Invest with Values

The Investor's Gateway to Positive Change

The Investor's Gateway to Positive Change

A “Farmer First” Approach to Land Access

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Think “local food,” and your mind’s eye produces various images of farmers in vast fields harvesting strawberries as the sun rises. Or you visualize a weekend farmers market offering colorful arrays of fruits and vegetables. These images strike at the idea of a food movement that has grown more diversified and equitable. But barriers persist, […]

Join The Economist – Impact Investing Conference

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A new Impact Investing conference by The Economist Risk, return and impact: a new role for capital markets in building a better world Join editors of The Economist and more than 200 leading financiers, institutional investors, policymakers, academics, impact investors and philanthropies to analyse the main opportunities and obstacles to the mainstreaming of impact investment. Pledged to […]

Impact Investing for the 99%: A New Path to Mainstreaming

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A SOCAP Guest Post by Joshua Levin of OpenInvest All investments have impact. But to-date, impact investing has been largely limited to small, private companies, and accessible only to accredited investors. What if it were possible for normal folks to easily allocate their retirement portfolios in such a way that maximized the impact of their investments […]

University of California breaks with Wells Fargo over values

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The University of California is the latest to tell Wells Fargo it is taking its banking business elsewhere. UC canceled $475 million in business with the bank, including a $300 million line of credit. The university was under pressure from the Afrikan Black Coalition over Wells Fargo’s investments in private prisons, but a university spokesman […]

What’s New In Impact Investing? January Roundup

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Impact investing is about using markets and money for social good. Impact investing is built on the belief that private capital can play a powerful role in solving the massive global challenges of our day, and that capital markets should work for good as well as profit. This vision is realized through investments made into […]

Trillium Webinar Now Available: A Post-Inauguration Update

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Trillium Asset Management’s February 1, 2017 webinar, “Post-Inauguration Update: Economic Directions, Investor Rights, and Advocacy Priorities Under the New Administration” is now available for download. Please find a link to the full recording and accompanying slides here. Speakers: Cheryl Smith, Ph.D., CFA, Partner, Portfolio Manager Jonas Kron, Esq., Senior Vice President, Director of Shareholder Advocacy […]

Trillium Develops New Product Specific Impact Reports

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New reports seek to create dialogue around leveraging investments for impact February 1, 2017 // Boston, MA – This week Trillium Asset Management publicly released for the first time proprietary impact reports measuring a range of ESG metrics on our key investment products.  These reports are based on a prior beta version that Trillium introduced […]

Investors Put Over $8B Into Conservation: Can It Continue in the Trump Era?

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By Kelley Hamrick On a mild, rainy day in Washington, D.C., America inaugurated its 45th president. The incoming administration represents a fundamental shift from the outgoing Obama administration. And the White House website was updated accordingly. Instead of a clean-energy future, WhiteHouse.gov now announces: “President Trump is committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the […]

World’s Stock Exchanges Launching Sustainability Reporting Standards

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(3BL Media/Justmeans) – Sustainable reporting has come of age. The UN and the nonprofits are no longer the only ones advocating sustainability reporting, and the markets themselves are demanding it. When companies report on sustainability issues, they also tend to act more sustainably. Market analysts increasingly point toward a positive correlation between sustainability commitment and […]

Information for Whole Foods Market Shareholders Regarding Trillium’s 2016 Shareholder Proposal

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January 30, 2017 // Boston, MA – Trillium Asset Management has sent a letter to shareholders of Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFM) calling for support of our Food Waste Reporting shareholder proposal on the company’s 2017 proxy. The letter provides an overview of the importance of the issue as well as the four main reasons why we believe […]

Vert Asset Management Launches the First Sustainable Real Estate Mutual Fund in the US

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Vert Asset Management, a dedicated ESG investment manager, recently announced the launch of the Vert Global Sustainable Real Estate Fund (Ticker: VGSRX), an open-end mutual fund which seeks to achieve long-term capital appreciation. The Fund invests across the globe in publicly listed real estate investment trusts (REITs) using evidence-based environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics. […]

Northern Trust Asset Management Launches Unique Sustainable Real Estate Index and Fund in Conjunction with GRESB

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Fund Offers Passive Investors Exposure to the Stock Performance of Developed Markets REITs Combined with Responsible Investment Criteria LONDON & AMSTERDAM, Jan. 30 /CSRwire/ – Northern Trust Asset Management, collaborating with GRESB, the global sustainability benchmark for real assets, has launched a unique sustainable real estate index. A Dutch-domiciled pooled fund passively managed to this […]

Impact Investing: The Change we all Seek

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By Liz Sessler. If this past year has shown us anything, it’s that the world is seeking change–and is looking for it in places they’ve never looked before. Although the current political, economic, and social climate brings with it tremendous uncertainty, it also presents an incredible opportunity for the impact investing community as people actively […]

Harvesting Capital for Maine’s Food Economy

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By John Meyers With eight thousand plus farms in Maine, New England’s northernmost state is also its most agricultural. Since 2007, agricultural sales in the Pine Tree State have grown an astonishing 24 percent. But before you celebrate, consider this: financing small farms and food businesses in Maine remains restrictive. Commercial financial institutions continue to […]

After the Women’s March: Make the Most of Where You Shop, Save and Invest

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We marched. We came together in cities across the globe to protest the inauguration of a president who does not embody the values we espouse. So many of us marched, it was the largest recorded protest in U.S. history. There were so many thoughtful messages and humorous signs, and many different issues to embrace and hold […]

Sorry, ‘Feel Good’ Investors: Deep Impact Requires Concessions

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“We thought that the only way to achieve large-scale impact was to build large commercial enterprises that could generate enough cash to support both organizational growth and market-level impact. But as we began investing more heavily and more directly in early-stage companies that targeted less advantaged populations in emerging markets, we began to notice the […]

Is Microcredit a Vaccine or an Antibiotic?

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I believe there’s a strong case for social investment in microcredit, but that the best case is built on new theories of change. Historically the standard microcredit theory of change has been that many (if not most) households are eager to start their own microenterprise but are stymied by a lack of access to credit, […]

Inclusive Development Index: Measuring What Matters

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Call it the Norway model. A new economic measure introduced at the World Economic Forum suggests inequality is not a natural byproduct of globalization, but a choice countries make through investments and priorities. The Inclusive Development Index shifts the evidence of a nation’s economic health from gross domestic product to living standards. GDP, a commonly used economic […]

2017 Rate Increase Announcement

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On January 1, 2017, RSF Social Finance increased its “RSF Prime” base interest rate for borrowers to 5.00%. Other participants in the Social Investment Fund (SIF) are affected as follows: the investor rate is now 0.75%, up from 0.50%, and the RSF revenue share will remain at 4.25%. The decision to raise rates is a […]

Community Capital Makes Strange Bedfellows

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These past few months have shown us an America more politically polarized than ever. Any proposed solution is viewed through a conservative vs. liberal lens, and each side vows to oppose any proposal by the other. So it may be worth asking where community capital fits on that spectrum. As our readers know, the term […]

Major Drivers and Trends in SRI Investing Growth

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Sustainable Responsible Impact Investing Grows 33% in 2 Years   In recent years, numerous trends have shaped the evolution and growth of SRI within US financial markets: Money managers increasingly are incorporating ESG factors into their investment analysis and portfolio construction, driven by the demand for ESG investing products from institutional and individual investors and by […]

Major ESG Trends to Impact Capital Markets in 2017

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(3BL Media/Justmeans) – The beginning of 2017 marks an inflection point for institutions that want to investfor the long-term. Investors and policy makers have increasingly advocated against short-termism. Institutional investors can manage economy-wide risks more effectively through collaborative engagements that strengthen market standards in environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) areas. MSCI has published a […]

A Progressive Investor’s Action Guide for the Next Administration

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Concerned about the direction of the country? Make your voice—and money—heard, argues financial advisor James Frazier in this guest post.  Now that the 2016 presidential election is in the history books, the rough outlines of the next few years are starting to become a little clearer. We can reasonably expect a federal government with less […]

Why The New Administration Should Be The Loudest Advocate For Climate Action

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Amidst all the political rancor, the reality is that the incoming administration should be the loudest advocate for climate action, if for no other reason than to deliver on its ambitious jobs creation goal. Maintaining U.S. climate leadership would better position companies to capitalize on the immense business opportunity and get out ahead of growing […]

Sustainable Investing Gains Wider Acceptance

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(3BL Media/Justmeans) – Sustainable investing essentially involves putting money into companies that are committed to integrating their business goals with the larger environmental, social and corporate governance criteria. Investors strive to make their investments deliver competitive returns apart from making a positive social impact. From 2012 to 2014, the total U.S.-domiciled assets under management using […]

Investors Challenge Mutual Funds on Proxy Voting

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January 20, 2017 Investors Challenge Mutual Funds on Proxy Voting    by Robert Kropp Sustainable investment firms respond to update by Ceres by pressuring mutual funds on their proxy voting records relating to climate change. Second in a two-part series. SocialFunds.com — When Ceres recently updated its annual tally of mutual fund voting on climate […]

Will Equity Crowdfunding Accelerate Impact Investing in 2017?

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By Jamie Garuti This past May, a new world of possibilities opened up for social entrepreneurs around the country. The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Title III, the final part of the 2012 JOBS Act. The new regulation allows for equity crowdfunding, a mechanism that ordinary people can use to become stakeholders of startups. […]

How to Move Sustainable Investing Into the Spotlight

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I am new to the world of sustainable investments. For the last 25 years, before joining the Climate Trust, my career was centered almost exclusively on timberland investing. The corollaries between sustainable and timberland investing may not be apparent at first, but U.S. timberland investing is based almost entirely on sustainable forestry. In fact, most […]

Innovative Digital Platforms Offer Values-Based Investing

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Rising demand for sustainable investing advice has resulted in new, specialized digital platforms that match values with analytic data. Three firms—OpenInvest, Earthfolio, and Grow Invest—offer easy entry into socially responsible investing with minimum amounts ranging from $1 to $25,000, according to Investment News. Investment that includes ESG factors in decision making is a growing market: a […]

Slow and Steady Does it for Regulation Crowdfunding

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It wasn’t quite the fireworks that some had hoped for, but Regulation Crowdfunding closed the year with a respectable showing.  In 2016, 186 companies launched Reg CF campaigns, attracting $19 million in capital commitments, according to year-end data compiled by Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA). Investor interest and investment have increased steadily since the law went […]

630 Companies And Investors Tell Washington: Continue Accelerating the Low-Carbon Economy

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More than 530 companies and 100 investors – from iconic Fortune 500 firms to small family-owned businesses – are calling on the Trump administration and the new Congress to support policies to accelerate a low-carbon future that will help curb climate change. “We want the U.S. economy to be energy efficient and powered by low-carbon […]

Defend the Sacred: RSF Winter 2017 Newsletter

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In this latest RSF Quarterly, we listen deeply to members of our community as they recount stories of struggle and newfound strength. This issue’s Clients in Conversation is international and features Native people’s voices from as far north as Alaska, down to the South African region of Pondoland. Despite being halfway across the world from one […]

USA: 100% Renewables by 2050?

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America’s most powerful wind farm – 1.5 gigawatts in size, generating enough electricity for a city of millions – is on the edge of the Mojave Desert at the foot of the Tehachapi Pass, site of one of the earliest and still largest collections of windmills in the world. In total, there are more than […]

Intentionality and Community: Impact Investing With Jewish Values

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The motivations and intentions of investors have long been part of the dialogue around meaningful investing. The generally accepted definition of impact investing requires intentionality as a prerequisite, even in investments that clearly have a positive impact. Some may choose to invest in their local neighborhoods, as a manifestation of the principle that the poor […]

Investors Call for Continued Support of Paris Climate Agreement

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January 11, 2017 // Boston, MA – In November 2016, Trillium Asset Management joined over 300 investors and companies as signatories of the “Business Backs Low-Carbon USA” letter urging the incoming administration and elected leaders to support the Paris Climate Agreement and public policy helping to advance a low-carbon economy.  Yesterday, ahead of the incoming […]

Canadian investor profiles

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Canadians who want to invest in environmental solutions and clean technologies (cleantech) – the sector of companies that minimizes the impacts of non-renewable resource use – have several options. Some of these are available to retail investors wary of choosing individual stocks or volatile passive funds characterized by hype and cynicism. Retail investors can, for […]

Is Your Mutual Fund Company Taking Climate Change Seriously?

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The vast majority of climate scientists (97 percent) believe climate change is real, but what about your mutual fund company? We examined how the nation’s largest mutual fund companies voted on climate-related shareholder resolutions in 2015 and 2016. The results are revealing. While the great majority of mutual fund companies voted in favor of many climate-related […]

ESG Considerations Becoming More Important for Investors

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(3BL Media/Justmeans) – Socially responsible investing (SRI) originally began by screening out ‘sin stocks’ such as tobacco and gambling. But over the years, SRI has evolved with deeper integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities into investment analysis. Thematic ESG investing now focuses on areas such as climate change and water scarcity, […]

Many Large Mutual Funds Continue Failure to Address Climate Change

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January 07, 2017 Many Large Mutual Funds Continue Failure to Address Climate Change    by Robert Kropp Ceres updates its annual report on voting climate-related resolutions by mutual funds, noting that several PRI signatories failed to support a single resolution in 2016. SocialFunds.com — When a financial institution chooses to become a signatory to the […]

Read This if You are Not a Zillionaire: Impact Investing For the Rest of Us

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Supply is beginning to catch up with demand for impact investing products for “retail” investors. Ample research indicates that everyday investors increasingly care about the impact of the investments they make. But impact investing products – funds, direct deals, social impact bonds and the like – have mostly been geared to high net worth individuals and […]