Investors Urge Companies to Continue Coverage of Sexual & Reproductive Health Care Benefits
December 11, 2017 // Boston, MA – Trillium Asset Management, alongside a leading group of institutional investors, is calling on the 50 largest employers of the Fortune 500 to commit to continue providing their employees with access to contraception and other reproductive health care benefits. This letter is in response to the Trump administration’s recently updated regulations that enable companies to seek an exemption from offering their employees’ health insurance that includes contraception. We believe this policy is a mistake that may bring significant harm to American women, families, and the economy. As institutional investors, we see compelling evidence that …
Information for Acuity Shareholders Regarding Our 2017 Shareholder Proposal
December 8, 2017 // Boston, MA – Trillium Asset Management has published an open letter to shareholders of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) urging them to vote in favor of our Sustainability and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting shareholder proposal on the company’s 2018 proxy card. The letter provides the four main reasons why we believe shareholders should vote for this proposal. In summary, this proposal asks Acuity to issue a report describing the company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies, performance, and improvement targets, including a discussion of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions management strategies and quantitative metrics. As shareholders, we believe it …
Join Trillium: The Chemical Footprint Project for Investors Workshop
December 4, 2017// Boston, MA – On Thursday, December 7th, Susan Baker, Vice President of Shareholder Advocacy at Trillium Asset Management, will participate as a speaker at the Chemical Footprint Project (CFP) for Investors Workshop. Speakers will describe how investors can use the CFP to understand chemical risks and opportunities, and engage companies to adopt strategies to accelerate movement away from toxic chemicals and toward safer alternatives. Speakers will also discuss recent findings and results from the Chemical Footprint Project Survey. In August 2017, the CFP released the second annual Chemical Footprint Project Report, providing valuable insight into how leading …
Perspectives: Mitigating Risks in a Fossil Fuel Free Portfolio
Over the past few years there have been a record number of studies analyzing the financial impacts of staying invested or avoiding fossil fuels — and the results demonstrate that investors can seek competitive returns while potentially experiencing advantages such as reducing their risk of holding potentially devalued assets. We also know that for a growing number of investors, fossil fuel companies pose distinctive risks that are not manageable to the extent required to make them attractive investments. It is no wonder that with the ethical, political and potential financial advantages, more people are looking for information on how to …
Nominations Are Now Open for the 2018 Joan Bavaria Award
History Every year, the Joan Bavaria Award for Building Sustainability into Capital Markets recognizes a unique investor, business, or NGO leader who is working to transform the capital markets into a system that balances economic prosperity with social and environmental concerns. The Joan Bavaria Award is presented by Ceres and Trillium Asset Management at the annual Ceres Conference, being held next year from April 24-26 in Boston, MA. Joan Bavaria founded Trillium in 1982 to provide a space for clients to invest their money in alignment with their values. Under Joan’s visionary leadership, Trillium grew to become one of the largest SRI investment firms in the U.S. Joan was proud to …
CFA Society Boston to Host 5th Annual Sustainable Investing Seminar
October 31, 2017 // Boston, MA: On Monday, November 13, CFA Society Boston will host its 5th Sustainable Investing Seminar, Sustainable Investing: Moving into the Mainstream, an annual event that helps mainstream financial professionals navigate sustainable investing challenges. As companies have become more environmentally and socially focused, sustainable investors are moving away from divestment and towards using Sustainable Investing data to look for opportunities as well as moving into thematic and impact investing. New platforms continue to be developed to measure sustainability and provide more transparent and reliable data. However, work continues to standardize company reporting and educate both investors and …
Acuity Brands Expands Workplace Policies to Protect LGBT Employees
October 30, 2017 //Boston, MA – Trillium Asset Management is pleased to announce that we have successfully withdrawn our workplace equality shareholder proposal at Acuity Brands (NYSE: AYI) following the company’s changes to its Code of Ethics and Business Conduct to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. Trillium believes that companies and workers benefit from consistent, corporate-wide, efforts to prevent discrimination, ensuring a respectful and supportive atmosphere for all employees. Research from the Williams Institute has also shown that LGBT-supportive policies lead to positive business outcomes, lower staff turnover, and increased job …
Join Us Next Week at the SRI Conference in San Diego
October 25, 2017// Boston, MA – Trillium Asset Management is proud to sponsor the 28th Annual SRI Conference in San Diego. Connect with members from Trillium including the representatives below who will be speaking at the following sessions: Measuring the Impact of Shareowner Advocacy Thursday, 2:55 pm – Seabreeze Room Moderator: Paul Hilton, Partner and Portfolio Manager As new investment strategies have emerged, firms and organizations involved in shareholder advocacy are articulating new ways to demonstrate and communicate the real-world impact that shareholder engagement makes. Join industry leaders to learn the current trends, emerging metrics, and ways that advisors …
Trillium’s Economic & Market Outlook Now Available: Third Quarter 2017
October 12, 2017// Boston, MA – Equity markets expressed persistent optimism in the third quarter, climbing steadily in the face of geopolitical tension and policy uncertainty. Even amid two of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history, many market participants seemed to focus only on the stimulatory potential of rebuilding activity. While recognizing the economic opportunities posed by recent events, we believe that a close scrutiny of current and historical data trends justifies a more moderate outlook. U.S. GDP growth in the second quarter captured some of the delayed activity that caused weak first quarter growth, jumping from 1.2% to …
Trillium Joins Amicus Brief to End LGBTQ Employment Discrimination
October 11, 2017 // Boston, MA – Today, Trillium joins Lambda Legal and 75 other businesses and organizations urging the U.S. Supreme Court to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The amicus brief addresses the inconsistency with which two federal courts have interpreted ‘sex’ and whether discrimination based on sexual orientation is a form of sex discrimination. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals have each arrived at different interpretations creating inconsistency for employers, employees, and LGBT individuals across six states. This discrepancy can only be resolved only by …
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