Investment Criteria

When it comes to investments, we maintain a proprietary list of publicly traded companies that have been screened for a number of factors. We draw from this list, which includes exclusionary, inclusionary, and ESG factors, when constructing portfolios.

 

Exclusionary Factors:

  • We exclude companies engaging in the exploration and extraction of carbon-based resources for the production of fossil fuels.
  • We exclude firearm manufacturers and retailers from our stock models. This includes manufacturers of small arms, aerospace defense companies, or any of the top 100 firms engaged in military services as defined by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. In addition, we do not own companies involved with biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons, or companies that provide support systems and services.
  • We exclude private prison stocks from our stock models, and we do not invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts with prison exposure. We do not hold any banks that currently provide loans or lines of credit to the two major private prison companies: Core Civic and GEO Group.
  • We do not hold any tobacco companies in our stock models.

 

Inclusionary Factors:

  • We seek out companies that broadly speaking are contributing to one or more of the UN sustainable development goals. We value more highly companies that are engaged in businesses such as:
    • Renewable energy
    • Regenerative or sustainable agriculture
    • Green buildings and energy efficiency
    • Public transportation and modernization of infrastructure
    • Water treatment and water efficiency
    • Affordable and accessible internet and technology

 

Environmental, Social, and Governance Risk Factors:

  • We incorporate risk analytics provided by MSCI, a well-regarded global finance company, to screen out companies that perform poorly across a series of risk metrics. The three pillars of risk that MSCI measures are environmental risk, social risk, and governance risk. Examples of the type of data that MSCI measures are carbon emissions intensity, controversies surrounding labor rights, and boardroom diversity.

 

 

Let's Connect