ARLESHEIM/SCHWÄBISCH-GMÜND (NNA) – A year after the cosmetics and medicines producer Weleda posted losses of over eight million euros, the company has stopped the slide and reported a return to profitability. The market leader in certified natural cosmetics and anthroposophic medicines said at the presentation of its 2012 annual and sustainability report that the company had “recovered well”.

In 2011 Weleda posted a rapidly growing loss of 8.3m euros with “stagnant earnings“ for the second year…

BERLIN (NNA) – Ethical banks from around the world have called for a fundamental transformation of the financial system to create greater stability and make people its focus. The 22 members of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) used their fifth annual meeting in Berlin in March to launch their Berlin Declaration 2013 on “Transforming the financial system for stability and a focus on people”.

Looking beyond the impact of the financial crisis of recent years, the GABV banks demanded…

AUCKLAND (NNA) – Meeting the requirements of Immigration New Zealand has often been a challenge to potential Waldorf teachers and others working out of anthroposophy that come from around the world to live and work in New Zealand. Andrea Tomanek is one such person, whose application for permanent residency under the recently introduced religious worker category has been declined.

It seems Immigration New Zealand does not consider her work as a full-time priest’s assistant with the Christian…

DORNACH (NNA) – The Swiss model of direct democracy is something that is often admired. Last year alone the country held 12 referendums. And all that is required for a referendum to be held or for parliament to have to deal with an issue is 100,000 signatures.

Thus it is encouraging for the supporters of an unconditional basic income (UBI) that the initiative calling for such a move has already managed to collect 70,000 of the required 100.000 signatures. The possibility that the Swiss…

ROVERETO (NNA) – A major retrospective on the work of Rudolf Steiner conceived by the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, which was last year went on tour to various art galleries in Germany and to Prague, has also created waves in Italy. “Rudolf Steiner - L’alchimia del quotidiano” (Rudolf Steiner – the alchemy of every-day things) is on show from 9 February to 2 June at the MART in Rovereto, one of the best-known modern art museums in the country.

“Even the opening was a great festival,…

CAIRO (NNA) – The managing director of the Egyptian Sekem Group, Helmy Abouleish, has been sentenced to a suspended prison sentence of one year and a fine in connection with charges of illegal funding from the Egyptian Industrial Modernization Center (IMC) for Sekem companies while he was serving on the IMC. Abouleish intends to lodge an appeal against his conviction.

In a press release, Sekem said that Abouleish had been released from custody on 7 July after 100 days.

According to the Sekem…

ITTIGEN (NNA) – A Swiss anthroposophical pension fund has once again out-performed the competition to achieve the highest returns on its investments over an extended period.

While the returns of other pension funds have been fluctuating wildly between negative and positive results in recent years, the comparison table published by the SonntagsZeitung newspaper shows that CoOpera achieved a steady result of between 2.6 percent and 3.4 percent in the last four years. On a ten year comparison,…

NNA correspondent Cornelie Unger-Leistner looks at the issues surrounding inclusive finance, raised most recently at a symposium in Berlin earlier this month    

BOCHUM/BERLIN/BRUSSELS/THE HAGUE (NNA) - That banks should feel compelled to deal fairly with poorer clients is the aim of the UN Principles for Investors in Inclusive Finance (PIIF), a new set of worldwide guidelines which came into force earlier this year. The EU Commission is also demanding a fundamental right to financial services,…

The aid package agreed by eurozone leaders to support Greece has led to a collective sigh of relief as another debt crisis has been averted – at least for the time being. Stock markets rose and banking shares, too, were up after last week’s agreement. Greece, of course, is not the only eurozone country to have needed help with its debt problems in the wake of the financial and banking crisis of 2008.    

In this first of a series of articles focusing on Greece, finance and banking expert Christ…

FULDA (NNA) - Around 5,600 agricultural establishments in over 50 countries worldwide are applying biodynamic principles on approximately 145,000 hectares. These figures were revealed by Demeter International on occasion of its annual conference which this year was held in Loheland near Fulda in Germany. The revenue generated by these establishments through the production of Demeter products is estimated to be about 220 million euros (£192m; US$317m), Demeter added.                

The…