Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Program
Our goal is to deliver the very best for our clients.
The truth is, most investment funds assign value to a company solely through financial analysis. For Ethical Funds, that's just the beginning. We believe you deserve a complete picture of the possible risks and potential for profit associated with every aspect of your investments. To ensure we can deliver the very best for our clients, we use a multi-faceted disciplined Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Program.
4 steps to deliver sustainable value
To deliver sustainable value – to help ensure that our investors are making money and making a difference – we follow a four-step process.
Evaluation. Companies involved primarily in tobacco, weapons or nuclear power are not considered for evaluation. Before investing in any other company, we use our proprietary ESG Evaluation methodology to assess its environmental, social and governance performance. If a company fails to meet our minimum ESG standards, we exclude it from consideration. If it meets our minimum standards but is not a sector leader, we may consider it as a candidate for corporate engagement.
Engagement. By engaging companies, we encourage them to improve their environmental, social and governance performance. As active shareholders, we can communicate our concerns (and yours) directly to company management and directors. Ethical Funds believes in developing the kinds of bonds with corporate leaders that transform “communications” into conversations. We talk to the people who have the power to break new ground and encourage them to be corporate leaders, showing others in their industry the way to sustainability.
Research. Ongoing research into emerging trends, issues and risks informs our evaluation process and alerts us to factors that may present significant advantages or disadvantages for the companies we hold or are thinking of holding.
Public Policy and Standards. Public policies and standards affect the rules by which all companies must operate. By engaging with the organizations and people who create policy and make the rules, we participate in promoting change on a broader scale. It's a “bigger picture” point of view that enables us to go beyond individual companies and encourage improved sustainability industry-wide.
