Blog

It’s that time of the year again! November at CCM means another month of awareness as we join the Movember movement into tackling men’s health for the third consecutive year. Created in 2013, the organization focuses primarily on raising awareness for prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention among men. With a goal to reduce by 25% the number of premature deaths in men by 2030, Movember has already funded more than 1250 health projects around the world since its inception¹.

Smith's Research & Gradings has been providing recognition for the achievements and fine work of municipal professionals since 1992. Smith's Municipal All-Star Program is the only program that consistently and prominently provides recognition in the municipal space ¹. In this year’s awards, more than 400 analysts and over 100 firms participated on the nomination. Smith’s Municipal All-Star Program includes sell-side and buy-side firms, rating agencies, as well as independent research analysts. Only institutional investors can vote, and this year’s final ballot was sent out to 1,000 voters.

Plastic isn’t only bad for the environment, it’s bad for the wallet too.  Take the notorious plastic bag: with over 2.8 billion bags used in one day, these small plastic terrors add millions of pounds of pollution to the ocean every year.  As for the economic part, up to $120 billion is spent annually on waste practices for these single-use bags alone.  And with over 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic being produced since 1950, these bags are only one major problem affecting our environment.¹

Earlier this week Apple Inc. announced a $2.5 billion pledge toward affordable housing in the Bay Area. The housing crisis has long prevailed in Silicon Valley and Apple’s initiative follows in the footsteps of other tech companies looking to make housing more accessible in Northern California. In January, Microsoft Corp. announced an investment of $500 million in affordable housing in Seattle’s metropolitan area, and in June, Google revealed an investment of $1 billion for 20,000 homes in the Bay Area. In October, Facebook also joined in the fight, committing $1 billion to help address the affordable housing crisis in California¹.

The research team at Russell Investments recently reported the results of its 2019 Annual ESG Manager Survey.  This survey was started in 2015 – well before the industry was close to being considered mainstream – as a way to understand ESG integration into investment practice.  With over 300 asset managers participating in the 2019 survey, the research teams’ findings make it clear that ESG factors are not only becoming a commonplace but a major consideration for managers in order to gain more assets and investment opportunities.¹

October is very important as it marks the official National Breast Cancer Awareness (NBCA) Month. According to the World Health Organization, Breast Cancer is the most common cancer among women in the world, affecting one in every eight women in the U.S¹.

As an organization, CCM is committed to making positive societal impacts not only through its investments, but also by helping local community groups through charitable donations. Each year, we donate to a variety of charities chosen by our employees. 

Last week, two CCM team members were at RCRI’s (Resource Center for Religious Institutes) national conference in Dallas.[1]  RCRI is an organization created to serve the needs of Catholic communities of religious women and men.  While at the conference and sitting in on several of the educational panel sessions, CIIC was mentioned, and we thought it would be a great organization to spotlight in this weeks’ blog.

Cornerstone Capital Group recently released a research report that takes a fresh look at investment performance of sustainable and impact strategies by asset class. Their research includes a sampling from 2,200 reports published over the past few decades with results confirming that  “social screens do not compromise investment performance”.  Their review also highlights that the effect of sustainable and impact strategies on a portfolio will depend upon the asset class, investment style, and especially the skill and expertise of the manager.¹

The impact/ESG investing industry continues to grow as more investors align their financial goals with their values.  Fidelity Charitable’s 2018 survey on impact investing found that 85% of investors show equal or more interest in investments that have a social and environmental impact than conventional investments.  It also found that younger generations seem to be more drawn to the idea of creating positive ESG impact through investments with more than 70% of Millennials and Gen-Xers already adopting positive impact within their investments. ^[1]