver value to their investors