{ SUSTAINABLE INVESTING }
You have a choice. What will your impact be?
Today, investors are becoming increasingly interested in aligning their investments with their values. This shift not only brings values-based change to our world and economy, but it can potentially help you mitigate investment risks while still achieving competitive returns.
As an investor, you can have an impact with both your philanthropy and your investment dollars. This type of investing goes by many names: Sustainable Investing, Socially Responsible Investing, ESG Investing, and even Impact Investing. But what do those terms mean?
Sustainable Investing, frequently referred to as ESG investing, uses criteria to help us understand how a company impacts the environment, treats their customers and employees, and how they run their business.
Estands for Environmental Sstands for Social Gstands for GovernanceIt is a way to make an investment choice that considers both social good and financial impacts with the goal of achieving long-term positive outcomes.
COMMON ESG FOCUS AREAS
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
- Climate Change and carbon emissions
- Air and water pollution
- Energy efficiency
- Waste management
- Water scarcity
SOCIAL ISSUES
- Customer satisfaction
- Data protection and privacy
- Gender and diversity
- Community relations
- Human rights
GOVERNANCE ISSUES
- Board composition
- Audit Committee structure
- Executive compensation
- Lobbying
- Whistleblower protections
Why should I choose ESG investing?
- Identifying these types of companies that strive to be ahead of the curve could potentially help you mitigate risk.
- They may align with your values.
- They could help you feel like you are having a positive impact.
- They can potentially help you to prioritize long-term risk adjusted performance.
Myths and Misconceptions
“ESG investing is a niche.” It is far from a niche. In fact, ESG investment assets worldwide have more than doubled from 2012 to 2018, totaling over $30 Trillion.*
“Sustainable investing means sacrificing performance.” In reality, ESG strategies have either equaled or out-performed their conventional counterparts in recent years.
“Only women and millennials care about sustainable investing.” While those two demographics do care about ESG investing, they have gained in popularity with high-net worth individuals as well as non-profit boards and endowments. More investors have begun to recognize that more than a quarter of global assets have some basis in sustainable investment strategies.
What do you want your impact to be?
Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of the strategy selected. Utilizing an ESG investment strategy may result in investment returns that may be lower or higher than if decisions were based solely on investment considerations.