The Global Ethic in Finance and Economics Research Group is an interdisciplinary, ecumenical association with the aim of contributing to the development of a socially just and ecologically sustainable market economy.
In October 2018, the Research Group was affiliated to the Global Ethic Institute and thus continues the work of the Research Group on Ethical-Ecological Rating (FGEÖR).
The main focus of the Research Group is on the socially just and ecologically sustainable design of the financial market. Sustainable investments and investment strategies are as much a subject of the work as public investments, the European Strategic Plan for Sustainable Finance, and the establishment of Global Ethic ambassadors in financial institutions. “It is important”, says Board Member Dr. Bernd Villhauer of the Global Ethic Institute, “that we maintain the integrative approach of FGEÖR – not only to see the financial side, but to continue to think it together with the real economic problems and practical requirements”.
FGEÖR gained international attention in the 1990s with the Frankfurt-Hohenheim Guidelines, a first critique of responsible investment and the ethical evaluation of companies. From the system of sustainability criteria of cultural, natural and social compatibility established there, the Corporate Responsibility Rating of oekom research AG (today ISS-oekom/oekom research AG) in Munich was developed, which is used by many institutional investors, banks and investment companies.
FGEÖR worked together with institutions of ethical-ecological rating to spread the idea of ethical investment. For this purpose, it founded the book series “Geld und Ethik” (Altius Verlag) in 2008 and initiated the symposium “Sustainability as a design principle for the framework conditions of financial and goods markets”.
The principles and demands of FGEÖR for a revision of the legal basis of competition rules were included in the sustainability dialogue of the Federal Government in June 2016.
Prof. Johannes Hoffmann, co-founder of FGEÖR, commented: “If today it is still allowed that market performance is based on the exploitation of common goods, competition will be discredited and at the same time the return on investment; because market success then contributes to the consumption of substances, to the impoverishment of future generations”.
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD
Dr. Adam Gehrke
(Chairman of the Board), Marsh
Bernd Hanheiser
(Chairman of the Board), Impact 4 Entrepreneurship gGmbH
Dr. Bernd Villhauer
(Member of the Board), Weltethos Institute
FELLOWS
Dr. Christian-Bernd Balz
University of Applied Sciences, Darmstadt
Prof. Dr. Harald Bolsinger
University of Applied Sciences, Würzburg-Schweinfurt
Dr. Friedrich Glauner
Cultural Images / Weltethos-Institute
Benedikt Hoffmann
Afrikairos GmbH
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Klühe
University of Applied Sciences, Darmstadt