Invest with Values

The Investor's Gateway to Positive Change

The Investor's Gateway to Positive Change

The millennial is the message

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Illustration by Meaghan Way Millennials may be forgiven for not knowing Marshall McLuhan. But for insight as to why millennials invest the way they do, look no further than his extensive Wikipedia page. In fact, visiting any Wiki page would provide insight into McLuhan’s famous phrase, “the medium is the message,” meaning society is shaped […]

Climate finance a survival strategy for banks?

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What are the driving factors for banks to sign onto a voluntary statement on integrating climate mitigation into their workflow? Is this a competitive strategy or just a survival action? How vital is climate change in changing the banks’ investment decisions? In December, 26 financial institutions from both developing and developed nations signed a statement […]

A Change for the Better: RSF Fall 2016 Quarterly

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In this latest RSF Quarterly, we introduce RSF Social Finance’s new branding—a change to our look and language that provides us with greater capacity to celebrate our clients and to better tell the story of our integrated capital approach. One story in this newsletter that excellently conveys this evolving approach profiles San Francisco-based Veritable Vegetable, […]

Global investors launch guide to drive engagement on climate risk with the automotive sector

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Less than a week after the UN confirmed the Paris Agreement would come into effect on 04 November this year, a global network of more than 250 institutional investors (representing assets worth over $24 Trn) has published a guide setting out the threats facing the automotive sector and investor expectations for how these companies must […]

Blended Capital Fund Helps Small Scale Farmers in Arkansas

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The funding world used to be fairly straightforward: there was philanthropy for nonprofits, venture capital for startups and bank loans for existing businesses. But in the age of social enterprise and impact investing, those lines are blurring. As more businesses combine a social mission with a for-profit business model, finance is adapting, giving rise to […]

Sustainable Goals and Social Impact: Do You Have What you need to succeed?

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By Maximpact Sustainable Goals and Social Impact:  Do You Have What you need to succeed? At the nexus of change Maximpact.com is a work space for projects, businesses, ideas and endless opportunities.  A global marketplace of qualified consultants, experts and services. Maximpact.com today announced the launch of their consulting and advisory services to support the […]

ImpactSpace and CSRHub bring environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Ratings to Impact Investments

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  4 October, 2016 /3BL Media/ – ImpactSpace, the open database for the impact investing marketplace, is bringing CSRHub’s environmental, social and governance ratings into the world of impact investing. ImpactSpace users seeking company information will be able to see CSRHub CSR/ESG ratings and data whenever available. CSRHub provides access to corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information […]

Stranded Assets: Preventing the Next Era of Climate Change

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By Joyce Coffee I first heard the term “stranded assets” at a Bloomberg event in New York City during Climate Week 2014.  For me, the term conjured up images of homeowners and their dogs waiting atop roofs to be rescued during Hurricane Katrina.  Yet that didn’t seem right for the context of the discussion, and […]

The millennials who don’t want to call themselves philanthropists – and why we must listen to them

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The term philanthropist, it seems, is getting a bad rep. The next generation of philanthropists at this year’s Philanthropy Australia conference made it perfectly clear that they would prefer to be known as ‘change-makers’ or ‘social entrepreneurs’, and so, are ‘consciously uncoupling’ from being known as philanthropists. It appears today, as discussed at the Conference, […]

Trillium Releases New White Paper on Investing for LGBT Equality

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PRESS RELEASE Trillium Asset Management Releases New White Paper on Investing for LGBT Equality  Investing in Equality: Integrating LGBT Issues into Total Portfolio Activation  BOSTON, MA // September 29, 2016 – A group of investors has released a new white paper, Investing in Equality: Integrating LGBT Issues into Total Portfolio Activation. The paper was prepared by […]

The Business ROI of Social Investing

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ORLANDO, Sep. 28 /CSRwire/ – ACCP and IO Sustainability are launching a landmark initiative to help companies identify how corporate social responsibility (CSR) supports both the financial bottom line and social objectives. The Business ROI of Social Investments: A Pilot Program will engage 15 or more companies to develop tools that enable managers to structure social investments […]

Framing the challenges of a next system after fossil fuels

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Systemic Crisis and Systemic Change in the United States in the 21st Century This new working paper from The Next System Project was prepared as an invited contribution to the “After Fossil Fuels: The New Economy” conference taking place in Oberlin, Ohio from October 6-8, 2016. In the paper, Next System Project co-chairs Gar Alperovitz […]

Investors Worth $2.1 Trillion Call for Full Repeal of North Carolina’s House Bill 2

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NYC Comptroller, Trillium Asset Management, and Croatan Institute organize investors calling for a full repeal of the state’s anti-LGBT law SEPTEMBER 26, 2016 // RALEIGH, NC: In a statement organized by Trillium Asset Management, Croatan Institute and the New York City Comptroller, investors representing $2.1 Trillion in collective assets under management are calling for a […]

Invest Here!

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A SOCAP Guest Post By Adam Wiskind Neighborhood Economics Highlights New Tools to Redirect Capital Locally The Neighborhood Economics conference was a SOCAP associated event that told inspiring stories about how investment in local businesses can transform our communities.  Overwhelmingly, invested capital in the US flows to large scale Wall Street corporations.  Only 1% of […]

Major investors caution against weakening MPG rules

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As the comment period closes on the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Technical Assessment Report released by federal and state agencies, major investors are releasing statements in favor of strong fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards. Ken Locklin, director of Impax Asset Management and Stu Dalheim, vice president of Calvert Investments are members of […]

CSR Investment Summit Explores ESG-Driven Markets

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Guest blog by Jason Howell The 4th annual CSR Investing Summit, “Summer in the City,” took place last month in New York City. Produced by S-Network Global Indexes and co-sponsored by The SRI Conference, the full-day conference featured expert practitioners and thought leaders who shared their experiences and viewpoints on how to define, manage, and measure […]

The Tribes of Impact Investing, the Big Tent and Getting Real About #SOCAP16 (Podcast)

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SOCAP: the place where the citizens of Impact Land gather to discuss … what exactly? And who are these people, anyway? This week on Returns on Investment our roving panelists deconstruct the annual Social Capital Markets conference, scene of a thousand meetings, hundreds of panels and dozens of parties. This week’s episode brought our three regulars […]

Turning Ethical Investing into a Wall Street Disruptor

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OpenInvest, a new investing platform that beta-launched at SOCAP16, aims to transform investing by putting the power of ethical investing into each investor’s hand. Sustainable investing is no buzzword – it has been over a decade since the first sustainability-focused investment firms and options emerged. Even as evidence as grown that sustainable investing is actually […]

Impact Investors Care about More Than Money

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Conventional wisdom says investors focus on financial returns, and philanthropists address environmental and social concerns. Impact investing, combines value and values to provide social and environmental impact in addition to a financial return. Impact investing has the potential to change the world. According to a Forbes guest editorial by Sir Ronald Cohen, Chairman of the […]

Can Public Equity Investing Have Impact?

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By Garvin Jabusch There’s an argument in the world of impact investing that goes something like, ‘impact happens only through private investments; there is no real impact, apart from shareholder engagement efforts, in public equity investing.’ An associated perception is that investment impact means capitalizing an enterprise beyond what would happen otherwise, meaning private equity […]

FOMO in Impact Investing, Across the Gender Divide, Beyond Mush: Day Three at #SOCAP16

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Highlights and tidbits from the Social Capital Markets conference in San Francisco: Leveraging FOMO to drive institutional change.  It seems big banks and venture capitalists may be as susceptible as teenagers to the Fear of Missing Out. James Rantanen of Deutsche Bank had been working since 2008 to build a platform for the bank’s wealth […]

UN Global Compact Launches Next-Generation Business Solutions to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

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  New York, September 19, 2016 /3BL Media/ – Today, the UN Global Compact will announce four new platforms – in partnership with GRI, Monday Morning/Sustainia, Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and Volans – to help shape the next generation of sustainable development initiatives and partnerships for business. The announcement is part of the multi-year Making Global Goals […]

Investing in Eliminating Food Waste

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Over 200 million dollars are lost to food waste every year. Spoiled, unwanted, imperfect food that businesses pay to grow, package, transport, refrigerate and throw-away uneaten. American agriculturalists are shifting paradigms from paying to manage waste to saving money eliminating waste such as developing “co-products” and circular products from material that was once fodder landfill. […]

Why Should Businesses Care About Sustainability? Because Investors and Customers Do

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by Lara Birkes, HPE’s Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President, Living Progress As world leaders gather in New York City next week for the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, I am reminded what a difference a year makes. Last year, at their 70th session, the UNGA released a bold set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) […]

Which Comes First, System-Change or Financial Returns from Gender Lens Investing?

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Something’s gotta give. By 2025, two-thirds of private wealth will be in female hands. Yet, today, only 10 percent of venture capital financing goes to women. What gives, or rather, who? I’ve been all over this week’s SOCAP conference rounding up views on gender lens investing. On the second morning of the conference, Criterion Institute’s Joy Anderson highlighted […]

The best place to be a social entrepreneur? The results are in

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Thomson Reuters today published the findings of their global perception poll of the best places to be a social entrepreneur. This poll was conducted in partnership with UnLtd and Deutsche Bank, and asked 900 experts in 45 of the world’s biggest economies a series of questions relating to this business-for-social-good sector, ranking the countries accordingly. […]

Biking for Climate Change: Trillium Takes Part in 390-mile Ceres Ride

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Boston, MA // September 16, 2016 – On Monday, Vice President of Shareholder Advocacy, Brianna Murphy, completed a 5-day, 390-mile ride from Bar Harbor, ME to Boston, MA  as part of this year’s 2016 Northeast Climate Ride. Riding as a member of “Team Ceres”, Brianna and her fellow team members raised over $12k to fund […]

Impact Unicorns: Can We Have Our Cake and Eat It Too?

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The term “unicorn” was coined by Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures to describe private companies that have achieved a post-money valuation of $1 billion or more. Originally, these companies were scarce, magical and elusive. As of August 31, 2016, according the CrunchBase Unicorn Leaderboards, there are now 191 unicorns. In my impact investing practice at […]

Trillium Writes Case Study in PRI’s Latest Guide to ESG Integration for Equity Investing

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Boston, MA // September 9, 2016 — Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) launched “A Practical Guide to ESG Integration for Equity Investing”, a report helping asset owners and investment managers apply ESG integration techniques to their investment strategies. The publication includes a case study authored by Trillium Research Analyst Jeremy Cote, which analyzes our approach to […]

Republic Wants to Bring Angel Investing to the Masses

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A new investment crowdfunding platform joined the fray over the summer. Founded by AngelList alumni, Republic.co brings with it a high level of street cred—and ambitions to match. It focus: everyday investors and companies that are innovative, diverse and mission-driven. Since it was launched six years ago, AngelList has become the gathering place for early […]

Facebook Live from SOCAP

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The Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) conference is again upon us. And this year, we’re trying something new. NextBillion will broadcast a series of interviews through Facebook Live, starting this evening and continuing through the end of the conference on Friday. We have more than 10 (and counting) discussions lined up with a diverse group of […]

Results Announced for 2016 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices Review

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S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI), one of the world’s leading index providers, and RobecoSAM, the investment specialist focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing (SI), today announced the results of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) review SOURCE: RobecoSAM DESCRIPTION: September 8, 2016 /3BL Media/ – The three largest additions and deletions (by free-float market capitalization) […]

Closing the $2.5 Trillion Gap: How blended finance can help achieve the SDGs

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One of the most quoted numbers in international development today is $3.9 trillion. That’s the annual funding the UN estimates will be needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). That’s a pretty tall order – especially considering that current annual levels of official development assistance funding are only $180 billion, with combined public and […]

How Bringing Animals Into Impact Investing Can Help People, Too (Podcast)

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The preamble to the global Sustainable Development Goals envision a world “in which humanity lives in harmony with nature and in which wildlife and other living species are protected.” In practice, however, economic development – and impact investing – has tended to prioritize humans over animals. In this episode of the Returns on Investment podcast, […]

Redefining Return

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By Kelley Buhles In the foundation world of charitable fund management, there are two avenues for deployment of funds: a) a charitable gift or loan or b) a “prudent” investment, generally considered to be a “market rate” investment. Recent guidance from the IRS indicates that an investment that is aligned with the mission of the […]

Ceres President Mindy Lubber Praises U.S. and China for Formally Joining the Paris Agreement on Climate Change

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“Today’s action sends a powerful signal to the markets that the shift to a low-carbon, clean energy economy is now accelerating. The rest of the world’s countries should take notice. “While it’s critical to have the world’s two largest economies moving together, we’re still a far cry from moving in lock step globally. We must find […]

Investing in Water for Life

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Water is returned to Australia’s Murray River through a Nature Conservancy Water Sharing Investment Partnership, 2016. (Photo by Brian Richter) Posted for media use. By Sunny Lewis  STOCKHOLM, Sweden, September 1, 2016 (Maximpact.com) – Water scarcity is a top risk to global prosperity and ecological integrity. But creative impact investment solutions, such as Water Sharing […]

Council on Foundations: Spotlight on how US foundations invest their endowments

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In July 2016, the Council on Foundations and Commonfund Institute released a new study of responsible investing practices at US private and community foundations. The survey investigated policies, perceptions and practices related to how foundations align investment of their endowments with their charitable purpose. With nearly 200 respondents, it is the largest study of its […]

Curing Silicon Valley’s Myopia: Ross Baird, on How to Change the Narrative Around Investment and Innovation

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As Silicon Valley has grown in influence in both the business world and the broader culture, a growing chorus of critics have leveled a similar critique: Why are some of the world’s most brilliant innovators and deep-pocketed investors focusing so much of their time and resources on solving petty problems, while ignoring countless more pressing concerns? Ross Baird, executive director of Village Capital […]

Trillium, Ceres, and Investors Welcome California’s Senate Bill 32

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Boston, MA// August 26, 2016: This week, California’s state assembly passed an important climate bill extending greenhouse gas emission (GHG) targets, a critical step towards global effort to adopt strong climate policy. Under the new law, Senate Bill 32, legislation requires reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, extending the current […]