Blog

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]

Greta Thunberg proves that small can be mighty.  In August 2018, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist refused to go to school on Fridays, demanding that her government act immediately on human-caused climate change.  Her weekly Friday protests continued throughout the year, gaining media attention and eventually leading to thousands of young people joining her strike, now called ‘Fridays for Future’.¹

September is a busy time as summer vacations come to an end, kids go back to school, and new routines are established.  At CCM, these past two weeks have been a particularly exciting time for us, celebrating our 20-year anniversary, releasing a new research report on CDFIs, and distributing our first annual impact/ESG investing survey.

August 18^th marked the 99^th year since the 19^th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote nationally.  In honor of this hard-fought victory, Women’s Equality Day is celebrated every year on August 26^th.  The day not only honors those who fought for equality in the early 1900’s but also celebrates the continued progress of all women’s movements since that time.¹

Goldman Sachs recently launched a sustainable finance-focused unit that will serve as a centralized resource to guide other divisions of the company regarding knowledge, skills, and input related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. This unit won’t replace any of Goldman’s current ESG functions or initiatives, but instead will support all groups as they build out their ESG offerings.¹

Impact investing has grown exponentially in recent years, and it does not seem to be slowing down any time soon.  According to Morningstar, ESG funds in the U.S. have attracted $8.4 billion in just the first half of 2019 – already shattering the previous annual record of $5.4 billion in 2018¹.  With this shift in investor behavior, more investment managers are looking to implement impact/ESG strategies to join the movement.  But are they all qualified to be doing so?

One hundred years ago, Icelandic glacier, Okjökull, was 50 meters thick and covered almost 6 square miles¹.  In 2014, it became the first glacier that Iceland has lost to climate change – but environmentalists are making sure that it will not be forgotten.  Members of the Icelandic Hiking Society and researchers from Rice University are installing a monument to memorialize the glacier which will officially be unveiled next month².  The monument will include the plaque below which is “a letter to the future” in an effort to bring awareness to the time sensitive issue of climate change.

Today, many of the world’s largest private and public organizations support a mission to work on solving the world’s most prominent problems. This includes helping to fight poverty, advocating for human rights, and protecting the Earth’s climate.  However, the question arises, are these large organizations are doing enough? Are we neglecting an obvious tool for impact? In a world in which economic and financial systems directly shape environmental and social conditions, are our investments helping to advance our mission or are they undercutting it?¹