|
Best
Buy Company Inc. Added to
KLD's Domini 400 Social Index
BOSTON,
MA - March 30, 2005 - KLD
Research & Analytics, Inc. announced today that Best Buy
Company Inc. (BBY) has been added to KLD’s Domini
400 SocialSM Index (DS
400 Index). Best Buy Company Inc. is headquartered in
Richfield, Minnesota.
Best
Buy, Inc. sells office equipment, consumer electronics,
compact discs, cassettes, videos, video games, computer
software, and appliances. Best Buy operates approximately
630 stores in the U.S. under the names Best Buy and Magnolia
Audio Video, and 127 Best Buy and Future Shop stores in
Canada.
Reasons KLD added
the company to the Domini 400 Social Index
- Best Buy has a notably
strong charitable giving program. The company commits
1.5% of annual pretax earnings to charitable giving,
most of which is donated through its Children's Foundation.
The Foundation focuses on technology-based educational
programs for children.
- As part of its charitable
giving, the company has initiated several community
programs. The "Music Zone" seeks to increase music education
opportunities for children in low-income areas. The
Minneapolis Outreach program offers free Internet and
software training to Minneapolis residents who have
limited access to personal computer technology. The
company's Community Service Grants Program donates up
to $3,000 per store to connect young people and local
service projects in neighborhoods the company serves.
- Best Buy has a policy
against discrimination based on sexual orientation and
provides domestic partner medical benefits to qualified
employee partners.
- The company has strong
representation of women and minorities on its board.
Four of the company's 12-member board of directors are
women or minorities.
- Best Buy 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).
|
