Emerging Markets Sustainability
By Liz Su, CFA A New Growth Foundation The pandemic’s deep and disparate impacts have taken a toll on global markets, and Emerging Markets (EM) equities have not been spared. Amid the post-pandemic tumult, however, there are green growth indicators providing hope for a post-pandemic recovery. The increasing focus on sustainability in EM economies [...]
ESG’s Underperformance in 2022 Reflects Style Shift
Michelle Buckley, CFA, CAIA Portfolio Manager, Director of Multi-Asset Strategies As 2022 came to a close, rankings of the year’s best- and worst-performing ESG funds tended to highlight Value’s dominance over Growth and exposure to Technology as key factors influencing U.S. Equity ESG funds’ relative underperformance. Indeed, investors tend to perceive Technology — [...]
Have US Profit Margins Peaked?
Portfolio Manager, Michelle Buckley, analyzes how the Covid-19 pandemic and the concurrent Great Resignation may have reinstated the traditional relationship between compensation and productivity, its implications for US portfolios and influence on capital allocation for all Americans.
Impact Report: Global Impact Equity Strategy 2021/2022
Global Impact Equity Strategy 2021/2022 This 2nd annual Impact Report for our Global Impact strategy comes to you at a time of volatile global financial market conditions, noticeable impacts of climate change, and an energy crisis that has intensified the rush towards energy transition. Amid the resulting instability and uncertainty, we continue to see opportunity [...]
Investor Guidance for Prioritizing Gender
Prioritizing Gender Investor Brief | June 2022 Lauren Compere, Head of Stewardship & Engagement Companies are mistakenly viewing gender solely in the context of DEI efforts. Investor approaches tend to focus only on board or leadership diversity. Even across initiatives focused on human rights or on the S in ESG, gender is addressed implicitly at [...]
Bold, Innovative, & Just Investor Action
Boston Common’s Climate Action Plan By Lauren Compere, Managing Director, Head of Stewardship & Engagement The Amazon is now emitting more carbon dioxide than it can absorb. According to the 2021 IPCC report, immediate, rapid, and large-scale action is necessary to ensure emissions peak by 2025 and warming is limited to 1.5°C. Ending deforestation and [...]
Two Decades of Climate Leadership
Boston Common’s History of Decarbonizing Portfolios Boston Common Asset Management has long been a leading investor voice on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. Well before climate change became a common concern, we began avoiding investments in the worst contributors to climate change and choosing instead to invest in companies focused on renewable energy, [...]
Women Investing in Women with Gender Lens Investing
Boston Common Asset Management goes beyond gender lens investing to drive gender equity with our investor guidance for prioritizing gender that calls upon investors and uses a full value chain approach to drive global gender equity. Geeta Aiyer, CFA Making Gender Visible Exclusion and harm on the basis of gender are so pervasive as [...]
ESG in Emerging Markets: Unlocking Sustainable Growth
October 2021 We are excited to share our latest insights on why many Emerging Markets (EM) companies are among the leading sustainability adopters on the global ESG stage: “ESG in Emerging Markets: Unlocking Sustainable Growth.” This new report follows the recent launch of a new mutual fund vehicle for our EM strategy — a strategy with an almost [...]
From Awareness to Action: Turning pledges into practice
Geeta Aiyer, President and Founder On Juneteenth last year, just weeks after George Floyd's murder, we promised to rededicate ourselves as investors and movement builders to the tasks of advancing antiracism and building a shared future with fairness, inclusion, and collective wellbeing. This past year has heaped new tragedy and economic hardship on communities of [...]