The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust has taken note of new Cosimo publication Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative, by Thomas Croft:

Croft’s book includes a special section profiling worker-friendly investment funds in the U.S. and Canada whose portfolio investments have yielded “not just good returns-on-investment, but also collateral benefits for working people and the environment.” The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT) is included in this “Field Guide to Responsible Capital” and is described by Croft as “one of the nation’s earliest and most experienced socially-responsible investment funds.” The guide also profiles the AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust (BIT) as another model of responsible investing. Using actual case studies, Croft demonstrates how worker-friendly funds such as the HIT have a significant impact on the projects, regions and economic sectors in which they invest….

AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka, in a forward to the book, praises the efforts of “visionary labor leaders to re-claim workers’ capital, the immense sums of money that represent the deferred wages of millions of workers across this country,” through responsible investing. He goes on to call Up from Wall Street a “helpful and hopeful manual that shows we have the capacity to rebuild our economy and infrastructure, reinvigorate our cities, and create those highly-anticipated green jobs of the future.”

A featured speaker at the book launch in Washington, D.C., in October was United Steel Workers International President Leo W. Gerard. “Up From Wall Street is a guide for those who care about pension fund investment,” Gerard said. “It’s about applying the right set of values to the investment of workers’ pension funds.”

Cosimo books are available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.