Socially Responsible Investing

Socially Responsible Investing

Do you worry about the social impact of your investments?

Whether your focus is on environmental causes, human rights issues, fair trade practices or corporate governance, we can work with you to include these factors into the investment process.

In addition to individual portfolios, we also offer 401K plans for businesses that include socially-responsible investment options.

STRATEGIES

We use two strategies to incorporate socially responsibility into the investment process:

  1. Screening: Screening is the practice of either including or excluding certain types of investments from your portfolio based on social or environmental criteria.  There are two types of screens: positive and negative.  Positive screening seeks to identify profitable companies with strong environmental, human rights and/or fair labor track records — companies that are viewed as making positive contributions to society (an example would be a company engaged in solar power).  Negative screening seeks to avoid companies whose products and business practices are viewed as detrimental to individuals, communities or the environment (an example would be a weapons manufacturer).
  2. Shareholder Advocacy: With shareholder advocacy, investors take a proactive role to shape the corporate governance policies of the companies in which they are invested.  Shareholder advocates may seek companies with poor social, environmental or corporate governance track records and actively engage the company’s management to improve its practices.  This is often accomplished through proxy voting or filing shareholder resolutions addressing topics such as: environmental protection, climate change, gender/racial discrimination and human rights issues.  We believe that shareholder advocacy is most effective when employed through a socially responsible mutual fund which has a proven track record of addressing the causes that are most important to you.

IMPLEMENTATION

We start by having an in-depth discussion with you to determine which companies or industries you would like to include or exclude from your portfolio.

Next, we run a comprehensive diagnostic of your current holdings to determine where you are invested. This is often an eye-opening experience for many mutual fund investors who might not have previously realized where their funds are invested.

Finally, we will present an investment proposal that will not only address your investment needs, but also align your portfolio with your values.

Considerations

If you invest in mutual funds (either directly or through a 401K), you may unknowingly own stock in tobacco, weapons, oil drilling or polluting companies. We can run a complimentary portfolio diagnostic so you know where you’re invested and develop a customized strategy to address your individual investment needs.

Wind Farm

Whether your focus is on environmental causes, fair trade practices or corporate governance, we can work with you to include these factors into the investment process.

To learn more or request a complimentary review, please complete our contact form and one of our advisors will contact you shortly.

Our SRI portfolio review incorporates negative and positive screens, and where appropriate shareholder advocacy. We seek to understand our client’s values and incorporate them into the investment decision making process. This can take many forms, some clients are particularly concerned about ethical corporate behaviour or corporate governance, whereas others are more concerned about sustainability. We have thought about these issues for a number of years and have the experience and expertise necessary to develop a strategy for most prospective clients.

Many of our clients are particularly concerned about environmental causes, including the long-term effects of climate change, global warming and the greenhouse effect. We have helped clients identify investment opportunities in the alternative energy or clean energy (solar, wind, geo-thermal), renewable materials, transportation (hybrid, electric cars), green construction industries. We also look for businesses engaged in improving efficiency and minimizing resource utilization in all industries. We are cognizant of immense resources used by the agriculture and food industries and the projected increase due to demographic and development trends in emerging economies. To this end, we have helped clients identify investment opportunities in sustainable agriculture and organic foods.

For clients concerned about fair labor and fair trade, we can provide feedback on their investments or help them identify industry-leaders with sustainable business models and good labor relations. For many clients, the investment solution will incorporate green mutual funds or etfs. For portfolios of sufficient size, indivldual investments in securities (bonds or stocks) may be appropriate. In all cases, our socially responsible investment services are implemented in concert with the client’s overall financial goals.