In the name of transparency, standardized business reporting to get an interactive signature

There’s an XBRL in your future.  That’s shorthand for “eXtensible Business Reporting Language,” an important financial reporting initiative that many large companies have tested, and which the SEC is strongly pushing.

The XBRL idea is a decade old, but it is clearly picking up speed. Its progress prompted Motley Fool commenter Tim Beyers earlier this year to call XBRL “the most important shareholder initiative in a decade.”

New index tracks alternative energy, water, waste-management businesses

Institutional and retail investors tracking the performance of the global environmental technologies market can access a new tool to benchmark that sector.

FTSE Group introduced its Environmental Opportunities All-Share Index, which includes 450 companies involved in alternative energy, water and waste-management businesses.