SRI Index ignores significant violations of environmental laws

The Centre for Environmental Rights and nine other NGOs have written to JSE Limited to criticize the Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Index for failing to account for companies' violations of environmental laws, arguing that this undermines the environmental regulatory system and misleads shareholders.

• The Centre for Environmental Rights and nine other NGOs argue that the JSE's SRI Index undermines the statutory environmental regulatory system by presenting companies that are non-compliant with environmental laws as "model corporate citizens".
• The NGOs propose three specific requirements for the SRI Index to improve its integrity: requiring legal compliance as a minimum qualification for listing, establishing an independent method to identify non-compliance and enforcement actions, and requiring companies to annually disclose their compliance status, findings of non-compliance, directives received, criminal investigations, and fines paid.
• The document asserts that information on environmental compliance is now publicly available through sources such as the Department of Environmental Affairs' annual National Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Report, parliamentary responses on www.polity.org.za, and news media.
• The authors highlight that environmental non-compliance is price-sensitive information for shareholders, citing a November 2010 instance where shares in Coal of Africa Limited fell by 19% following public news of environmental enforcement action against one of its facilities.

APA

Centre for Environmental Rights (2010). SRI Index ignores significant violations of environmental laws. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Reply-to-JSE-SRI-Dec-2010.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Centre for Environmental Rights. SRI Index ignores significant violations of environmental laws. 2010. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Reply-to-JSE-SRI-Dec-2010.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Centre for Environmental Rights |title=SRI Index ignores significant violations of environmental laws |date=17 December 2010 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Reply-to-JSE-SRI-Dec-2010.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{centreforenvironmentalrights2010sri, author = {{Centre for Environmental Rights}}, title = {{SRI Index ignores significant violations of environmental laws}}, publisher = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2010}, month = dec, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Reply-to-JSE-SRI-Dec-2010.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }