Promoting and Raising Awareness of SRI Funds

MUTB is dedicated to developing and promoting SRI for a more sustainable society.

Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) is a style of investment that considers a company's efforts to address environmental and social issues when investing in its stocks, in addition to conventional investment metrics such as business growth potential and profitability.

Through its promotion of SRI, MUTB hopes to work with customers to realize a more sustainable society.

MUTB is a signatory of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). Which is a government-industry partnership whose mission is "to identify, promote, and realize the adoption of the best environmental and sustainability practice at all levels of financial institution operations."

The UNEP FI promotes the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), as well as the United Nations' Global Compact. The PRI were developed and proclaimed in 2006 by an international group of institutional investors in order to reflect the increasing relevance of environmental, social, and corporate governance issues in investment practices. In May 2006, MUTB was among the first institutional investors in Japan to endorse these Principles. Each year since then, MUTB has jointly organized a Responsible Investment Seminar with the UNEP FI, where it provides information on global developments and investor trends related to SRI and corporate social responsibility. MUTB also participates in the UNEP FI's Asset Management Working Group (AMWG) and Property Working Group (PWG), addressing environmental and social considerations related to asset management and real estate investment.

The United Nations Environment Programme is a subsidiary body of the United Nations that was established based on a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. As a body, it strives to implement the Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and Environmental International Action Plan adopted by the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm that year.

In November 2010, MUTB held the Responsible Investment Seminar 2010, its fifth SRI seminar since 2006, working in cooperation with the UNEP FI. Some 180 people took part. Discussions were centered on the theme, "Investment Strategies Amid Doubtful Prospects for Sustainable Economic Growth." And the seminar focused on sustainability, which these days has become a key word in discussing corporate growth. Experts and representatives from major foreign and domestic funds were invited to attend the seminar. There, MUTB presented them with a broad overview of the current status and outlook of the global economy, and introduced them to SRI strategies for pension assets and the latest trends in this style of investing from around the world.

Additionally, MUTB cosponsors the TBLI (Triple Bottom Line Investing) ConferenceTM Asia, where a wide range of topics including SRI, emissions trading, and microfinance are discussed.

The first TBLI Conference™ Asia in Japan was held in Yokohama in May 2009, and a second one was held in Tokyo in May 2010. MUTB representatives served on panel discussions at both conferences, giving presentations entitled "Asset Management and ESG" in 2009 and "Real Estate Eco-Custody" in 2010.