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Tiffany
& Co. Added to
KLD's Domini 400 Social Index
BOSTON,
MA - March 29, 2005 - KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. announced
today that Tiffany
& Co. (TIF) has been added to KLD’s Domini 400 SocialSM
Index (DS 400 Index). Tiffany & Co. is headquartered in
New York, New York.
Tiffany
& Co. designs, manufactures, and markets Tiffany & Co.
brand merchandise, such as jewelry, clocks, flatware,
hollowware, crystal, stationery, writing instruments,
and fashion accessories. The company distributes its products
through retail stores in the U.S., overseas, and through
direct marketing. The company also sells non-Tiffany brands.
Reasons KLD added
the company to the Domini 400 Social Index
- Tiffany is a leader
in the jewelry retail industry in ensuring that its
gold and diamonds are mined responsibly. Tiffany's CEO,
Michael Kowalski, has collaborated with Earthworks,
an environmental non-profit organization, to start a
dialogue with mining companies on reforming the mining
sector. Tiffany has also worked with Earthworks to convene
a group of experts, including environmental scientists
and geologists, to create a framework for responsible
mining that maps out specific steps for companies to
take in addressing environmental and human rights challenges
facing the sector.
- Tiffany reported that
it applies "strict criteria" to its diamond suppliers
and has a "zero tolerance" policy on conflict diamonds.
Conflict diamonds come from countries such as Sierra
Leone, Congo, and Angola, where rebels, soldiers, and
governments primarily trade the diamonds to finance
military activities. NGOs argue that the exchange of
diamonds originating from these countries has fueled
civil strife, resulting in human rights atrocities.
The conflict diamond trade has made efforts towards
peaceful resolutions between governments and rebels
in those areas virtually impossible.
- Tiffany's "chain
of custody" system for sourcing diamonds was certified
to ISO (the International Organization for Standardization)
9001:2000 standards, which covers quality management
systems. Tiffany is a part-owner of a diamond mine in
Canada, where diamonds are considered to be "conflict-free"
in comparison to diamonds coming from war zones. Tiffany
reported that it anticipated approximately 25% of its
total annual diamond purchases will come from Canada's
Aber Diamond Corporation.
- Two women, Beth Canavan
and Caroline Naggiar, serve among the company's five
principal senior line executives. Ms. Canavan is executive
vice president for retail sales in the U.S. and Canada.
Ms. Naggiar is senior vice president for marketing.
- Tiffany has a policy
against discrimination based on sexual orientation and
provides domestic partner medical benefits to qualified
employee partners.
- Tiffany is an S&P 500
company.
About the KLD Family of Indexes
KLD’s
family of social, environmental and sustainability indexes
include: the Domini 400 SocialSM
Index (DS 400 Index), launched in 1990, is the established
benchmark for measuring the impact of social screening
on financial performance; the KLD Catholic Values 400SM
Index, launched in 1998, is modeled on KLD's DS 400 Index;
the KLD Broad Market SocialSM
Index (KLD BMS Index), launched in 2001, is the screened
subset of the Russell 3000® Index; the
KLD Large Cap SocialSM
Index (KLD LCS Index), launched in 2001, is the screened
subset of the Russell 1000® Index; the
KLD NASDAQ Social Index (KLD NS Index), launched in 2002,
is modeled on the NASDAQ Composite Index; the KLD Select
SocialSM Index, launched
in 2004, is the first US index maximizing sustainability
factors.
About KLD Research & Analytics,
Inc.
KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. is an independent investment
research firm providing investment management tools used
by professionals to serve clients requiring investment
strategies based on social and environmental responsibility.
KLD products and services, including Socrates (a web-based,
company research tool) are used for screening, compliance
and asset gathering.
For more information about KLD or its family of Indexes,
please see our website (www.kld.com)
or contact Karen Agredo by phone (617.426.5270) or via
e-mail (kagredo@kld.com).
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