April 27, 2009
In our latest issue of TWST, we spoke with portfolio manager Adam Seitchik of Trillium Asset Management. Trillium is a company that practices socially responsible investing. While the idea of socially responsible investing sounds ideal, we felt it was important to talk to Mr. Seitchik about how exactly it works. It turns out that there are four central components to Trillium’s socially responsible investment strategy:
- Screening- “We do both avoidance screening and also proactive screening to try to seek out companies that are managing well the environmental and social risks and opportunities that they face.”
- Active Engagement with Companies– “This can involve filing shareholder resolutions and proxy voting, but that typically is something that we’re doing when discussions with companies have broken down. A lot of the positive evolution of companies’ social and environmental profile, we think, is really coming from the discussions that we’re having with companies, often in coalition with NGOs and other investors, concerning their social and environmental performance.”
- Community Investing- “Community investments are almost unique to the United States. These are promissory notes or certificates of deposit with community development finance institutions that finance positive social and environmental projects. Unlike the bulk of our client assets, these are investments that are generally below market rate. They fall somewhere between philanthropy and market rate investing. Community investments often pay a return of 2% or 3% a year, and these days that’s a very good return relative to some of the risky investments out there.They support institutions focused both nationally and internationally on
projects ranging from micro-credit to affordable housing.”
- Public Policy Advocacy- “We have for many years been advocates for greater transparency in the financial markets. Our public policy initiatives are often focused on reducing risk, increasing transparency and better managing the social and environmental aspects of
corporate behavior.”
For the complete Investing Strategies report, including the full interview with Mr. Seitchik, as well as portfolio managers from a variety of styles and philosophies, click here.
