Investing with a purpose.
We believe the power to change the world lies in your hands. You might buy certain goods, donate to charity, and try to lend a helping hand whenever you can. You do those things because you have a sense of what you do today, makes the world a better place for the generations of tomorrow. However, you may have yet to explore your greatest way to influence, empower, and create change in a manner that doesn't require you to do a thing. Your savings and investments can be working for you while building a lasting legacy of tomorrow. SRI (Sustainable, Responsible, Impact) isn't just aligning your investment choices with your beliefs and values, you are investing is some of the most innovative and evolutionary areas of the markets today. You are at the forefront of developing cleaner energy, empowering equality, and supporting better businesses. Contact us and we can help you create a portfolio that makes a difference.
What is SRI Investing?
There are many names for the practice of investing ethically - "green" investing, impact investing, socially responsible/ conscious investing, ESG. They all share the same idea; investing in companies that have a broader view of what it means to lead. We consider SRI (sustainable, responsible, and impact) investing as the standard to include evaluating ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria for companies but expanding our scope to involve community investing, microfinance and direct impact opportunities. All told, this evolutionary space is the fastest growing area within the investing industry, as more clients and companies realize the complete benefits of SRI investing.
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It supports fairness, equality, and prosperity in businesses and our communities.
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It demands a greater sense of ethics, morals, and values from leadership across businesses, government, and organizations that embody our own ideals and beliefs.
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It creates empowerment, not charity, to help people achieve financial security, economic progress, and a better quality of life.
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It prepares our world for future generations in what we build for them today and what we leave behind for them tomorrow.
Real Investments. Real Change.
One of the best things about SRI investing is that you get to positively enact real, powerful change for issues that you care about. Here are just a few of the initiatives you could support with your investments.
Environment
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Climate Change Solutions
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Resource Management
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Water Usage
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Recycling
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Restoration + Conservation
Technology
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Alternative Energies (Solar, Wind, Renewable)
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Advanced Medicine
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Public Health
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Innovative Products
Social
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Women's Leadership + Empowerment
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Racial, Cultural + Social Equality
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Microfinance
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Crowdfunding
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Poverty Alleviation
Sustainability
Sustainability
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Systemic Thinking
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Economic Integration
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Global Impact Opportunities
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Sustainable + Organic Agriculture
Governance
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Ethical Practices + Policies
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Fair Pay
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Equal Opportunity
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Stakeholder Engagement
Community
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Social + Economic Development
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Local Businesses
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Non-Profit
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Community Building/Investments
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Education
Are You A Non-Profit?
Given the nature of our ESG integrative investing we blend very well with the mission of non-profit organizations. We will work closely with the governing leaders and board members of your organization to help you meet your investment goals and ensure the stability of your organization's financials for many years to come. Once your guidelines, parameters, and preferences are established, we will develop a customized written approach to building and managing your investments set for your approval.
As a non-profit using our SRI standards of investing, you will reflect your values to do good in every part of your operations. All while meeting your long-term financial objectives and distribution needs.
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Contractual Investment Policy
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Monthly Statements & Quarterly Performance Reports
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Distribution Policy
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You set the Values, Ethics, and Guidelines for your Investments
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Fiduciary Management
How ethical are your current investments?
Contact us for a complimentary consultation to find out how your current investments score. We'll use measurements like environmental stewardship, social responsibility, ethical practices, and controversy risks to score your current investments. .
Disclosure: This report is solely for the purpose of measuring the Ethical Score across ESG(environment, social, governance), controversy, and sustainability factors of these investments and should not be considered an investment recommendation. Not all investments are able to be scored. This information makes no reference to the financial suitability or appropriateness of these investments for your financial goals, needs, or risk tolerance. Ethical scoring does not measure financial performance of the included investments and any use of this information for investing decisions is at your own risk. Always review any investment decisions with your financial professional before buying or selling any investments.
Why SRI?
Aside from all the positive social, economic, and global good that comes out of SRI investing, there are numerous financial performance benefits for you as an investor. It's important to remember that investing ethically is not charity; it is simply another dimension by which we can evaluate companies and portfolios. SRI looks at a company's environmental impact, social responsibility, and corporate governance (how they run their business). These factors are then included in the broader financial analysis to gain a better understanding of the company as a whole. Just because a company scores well on ESG doesn't mean it is a financially sound investment, and vice versa. SRI Investing is about combining both to achieve an optimal portfolio - one that you can feel good about holding.
Less Volatility
SRI investing has proven that it can offer an additional performance advantage, because it looks past just the finances. Evaluating areas such as environmental practices, social policies, and governing principles helps us better determine potential risks and find more consistently performing opportunities. Sustainable practices are simply less volatile than only using financial measures, and it'll show in your portfolio's performance.
Lower Risk
Basic common sense will tell us that if a company is run the right way - ethical decisions, fair compensation, etc. - there is a reduced risk for negative surprises that can affect your portfolio. Things like lawsuits, boycotts, ineffective cost management, and poor long-term planning are less likely to happen. Additionally, by expanding analysis beyond financial information, we account for a broader range of investment risks. These risks affect longevity of businesses, economic prosperity, and profitability, all of which are fundamental to your investment return.
Innovative Leverage
Individually, we can choose to meet our own financial needs and goals while harnessing our largest and most powerful resource. The capital held within our savings, retirement, and investment accounts can simply be invested in a manner that helps create change, contribute, and make an impact in a meaningful way. Your money can inspire innovation, ideas, and the visions that shape our collective future, all while preparing for your own.
*Source: performance and risk data resourced from numerous studies through the forum for sustainable and impact investing. A leading organization in SRI investing research. Studies and additional educational information can be found on https://www.ussif.org/performance. The following supporting studies are listed on the link provided.
The Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing published Sustainable Reality: Analyzing Risk and Returns of Sustainable Funds in 2019. n 2017, Nuveen TIAA Investments released Responsible Investing: Delivering Competitive Performance. The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and Cambridge Associates co-produced a report in 2017, The Financial Performance of Real Assets Impact Investments. Sustainable Investing and Bond Returns is a 2016 report by Barclays Research. In 2015, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management and Hamburg University published an article titled ESG and Financial Performance: Aggregated Evidence From More Than 2,000 Empirical Studies. From the Stockholder to the Stakeholder: How Sustainability Can Drive Financial Outperformance is a 2015 meta-study conducted by Oxford University and Arabesque Partners, which categorized more than 200 sources, including academic studies, industry reports, newspaper articles and books. In 2015, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and Cambridge Associates jointly published the report Introducing the Impact Investing Benchmark. How and Why SRI Performance Differs from Conventional Strategies, a 2014 report by Envestnet | PMC investigated the differences in SRI and non-SRI domestic equity mutual fund performance. Sustainable Investing: Establishing Long-Term Value and Performance, a 2012 meta-analysis by DB Climate Change Advisors of more than 100 academic studies, finds that incorporating environmental, social and governance data in investment analysis is “correlated with superior risk-adjusted returns at a securities level” and that SRI approaches that merely employ exclusionary screens, while showing little upside, do not underperform. In November 2009, Mercer issued a report, Shedding Light on Responsible Investment: Approaches, Returns and Impacts, in which it reviewed a further 16 academic studies on SRI and financial performance that were published after the 2007 UNEP FI review. In October 2007, the Demystifying Responsible Investment Performance report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) analyzed 20 influential pieces of academic work and 10 key broker studies exploring links between different approaches to responsible investment and investment performance.