Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG); Socially Responsible Investing (SRI); and Impact Investing: these terms have slightly different meaning, but in the end all lead to the same conclusion. When we invest, we are owners of companies. We have an obligation to take that ownership responsibility seriously in order to influence the environmental and social impact of companies.
For today’s episode of Social Entrepreneur, we continue our May #MoneyMonday series with Matthew Patsky of Trillium Asset Management. Trillium has been recognized as a “Best for the World” BCorp. We dig in to the governance aspect of ESG. Trillium not only screens investments into or out of their portfolio based on ESG, they use their shareholder status to improve the environmental, social and governance policies of companies they hold in their portfolio.
Trillium Asset Management works with individual investors, financial advisors and institutional investors. For individuals, they combine investment performance with environmental and social impact. For financial advisors, Trillium enables them to meet the needs of their clients looking for sustainable investments. And Trillium partners with institutional investors to align their investment portfolio with their organizational values.
Quotes from Matthew Patsky on Environmental, Social and Governance Investing
“There are impacts with money and the way money is invested.”
“On behalf of the clients, we are acting as owners and trying to influence behavior toward more sustainable business practices.”
“We actually do see a positive long-term financial benefit to doing the right thing on governance.”
“There seems to be an awful lot from the Ben & Jerry’s culture that is now running throughout all of Uniliver.”
“The worst thing you can do is to sit back and say “I am but one individual. What I do doesn’t matter.’”
Social Entrepreneurship Resources:
- Trillium Asset Management: http://www.trilliuminvest.com
- White Papers: http://www.trilliuminvest.com/news-resources/investing-white-papers
- Culture Shift Learning Academy waiting list: http://tonyloyd.com/assessment
Culture Shift Learning Academy
We’re moving closer to the launch of Culture Shift Learning Academy, a comprehensive system to help you flesh out your social impact idea and start achieving it.
Enrollment isn’t open yet, but you can join the waiting list with other changemakers. Just go to http://tonyloyd.com/assessment and enter your email address. As a thank you, I’ll send you the Social Entrepreneur Startup Readiness Assessment. This useful tool is designed to help you to determine where you are on your startup journey and to successfully focus your development efforts.
