ESG Investments

Our team aligns a client’s personal financial plan with their personal values.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing is a global movement promoted by organizations as large as the United Nations and as small as your neighborhood investment managers, like us. ESG investments used to be called socially responsible investing (SRI), but this has evolved with technology and society. For us, ESG investing means doing well and doing good; we don’t believe we have to give up investment performance in order to invest in alignment with our values.

ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing refers to a class of investing that is also known as “sustainable investing.” This is an umbrella term for investments that seek positive returns and long-term impact on society, environment and the performance of the business.

On the one hand, we have seen our investment companies make large changes at small companies who are responsive to their shareholders. On the other hand, a small change at a huge company may make a very large difference—say by increasing diversity in hiring, or in reducing environmental waste.

New research is coming out that shows that investors who consider ESG criteria may avoid companies with larger risks than their competition. As time passes, larger and larger investors are demanding accountability from companies for more than just financial performance.

In 1989, the Exxon Valdez sunk and caused massive pollution—but the stock price was not dramatically hurt—perhaps because ESG criteria were less important than today. More recently, the BP oil spill coincided with a precipitous decline in that stock’s price. ESG criteria are financial criteria—the “soft side” of business has a direct effect on the bottom line.

We have been investing using “ESG” since 2009 on a client-by-client basis. Investing using ESG is:

It is particularly difficult to make investment decisions with small companies and international companies who do not report ESG factors.