Impact Report 2020
Zevin Asset Management proudly publishes our second comprehensive review of the positive impact we create on behalf of our clients. Our Impact Report, presented below, covers the period since fall 2018.
Listen to Pat Miguel Tomaino, Director of Socially Responsible Investing, discuss our 2020 Impact Report.
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Impact Report 2020 Teleconference
More than ever, it is critical for investors to use their voices and wealth privilege to support workers, marginalized groups, and the environment. Worldwide protests against racism and police brutality and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis are reminders that individual businesses and the economy at large are only as healthy as the societies in which they exist. In the United States, the exposure of structural inequities has magnified our country’s deepest vulnerabilities. What will we do with this information? Will we apply the same sense of urgency to contain the climate crisis? Will our institutions and capital markets finally be held accountable for structural racism? What about our broken criminal justice system, poor healthcare access and outcomes, and economic insecurity?
What role can we play as investors to make change to improve the functioning of the country? The COVID-19 crisis shows that focusing on workers has been the right way of doing business all along. Investing in people—especially now—is one of the best uses of capital for companies seeking to emerge from this crisis in a stronger position. As investors, we can do even more to use our leverage and position of privilege to improve how the companies in which we invest conduct business. Our work of building responsible portfolios for our clients, and then engaging with portfolio companies to move them toward sustainability and long-term risk management, has taken on renewed importance in these turbulent times.
Our socially responsible investing approach creates positive impact in the world. When we help convince companies to develop greenhouse gas targets, that helps address climate change. And when we press large employers to reveal pay gaps between workers of different races and genders, each success potentially impacts the lives of thousands of workers.
We’re pleased to review our work as responsible investors in this report. Read to learn more about how we press companies for change, our approach to voting at shareholder meetings, our portfolio footprint, and the sound business practice that have made us an industry leader and a Certified B Corporation.