Al Gore's Inconvenient Stock Portfolio Exposed

    WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Government filings by Al
 Gore's investment management firm, Generation Investment Management (GIM),
 indicate that the Nobel Peace Prize winner may be "talking the talk" but
 not "walking the walk" when it comes to investing in so-called
 "sustainable" businesses.
 
     "Despite its widely publicized rhetoric, the Gore firm's stock
 portfolio looks to be that of an ordinary diversified mutual fund," said
 JunkScience.com publisher Steve Milloy. "If this is 'sustainable'
 investing, then it is a meaningless term," Milloy said.
 
     GIM, of which Al Gore is the chairman and founding partner, filed its
 Form 13F-Holdings report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
 on October 23, 2007. The report may be viewed at
 http://junkscience.com/oct07/GIM_Holdings_102307.pdf.
 
     According to the report, GIM has $438 million invested in the following
 22 companies: AFLAC, Amdocs, Autodesk, Becton Dickinson, Blackbaud,
 Donaldson Company, General Electric, Greenhill & Co., HDFC Bank, Johnson
 Controls, Laboratory Corporation of America, Metabolix, Millipore, Mueller
 Water Products, Northern Trust, Procter & Gamble, SPDR Trust, Staples,
 Techne Corp., UBS, Varian Medical Systems and Waters Corp.
 
     GIM's top five holdings are Johnson Controls, AFLAC, Becton Dickinson,
 General Electric and Procter & Gamble.
 
     Al Gore says on the GIM web site that, "Integrating issues such as
 climate change into investment analysis is simply common sense."
 
     But with the exception of General Electric -? which actively lobbies
 for global warming regulation while its stock significantly underperforms
 the broad stock market ?- GIM's portfolio doesn't seem to have anything to
 do with climate change. Notably absent from GIM's portfolio are energy and
 utility companies -? even those that claim they will benefit from global
 warming regulation. With the exception of GE, corporate members of the
 pro-global warming regulation lobbying group called the U.S. Climate Action
 Partnership are also missing from GIM's portfolio.
 
     "GIM's portfolio is a run-of-the-mill mix of financial service,
 healthcare, consumer products, technology and industrial materials
 companies that hardly seems to live up to Gore's rhetoric about social and
 environmental sustainability allegedly driving GIM's investment choices,"
 Milloy said. "There seems to be no particular focus on energy efficiency,
 alternative energy, reducing pollution and greenhouse gases, or other
 so-called 'green' business ideals" Milloy said.
 
     In any event, GIM has probably purchased the stock of these companies
 in the secondary markets, meaning that GIM's capital is not being invested
 directly in the companies' operations. GIM can buy or sell its portfolio
 positions by simply picking up the phone and calling its stockbroker. The
 companies owned don't necessarily even know GIM is an investor.
 
     "GIM's investments do not appear to be reducing anyone's carbon
 footprint," said Milloy. "Before falling for GIM's 'sustainability' pitch,
 investors may want to check out GIM's portfolio first," Milloy added.
 
     Steven J. Milloy is the founder and publisher of DemandDebate.com,
 JunkScience.com and CSRwatch.com; an investment adviser to the Free
 Enterprise Action Fund; and a columnist for FoxNews.com.
 
 
 
 

SOURCE JunkScience.com