Boston Security Analysts Society’s 3rd Annual Sustainable Investing Seminar will be held on Thursday, November 19th NOVEMBER 5, 2015 // BOSTON, MA: On Thursday, November 19th the Boston Security Analysts Society will host its third full-day Sustainable Investing Seminar. “Sustainable Investing” is often used interchangeably with the terms “Mission-based Investing,” “Green Investing,” “Impact Investing,” “SRI Investing,” “ESG Investing,” and “Ethical Investing.” No matter which term you use, interest in Sustainable Investing is growing. In fact, attendance at this seminar increased by 64% from 2013 to 2014. Designed to help mainstream professionals navigate sustainable investing challenges, this event will bring together …

NOVEMBER 2, 2015 // BOSTON, MA: A group of investors has released a new white paper, Investing for Positive Impact on Women: Integrating Gender into Total Portfolio Activation. The paper was prepared by Croatan Institute with the guidance and close collaboration of Global Fund for Women, Root Capital, Thirty Percent Coalition, and Trillium Asset Management. Increasing numbers of investors are integrating the use of gender in investment decision-making. For investors who care about impacting women and girls, an investment portfolio should make gender considerations, along with interrelated issues such as income inequality, supply chain management, and climate change, a core …

WASHINGTON, D.C. // OCTOBER 22, 2015: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment commends today’s announcement by Secretary of Labor Tom Perez in New York that the administration is rescinding a 2008 bulletin that discouraged investors from considering environmental and social factors in the companies and funds in which they invest. Through his leadership, Secretary Perez is supporting fiduciaries that engage in sustainable and responsible investing, a mission that US SIF has advanced throughout its history. The Department of Labor bulletin on Economically Targeted Investments, 29 CFR 2509.08-1, issued in October 2008, arbitrarily disfavored the consideration of environmental and social …

OCTOBER 21, 2015: Earlier this month, Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 185, which requires California’s state pension funds, Calpers and CalSTRS, to divest investments in companies that generate 50% or more of their revenue from mining thermal coal. The new law sets a deadline for divestment of July 1, 2017 and prohibits new investments in coal. In June, Trillium Asset Management testified in support of the bill, stating “Recent independent studies [1,2] have shown that investors can go fossil fuel free without major negative impacts on portfolio performance”. Among public pensions, CalPERS and CalSTRS have an established record of …

OCTOBER 2015: Trillium Asset Management and our clients know that every company, no matter how sustainable, still has environmental and social impacts. Sometimes those impacts are material to the company’s finances and shareholders. They also can be more closely related to the well being of ecosystems, communities, consumers, employees or other stakeholders. In every situation, however, we believe it is each company’s responsibility to embrace the myriad opportunities to address these impacts… You can read about Trillium’s approach to shareholder engagement here. …

OCTOBER 13, 2015: Trillium Asset Management (Trillium) has recently signed the Montréal Carbon Pledge, committing to measure and publicly disclose the carbon footprint of our investment portfolios on an annual basis. In signing the Pledge, Trillium joins investors who share our belief that as “institutional investors, we have a duty to act in the best long-term interests of our beneficiaries. In this fiduciary role, we believe that there are long-term investment risks associated with greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and carbon regulation”. “While Trillium has previously measured the carbon footprint of some of our investment strategies, we are taking this …

OCTOBER 8, 2015: Trillium Asset Management is pleased to announce that it has successfully withdrawn a shareholder proposal at Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW) following the company’s agreement to institutionalize a commitment to board diversity inclusive of gender, race and national origin. At the time of the filing, Palo Alto had no woman on its board of directors and did not disclose that diversity, inclusive of gender or race, was part of its board nominee search process. Trillium’s shareholder proposal asked the company to: “[R]eport to shareholders on plans to increase diverse representation on the Board as well as an …

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015 / / BOSTON, MA: A recent review of publicly disclosed data indicates that the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Trust (PRIT) Fund, which is overseen by Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (PRIM), lost a half billion dollars in its fossil fuels investments for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015. The loss estimate is calculated after careful examination of initial values and subsequent returns for PRIT’s stocks operating in the coal, integrated oil & gas, and fossil fuel exploration & production industries. The findings provide relevant information to decision makers evaluating the fossil fuel divestment proposed in MA …