Top Tier Impact: Interview With Sonia Kowal

Sonia Kowal, president of Zevin Asset Management, joined the Top Tier Impact Group to discuss impact investing. In the interview, Sonia discusses the firm’s approach to pushing for social change, how to distinguish real impact from impact washing, and more.

Bloomberg: The Two Wall Street Liberals Behind ESG's $35 Trillion Explosion

Robert Zevin is prominently featured in a new original series on socially responsible investing, created by Bloomberg Quicktake. Initially received with skepticism and hostility, Zevin’s approach has since earned increasing respect — and over $35 trillion in investment. Now, sustainable investment is being co-opted, and investors must decipher between real sustainable investments and greenwashing.

You can learn more by watching the first episode in the series here.

Net Zero Cannot Be a Net Disappointment: The Social Cost of Carbon Offsets

When oil companies announce net-zero greenhouse gas emissions goals but provide no details on how they plan to reduce that in the short term or whether their largest source of emissions — in this case, emissions from the use of products of oil and gas — is included, it’s clear that the term “net zero” can be co-opted. While the growth in corporate net-zero targets is an important signal of increased ambition to fight climate change and is required to move us towards warming below 1.5 degrees C, there is little ability to keep companies accountable to these goals.

Q3 2021 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.