As clients increasingly look for ways to have impact with their investments, the market has exploded with investment strategies and products purporting to solve all sorts of sustainability issues. The trouble is that most buyers are not able to discern among them given the inevitable rise in greenwashing: the practice of labeling investments or practices as sustainable based on dubious or questionable criteria.
It is clear from the quickly expanding investing landscape that ESG strategies are not created equally and are often sustainable in name only. Real Impact Tracker distinguishes the authentic from the not so authentic, through its independent ranking and certification process that uses a peer-reviewed, data-driven methodology to analyze the impact strategies of public equity funds. We are proud that Real Impact Tracker (RIT) has recognized Zevin Asset Management as a leader among its peer investment managers in collaborative social impact engagement and advocacy.
“Zevin Asset Management is a leader in the shareholder engagement space, prioritizing deep and meaningful engagements and focusing on making impactful change. Zevin Asset Management leads its peer investment managers in collaborative social impact engagement and advocacy, often covering new issues with innovative strategies.”
Despite being significantly smaller and having fewer resources than its larger peers, Zevin Asset Management scored much higher across Real Impact Tracker’s three categories of impact — ESG integration strategy, shareholder engagement, and public awareness-raising/advocacy— than such entities as Fidelity, Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street.
Our RIT assessment results stand out in other areas, including the number of proposals filed, our persistence, and the substance and novelty of our shareholder advocacy. Shareholder advocacy is the process by which we engage with companies in client investment portfolios about environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues. It includes proactive proxy voting, dialogue with corporate executives, shareholder resolutions that are voted on at company annual meetings by all shareholders, investor letters, and public policy advocacy. (For more on our approach, read our Shareholder Advocacy Guide: Strengthening Investments through Positive Change.)
Advocacy initiatives can tackle a range of issues and take different forms. Some of our recent efforts include convincing major tech companies to link executive pay to ESG factors, encouraging institutions and endowments to divest from fossil fuels, and pushing for independent oversight of Amazon. In many cases, we did not achieve our goals alone; we also scored well in working collaboratively with other investors, NGOs, and community groups to create change.
Being an active, engaged, and responsible investor manifests as constant pressure to persuade companies to change. We hope it is evident through the data below that our investment approach distinguishes us from those who merely attempt to check the boxes.
Chart 1. In our active investment approach and process to successful impact investing, we use in-house and third-party ESG research. Our investment committee has deep experience in ESG and all of our assets integrate ESG factors. We collaborate with investors, advocates, communities, and NGOs to seek corporate change toward positive outcomes in society.
Chart 2. Over the years, we have become specialized in bringing important issues to the mainstream by introducing shareholder resolutions on novel issues. We prioritize impactful change through advocacy, investor collaboration, and targeted investor proposals. Through our advocacy in 2020, we contributed to 16 company commitments in ESG-related topics. Additionally, we filed 11 shareholder resolutions (leading 9 of them), which resulted in 4 withdraws, indicating a company’s commitment to a change in their practices.
Chart 3. Using our investor voice, we organize and support social and environmental movements and hold leadership positions in several public sphere and advocacy organizations. We share our expertise via earned media, public writing, conference speaking, and interactive workshops, to name a few.
Table 1. Zevin Asset Management stands out in several areas including our in-house ESG investing approach, our stakeholder-focused engagement approach, our voice and participation in support of civil society movements, our influence in the field, and the number and substance of resolutions filed and withdrawn with success.
Disclosures: Inclusion in the Real Impact Tracker Certified Community is, at least in part, based on responses provided by Zevin Asset Management. Zevin Asset Management retained Real Impact Tracker to perform an assessment, which is a requirement for being included in the Certified Community. The assessment took account of the Zevin Asset Management’s abilities in shareholder engagement, its public advocacy, and its integration and promotion of environmental and social considerations in the investment process. (Criteria: http://realimpacttracker.com/certified-community) Industry recognitions or award should not be construed as an endorsement or a recommendation to retain Zevin Asset Management by the ranking entity or any regulatory authority. Any rankings or awards cited were provided by independent third-parties based on their predetermined evaluation criteria. ZAM neither provided any financial remuneration to these third-parties nor exercised any influence or control over the criteria used or the results generated, other than providing or making available, directly or indirectly, objective numerical data that could have been used by third-party as input variables.