California State Pensions to Divest Coal Investments
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 …
Trillium’s Approach to Shareholder Engagement
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. …
Download Trillium’s Q3 2015 Market Outlook
We continue to emphasize stocks over bonds, believing that the balance of risk and return for the remainder of 2015 and for 2016 favors high quality stocks. We acknowledge that further temporary drops in the equity markets may be ahead, but in keeping with the theme of this review, we believe that one year from now, investors who take a measured response to the current volatility will prove wiser than those unnerved by recent market gyrations… You can download Trillium’s Q3 Economic and Market Outlook here. …
Trillium Signs Montréal Carbon Pledge
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 …
Trillium’s Fall 2015 Newsletter is Available for Download
October 2015: The Fall 2015 issue of Trillium’s newsletter Investing For a Better World is now available for download. Articles include: Matt Patsky’s Column: Thinking Capital℠ Goddard College: A Story of Sustainability and Divestment White House Clean Energy Investment Summit Jackson W. Robinson Joins Trillium Trillium Launches New SRI Mutual Fund Global Divest Invest Initiative is Successfully Engaging Individual Investors …
Trillium Successfully Withdraws Board Diversity Proposal at PANW
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 …
MA Pension Fund Experiences Notable Loss of Value within Fossil Fuel Holdings
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 …
Investors Disagree with Recent Conflict Mineral Ruling by U.S. Court of Appeals
SEPTEMBER 18, 2015: As investment professionals, we strongly disagree with the recent decision by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on the conflict minerals provision, Section 1502 of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.[1] In granting companies the constitutional right to conceal important information about whether or not the minerals in their products originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or neighboring countries are conflict-free, the Court disregards investors’ interest in this information and opens the door to legal challenges to other types of corporate disclosures that are important to investors. This misguided ruling rests on …
Trillium’s SMID Strategy Update Webinar is Available for On-Demand Replay
On September 15, 2015, Trillium hosted a Small / Mid Cap Strategy update webinar. The presenters on the webinar were Laura McGonagle, CFA, who leads Trillium’s Small / Mid Cap Core strategy, and Paul Hilton, CFA, a partner at Trillium. The webinar was moderated by Trillium’s East Coast Regional Sales Consultant, Emily Lee. The 20 minute webinar includes a 15 minute presentation and 5 minutes of questions and answers. You can download a replay here. ### The views expressed during the webinar are those of the authors and speakers as of the date referenced and are subject to change at …
Trillium Asset Management Announces Hiring of Jackson W. Robinson
SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 // BOSTON, MA: Trillium Asset Management (Trillium) is pleased to announce that Jack Robinson has joined the firm as Vice Chair and Portfolio Manager. Mr. Robinson has over three decades of experience working in the field of sustainable and responsible investing (SRI), most recently at Brown Advisory. “I have known Jack Robinson for over two decades. When we worked together at Winslow Management, I learned that his long-standing commitment to SRI is built on a foundation in fundamental research, quantitative techniques, and a deep understanding of climate solutions,” said Matthew W. Patsky, Trillium’s CEO. “Jack’s experience is …
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