Calvert Celebrates Environmental Achievement at America's Corporations, Tracking Progress in E-Recycling and Energy Efficiency

ARCHIVED 2002–2016: Originally distributed via the eWire press wire service. Preserved as historical record.

Calvert Celebrates Environmental Achievement at America's Corporations,

Tracking Progress in E-Recycling and Energy Efficiency

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE |

Conservation & Wildlife

Corporate Responsibility

Science & Technology

Syndication Partners

**************************************************************************

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE

**************************************************************************

TO BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

Calvert Celebrates Environmental Achievement at America's Corporations,

Tracking Progress in E-Recycling and Energy Efficiency

MARYLAND, BETHESDA, Apr. 23 -/E-Wire/-- The following is being issued by the Calvert Group:

In recognition of Earth Day, we at Calvert would like to highlight some of the many companies we follow which are trying to make a positive contribution to the environment. As you may know, Calvert is the nation's largest family of social responsible mutual funds and has been tracking corporate responses to environmental issues for more than 20 years. Here is how several companies we invest in through our mutual funds are responding to two very hot environmental issues.

Electronic Recycling Every year, millions of obsolete computers are discarded, putting a strain on landfills and exposing nearby populations to dangerous pollutants like lead, cadmium, other heavy metals, and polybrominated flame retardants.

Calvert has been working on this issue for over a year through the Take It Back campaign, which is supported by environmental groups, including the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, the Grass Roots Recycling Network, Friends of the Earth, and U.S. PIRG. The program encourages computer and other electronic equipment manufacturers and electronics retailers to develop programs to collect used equipment when it is obsolete (e.g., past the point when it is useful even as a charity donation) and recycle it in ways that avoid putting harmful substances in landfills or incinerators. We are also working with electronics manufacturers to urge them to design products that are simpler to recycle, and contain less hazardous substances in the first place, so they won't pose an environmental danger at the end of their lives

Two corporations have taken a lead in electronic recycling. In April, Best Buy, (Best Buy represents 0.16% of the CSIF Enhanced Equity Portfolio; and 0.12% of the CSIF Index Portfolio as of 3/31/01) one of the nation's leading home electronic retailers sponsored a Take it Back! Conference luncheon. This was the first time an electronics retailer has moved in a proactive direction to support electronics recycling, according to Michele Raymond, publisher of Recycling Laws International and organizer of the Take it Back! Conference. The electronics recycling issue is hot this year, as Europe moves on new "takeback" directives, and U.S. states push industry to move on voluntary stewardship. According to State Recycling Laws Update, there are currently 20 electronics recycling bills active in the states, while there are 45 bills that would restrict mercury in various products.

In addition, IBM's (IBM represents 2.27% of the CSIF Enhanced Equity Portfolio; 2.37% of the CSIF Index Portfolio; and 2.65% of the CSIF Balanced Portfolio as of 3/31/01) Integrated Environmental Design program has set new standards in promoting recycling; design around principles of reusability and easy disassembly; and energy reduction. The company has reduced the amount of energy its products use, and the company was named the Computer Partner of the Year in EPA's Energy Star program in 1998 and 1999.

Energy By opting out of the Kyoto protocol, the President has put a roadblock in the path of U.S. competitiveness in low- or zero-emissions technologies that are increasingly likely to be demanded by most of our trading partners. The economic signals the Administration is sending are these: invest in coal and petroleum, the fuels of yesterday. We believe this policy is very short- sighted. Our energy problems and our environmental problems can be solved by one thing: new technologies with low or no emissions and greater efficiency. The electric power infrastructure of the United States has produced electricity with an efficiency of about 33%, give or take a point or two, since John F. Kennedy was elected President. It is hard to imagine that any industry could have stagnant productively for four decades and still remain competitive. Our electric grid, powered mainly by coal-burning power plants, wastes more energy than Japan uses every year, according to an official at the Department of Energy.

Clearly, we need cleaner, more efficient technologies to solve our energy problems as well as our climate problems. Meanwhile, the President is signaling private enterprise to move in the opposite direction. And the entrepreneurs who can develop these technologies will go to Europe or Asia, where the markets are interested in their solutions.

Calvert has investments in several companies that are advancing renewable energy technologies, including Evergreen Solar, Northern Power Systems, Energia Global, Soluz, and Proton Energy Systems. These are small companies, subject to the problems that beset many small-cap technology companies. There are, however, larger companies also working on renewable and hydrogen solutions, including Ford, British Petroleum, Ballard and DaimlerChrysler. Many of these companies' primary businesses depend on the fossil-fuel energy technologies, and new technologies may cannibalize established businesses. The bets that the big companies have made, clearly, are that renewable energy resources and hydrogen will achieve higher growth, and that growth will either come from within or from competitors.

Calvert is one of the largest mutual fund complexes in the Washington D.C. area with approximately $7.0 billion in assets under management. Best known for its family of socially responsible mutual funds, Calvert offers 27 funds that allow individual and institutional investors to pursue a broad range of investment objectives within a single fund family. Most recently, Calvert launched the Calvert Social Index(TM), a benchmark for measuring the performance of large, U.S.-based socially responsible companies. Calvert also has an extensive line-up of tax-free and taxable fixed income investments.

If you would like to speak to our environmental analyst about these and other issues, please call Elizabeth Laurienzo, [REDACTED-PHONE].

Holdings are subject to change For more complete information, including charges and expenses on Calvert mutual funds, call Calvert at [REDACTED-PHONE] or visit us online at http://www.calvert.com for a free prospectus. Read it carefully before you invest.

Calvert mutual funds are underwritten and distributed by Calvert Distributors, Inc., member NASD, a subsidiary of Calvert Group, Ltd. #3487

http://www.calvertgroup.com

**************************************************************************

To Transmit Your News Over E-Wire, visit http://www.ewire.com or

call 1-[REDACTED-PHONE]. E-Wire Is Broadcast To Millions Of Readers Worldwide

**************************************************************************