Marcela I. Pinilla
Director of Sustainable Investing
Download a PDF of this Impact Update
At Zevin Asset Management, we build responsible investment portfolios for our clients. We then address risks and create positive social impact by engaging with portfolio companies. In the third quarter of 2021, we persisted in challenging companies, and Congress, for accountability and positive change focusing on worker rights, strengthening our democracy, and shining a light on corporate involvement in public policy across a range of issues.
Progress Update: Ongoing Fight for Worker Rights
The pandemic continues to unfold in unpredictable and inequitable ways. Workers with no or limited paid sick or family leave are forced to make the impossible choice between their own health and deciding to care for a family member and earning a paycheck. Among wealthy countries, only the U.S. and South Korea have no paid sick leave. In the U.S. this results in a patchwork of state-based paid leave programs that results in approximately 80 percent of private-sector workers remaining uncovered.
A disproportionate number of these workers are women, people of color, essential workers in blue-collar jobs, and workers in low-wage jobs. We have joined in a letter to Congress asking for a comprehensive and permanent federal paid family and medical leave program. We support a federal paid leave program because it will support businesses and the economy by standardizing policy, reducing costs, and building resilience to weather future economic or public health crises. Additionally, Zevin Asset Management has co-founded a group of investors and advocacy organizations to understand the unique social impacts and needs at the intersection of race and gender and define a set of expectations from companies centered on this especially affected subset of workers.
We are also deeply concerned about the deterioration of voting rights in this country, and the political instability and erosion of democracy that will result. We are once again shining a light on the Chamber of Commerce, the largest corporate industry association, and its efforts to undermine voting rights. We signed a letter led by ICCR (Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility) in support of the For the People Act that seeks to expand voting opportunities, ban discriminatory gerrymandering, and promote transparency regarding campaign finance. We strongly favor exposing the flows of dark money in our political system with the goal of limiting the influence big money has on our government. We signed a similar letter with Common Cause directed at corporate members of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), which is a smaller but powerful industry association that works at a state level to undermine fair and accessible voting rights.
We are watching a potentially dangerous precedent set by the state of Alabama. The state is proposing use of federal COVID-19 relief and infrastructure funds to construct prisons. If permitted to proceed, we believe a disturbing standard for the use of these funds will be set, enabling (and encouraging) other states to follow suit. Moreover, it will result in vital relief and infrastructure projects in Alabama and across the nation remaining unaddressed. Zevin Asset Management joined Justice Capital in a letter to the Biden administration asking to explicitly prohibit any state, including Alabama, from using CARES Act, American Rescue Plan (ARP), infrastructure funds, or any other federal dollars for prison construction projects. In our letter we propose aid should be allocated to explicitly center and uplift widespread economic prosperity, with a specific focus on historically excluded Black, Brown and Indigenous communities.
Parallel Initiatives on Human Rights
The past year has put a spotlight on the unchecked power of technology companies contributing to the proliferation of misinformation and viral hate speech, increased levels of illegal surveillance (including that which enables immigration policing), attacks on democracy, the censorship of dissident voices, and discrimination against marginalized communities, including racial and gender discrimination due to artificial intelligence and algorithmic bias. Technology companies must be held accountable for their policies and practices that affect people’s right to freedom of expression and privacy—what is now known as digital rights. In response, 76 investors, including Zevin Asset Management, representing over $5.85 trillion in assets have signed onto the Investor Statement on Corporate Accountability for Digital Rights to leading technology companies, outlining investor expectations in line with the 2020 Ranking Digital Rights Corporate Accountability Index metrics.
In Other News
We are proud that Real Impact Tracker (RIT) has recognized Zevin Asset Management as a leader in collaborative social impact engagement and advocacy.
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.
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, and BlackRock.
We authored a piece in Impact Entrepreneur picking apart the mega-growth of ESG investments and what it means for impact. Integration of ESG factors into investments has entered the mainstream, and that brings a whole set of challenges regarding setting parameters on what is authentic and what is not, and what has an impact and what does not. One thing we do know is that while we figure it out, shareholder advocacy is a critical driver of changing corporate behavior for the better. Check out our piece, Amplifying Impact Through Advocacy.
Marcela Pinilla also participated on a panel among some well-known figures in the sustainable investing space, including the Treasurer of the state of Illinois. Check out a summary and recording (with registration) via Impact Alpha: The Call No. 30: Universal owners aim to turn shareholder power into real-world impact.
Thanks for reading and sharing. For more on this work and our broader advocacy, join us on our website, Twitter, and LinkedIn. And please don’t hesitate to contact us (invest@zevin.com) with your questions, thoughts, and suggestions.
The listing of organizations should not be construed as an endorsement or a recommendation to retain Zevin Asset Management by these entities. 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. 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. Other than the retainer of Real Impact Tracker, ZAM neither provided any additional 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.