Upcoming Events
BASIC and Oxfam America cordially invite you to an afternoon gathering to discuss: Oxfam's Corporate Engagement and Poverty Footprint Methodology
Over the past several years, Oxfam has been developing a poverty footprint methodology to analyze a company's impact on poverty through its operations, practices, and policies. Oxfam has completed extensive poverty footprint analyses with Unilever and The Coca-Cola Company. Based on the learning from these two projects, Oxfam is refining its methodology and the indicators being used to measure poverty impacts from corporate activity.
Event Summary: Oxfam America will present its poverty footprint program, latest developments with the program, and how it is distinctive in the field of social assessments. Participants will then break into small groups to discuss: why social reporting has lagged so far behind environmental reporting, challenges in generating social metrics, what can be done to move social metrics forward, and how Oxfam America might engage the investment community in further developing poverty-related metrics and advocating for their integration into widely used assessment tools. The groups will then feed their thinking back into the room for a broad discussion about how to advance social, and in particular poverty, metrics in corporate assessments. Oxfam America is eager to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Date and time: Thursday, February 16
Time: 4:00 - 6:30pm
Location: Oxfam America
226 Causeway Street, 5th Floor
Boston
Light refreshments will be served
Please RSVP by Thursday, February 9th to alex.lamb@trucost.com this event is limited to 50 people, as that is the capacity of Oxfam America's space. People will be enrolled in the event on a first-come, first served basis. On the basis of interest, we will make this available over teleconference or webinar.
Past Events
October 2011
Green Your Green: An introduction to investing responsibly
Audio from the event is available!
Opening remarks
Panelists' thoughts on relationship between the Occupy movement and SRI
The Future of SRI
Audience Q&A
Still trying to explain sustainable and responsible investing to your family and friends? Invite them to come along and listen to the pioneering leaders of sustainable and responsible investing! This is a rare opportunity to hear Amy Domini who created one of the first sustainable mutual fund companies, Tim Smith, a leading voice in shareholder activism, and Robert Zevin who helped bring an end to South African apartheid through divestment, speak about the socially responsible investment movement and how people can be responsible in their own investments.
Do you:
- Buy oganic? Recycle? Give to good causes?
- Have a 401k? Hold mutual funds? have a bank account?
- Want to make the world a better place?
- how to invest in line with your values without giving up performance
- how to leverage the power of your investments for good
- how small changes can have large impacts on big companies
- how to make MORE money by being aware of environmental and social risks
Date and time: Wednesday, October 19th, 2011 at 6:00pm
Location: Boston Public Library - Copley Branch - The Boston Room
Boston, MA
Amy Domini – Founder of the Sustainability Group, Founder of Domini Social Investments
Amy Domini is a founder of the Sustainability Group at Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge Trust. There she works with those who seek to integrate people and the planet into the investment decisions they make. She is also the founder of Domini Social Investments, a no-load mutual fund family for socially responsible investors. She was one of the original partners in KLD Research & Analytics and a co-creator of the Domini 400 Social Index. In 2005, Time magazine named her to the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people. Ms. Domini has authored or co-authored several books. Her most recent, Socially Responsible Investing: Making a Difference and Making Money, was published by Dearborn Trade in early 2001. Other books are Ethical Investing (Addison-Wesley, 1984); Challenges of Wealth (Dow Jones Irwin, 1988); The Social Investment Almanac (Henry Holt & Co., 1992), and Investing for Good (Harper Collins, 1993). She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and received her B.A in International Economics from Boston University. In 2006, Ms. Domini was awarded an honorary Doctor of Business Administration from Northeastern University and in 2007, she received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. Ms. Domini is a past trustee of the Church Pension Board at the Episcopal Church (U.S.A.). Among others, she is also a past Board member of the Governing board of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, the National Community Capital Association, and the Social Investment Forum.
Timothy Smith - Senior Vice President and Director of ESG Shareowner Engagement
Tim is a Senior Vice President and the Director of ESG Shareowner Engagement at Walden. Tim leads Walden's ongoing shareholder engagement program to promote greater corporate leadership on ESG issues. This includes company dialogues, shareholder proposals, proxy voting, and public policy advocacy. He also contributes to research of existing and potential securities relative to ESG factors. As a leading authority on corporate responsibility and ESG investing, Tim is actively involved in representing Walden at public speaking events and in fostering long-term client relationships. He is a member of the Corporate Governance Committee and is Chair of the Research & Engagement Committee. Prior to joining Walden in 2000, Tim served as Executive Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) for 24 years. ICCR coordinates corporate responsibility programs for 275 institutional investors committed to using shareholder advocacy to influence corporate conduct and promote social justice. Tim previously served as Chair of the Social Investment Forum, an industry trade group, for five years, and presently serves as Chair of their Public Policy Committee. In 2007, Tim was named as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics by Ethisphere Institute. In 2008, he was elected as a board member of the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church, one of the largest pension funds in the U.S. In 2010, Tim received the Bavaria Award for Impact at the third annual Joan Bavaria Awards for Building Sustainability into the Capital Markets and was honored by Shared Interest, a South Africa development fund, at its 2010 Awards Dinner. Also in 2010 Tim was named as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Finance by Treasury and Risk Magazine. Tim also serves on the boards of Shared Interest, a South Africa development fund, World Neighbors, an international development organization, and is a member of the Kimberly-Clark Sustainability Advisory Board. Previously, Tim served on the Domini Social Equity Fund Board for ten years. He also served on the Calvert New Africa Fund Board and chaired the Advisory Council for the Calvert Group's social investment funds. Tim earned a B.A. from the University of Toronto and a Masters of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary.
Robert Zevin - Chairman, Chief Investment Officer, & Portfolio Manager
Robert has been a leader in socially responsible investing since 1967. At the same time he also pioneered the use of modern portfolio theory seeking to protect his clients against the losses that are so often the result of conventional investment approaches. Robert has mentored and trained many people in the social investing movement as employees and as friends. He started what is now Walden Asset Management in 1975, making it the first explicit socially responsible unit in any bank. He was also a principal architect of the first Calvert Social Investment Fund in 1982. Robert was a leader in the movement to divest from apartheid South Africa. His 1987 expert testimony in defense of the Baltimore pension funds' right to divest led to a precedent-setting decision. He gave testimony, performed studies and engaged in debates in numerous cities, states and universities. His activism and commitment to civil disobedience has led to arrests and beatings as well as boardrooms. He has founded, co-founded and led numerous social change organizations such as Resist (against the war in Vietnam), United States Servicemen's Fund (anti-war GI coffee houses), Haymarket Foundation (change not charity), Affirmative Investments (direct community investments), and Shared Interest (support for informal economy in South Africa since 1996) as well as the School for Community Economic Development at Southern New Hampshire University. Robert is also a Harvard PhD in economics, who has taught at Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, Boston University, UMass Amherst, and Simmons College. He has published two books and numerous articles about economic history and social policy. His strongest current interests, beyond socially responsible investing are encouraging the anti-war movement among servicemen and women and their families and working for campaign finance reform.
September 2011
Eiris hosts: ESG Ratings Unwrapped
Do you know what's in ESG ratings? The same way that consumers are increasingly asking questions about what goes into food products, clothes, electronics etc., investors are beginning to ask questions about what's in the ESG ratings they use. In recent years, there has been increased scrutiny of the research firms that service the SRI industry and concerns raised regarding a lack of transparency in how firms rate companies on ESG indicators. Two initiatives have emerged that aim to address these concerns - the Global Initiative for Sustainability Ratings (GISR) and the Rate the Raters project. The GISR is a non-commercial initiative involved in developing a framework to 'foster investment, procurement, and consumer decisions that favor companies that are true sustainability leaders.' Rate the Raters is a research project which is aimed at better understanding the universe of external sustainability ratings and to influence and improve the quality and transparency of such ratings. This panel will include representatives from these initiatives, as well as members of ESG ratings firms, and the investors who use these ratings. We will discuss the ESG ratings industry, the push for increased transparency in ratings, and how this will impact research firms and investors alike, both now and in the future. Come join us for this lively panel and conversation about unwrapping ESG ratings.
Date and time: Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 at 6:00pm
Location: The NonProfit Center - South Street Conference Room
89 South Street
Boston, MA
RSVP to molly.betournay@eiris.org (SPACE IS LIMITED)
August 2011
BASIC welcomes Molly Betournay
We have an exciting lineup of events this fall! In the meantime, as we ease out of summer, please join us for an evening of BASIC camaraderie (did we mention the roof deck!) and to welcome Molly Betournay (Eiris) to the BASIC leadership team. Molly has been a consistent contributor to our events and will be a strong asset to our team as BASIC continues to flourish. Hope to see you there!
Date and time: Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 at 6:00pm
Location: Market Boston (www.mktboston.com), Roof Deck (third floor if raining)
21 broad Street
Boston, MA 02109
RSVP to alex.lamb@trucost.com
June 2011
Social Investment Forum 2011 Conference
Responsible Investing: Impact & Innovation
This event offers a unique opportunity to network with leaders of sustainable and socially responsible investing, and to learn about new approaches, trends and policy developments in the field. The conference will attract representatives of investment management and advisory firms, research firms, financial planners and advisors, broker-dealers, community development institutions and asset owners such as pension funds and foundations, along with policymakers and corporate leaders.
You can look forward to keynote and plenary presentations from:
- Al Gore, Chairman, Generation Investment Management
- Luis A. Aguilar, Commissioner, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- Janet Cowell, Treasurer, State of North Carolina
- Roger Urwin, Global Head of Investment Content, Towers Watson Investment Services
- Martin Eakes, CEO, Self Help and Center for Responsible Lending
- Elizabeth Warren, Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Date and time: June 9-10, 2011
For more information: http://www.socialinvest.org/
May 2011
BASIC Co-Hosts 2011 Boston BaseCamp SRI Conference
- Understand the valuable resources available to you
- Develop the confidence to talk about combining social responsibility with investment performance
- Create deeper relationships with investors based on trust, understanding, and common values
- Assist investors to make more informed choices
Date and time: Wednesday, May 4, 2011
For more information: http://www.firstaffirmative.com/basecamp-sri-home
http://sribasecampboston.eventbrite.com
To Register Contact Danielle Burns danielleburns@firstaffirmative.com or 877-542-8583
March 2011
NorthStar AM Hosts BASIC Event
Please join us for an evening of BASIC camaraderie, networking, and refreshments hosted by NorthStar Asset Management, Inc. to celebrate their 20th anniversary and recent successes in shareholder activism. NorthStar was founded in 1990 to provide portfolio management services that unite both the financial and social impact of each portfolio through investment, divestment, shareholder activism, and strategic charitable giving.
Date and time: Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 at 6:00pm
Location: Market Boston (www.mktboston.com), 2nd Floor
21 broad Street
Boston, MA 02109
RSVP to ajovanovic@bostoncommonasset.com
January 2011
Bloomberg Hosts BASIC Event
Please join us for a BASIC evening hosted by Bloomberg.
The topic of ESG integration is gaining more attention as investors and data providers continue to define the approaches and meanings of this term. With data becoming more specific and quantitative, investors are now using ESG factors they consider relevant to their investment approach to relate them to a company’s future prospects at the point of financial valuation. Some questions we will ponder are: How does ESG integration affect portfolios? How may non-quantitative factors be integrated into investment decision-making? What does this mean for SRI as ESG integration becomes more mainstream?
Panelists:
Christine Jantz, Jantz Morgan
Rina Levy, Bloomberg
Alan Petrillo, MSCI
Chair Matt Patsky, Trillium Asset Management
Date and time: Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 5:30 pm (doors open at 5:00 pm)
Location: Langham Hotel
250 Franklin Street
Boston, MA 02110
RSVP to mpinilla@bostontrust.com
October 2010
Trucost Hosts BASIC Event
Please join us for an evening of BASIC networking and refreshments hosted by Trucost to celebrate their 10th anniversary, 2nd year of the Newsweek Green Rankings and landmark UN PRI report.
Trucost was established in 2000, to help organizations, investors and governments understand and quantify their environmental impacts. Over the past 10 years Trucost has collected, researched and validated environmental data from organizations across the world. The result is the world’s most comprehensive data on corporate environmental impacts, covering Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), water, waste, metals and chemicals.
Date and time: Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Location: Market Boston (www.mktboston.com)
21 broad Street
Boston, MA 02109
September 2010
An evening with Clean Yield Asset Management, featuring the Greater Boston Slow Money Alliance
The Slow Money movement is gaining momentum in Greater Boston. Come learn about the efforts to develop vehicles to invest in sustainable food systems. For the basics visit www.slowmoneyalliance.org. In Greater Boston a Slow Money MeetUp group has formed to bring prospective investors together with sustainable agriculture-related business owners. The group will convene quarterly to catalyze this interest into a greater availability of capital for entrepreneurs that are assembling the critical pieces needed for a sustainable food system. This capital may take a wide range of forms, from philanthropic contributions to financing community supported restaurants and grocery stores to making angel-type investments in local food businesses. There remain significant barriers to ramping up Slow Money, as it is a new approach that challenges conventional investment thinking about risk, returns and time horizon. We’ll look at what potential contributions social investment professionals can offer the Slow Money movement.
Date and time: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Location: Market Boston (www.mktboston.com)
21 broad Street
Boston, MA 02109
July 2010
The Sustainability Group Hosts: Amy Domini "Building the Field: Creating Demand at the Gross Roots and Removing the Barriers at the Top"
Amy Domini is the founder and CEO of Domini Social Investments as well as the founder and trustee of the Sustainability Group at Loring, Wolcott and Coolidge. She is widely recognized as the leading voice for socially responsible investing. Most recently, in 2010, Amy was named as a "Thirty for Thirty" by Investment Advisor magazine's list of 30 most influential individuals in and around planning. In 2005, Time magazine named her to the Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people, and in 2009 Time listed her as one of 25 “Responsibility Pioneers” who are changing the world. In 2006, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree from Northeastern University College of Law. Yale University’s Berkeley Divinity School presented Ms. Domini with an honorary doctorate in 2007. In 2008, Ms. Domini was named to Directorship magazine’s Directorship 100, the magazine’s listing of the most influential people on corporate governance and in the boardroom. Ms. Domini has authored or co-authored several books, including her most recent, Socially Responsible Investing: Making a Difference and Making Money.
Date and time: Tuesday July 20, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Location: Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge
230 Congress Street
Boston, MA 02110
NOTE: Please RSVP to Tom Ellington (tellington@sustainabilitygroup.com) as space is limited
An audio recording of the talk is available here
June 2010
EIRIS Hosts: Building a Climate Friendly Portfolio
The next BASIC event will provide an update on the latest strategies and approaches by investors to address climate risk in their portfolios and how companies are responding to the challenge. Matt Moscardi of CERES, Adam Seitchik of Auriel Capital and Lisa Hayles of EIRIS will lead us in a discussion on strategies to build a ‘climate friendly portfolio’ Audience participation and questions are encouraged! Wine, sodas, and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Date and time: Monday June 21, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Location: The NonProfit Center
89 South Street
Boston, MA 02111
Speaker Biographies
Matt Moscardi is the Manager of Investor Programs and oversees Ceres' work in low carbon investing, clean technologies, and investor best practices. Matt also leads investor briefings for members of the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a network of over 90 investors with nearly $10 trillion in assets. Prior to joining Ceres, Matt worked in private wealth management and developed a sustainability themed allocation strategy for high net worth investors. He also was a lead analyst at a boutique alternative investment firm based in California that focused on hedge funds, real estate, and other alternative assets.
Adam Seitchik is Managing Director at Auriel Capital, a London-based institutional asset management firm specializing in absolute return strategies. He is responsible for developing tailored Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment strategies for institutional investors in Europe and North America. Previously Adam was Chief Investment Officer at Trillium Asset Management in Boston, where he oversaw $1 billion in investment portfolios integrating ESG and financial factors into a value-added stock selection process.
Lisa Hayles is Head of Client Services (North America) at EIRIS. Founded in 1983, EIRIS provides research on corporate environmental, social, governance (ESG) and other ethical performance indicators to more than 150 institutional investors around the world. Lisa supports institutional fund managers and pension funds in North America seeking to implement a variety of RI strategies in their investment processes. She previously worked at the Social Investment Organization in Toronto, Canada where she was assistant director.
April 2010
Veris Wealth Partners Hosts BASIC Event
Date: Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location Market Boston
21 Broad Street, Boston, MA 02109, Second Floor
Please save the date for an evening of BASIC SRI camaraderie hosted by Veris Wealth Partners. Joining us from Veris will be David Hills from the Portsmouth, NH office.
Prior to Veris, David was a Senior Vice President, Investments and Investment Management Consultant with A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. in Portsmouth, NH. David has more than 20 years experience in meeting the financial and wealth planning needs of high net worth individuals, families and foundations. David has extensive experience in creating investment plans which reflect both his clients' desired social screens as well as their fundamental financial needs. His experience also includes developing investment policy statements, performance measurement, and working in collaboration with clients' estate planning attorneys and tax planning CPAs.
Veris Wealth Partners is dedicated to providing high net worth families, their foundations, and endowments sustainable investment and wealth management solutions. We focus on Socially Responsible & Sustainable Investing (SRI) approaches and values-based philanthropic consultation. We believe that "Sustainability Matters" and those companies and families implementing green and responsible practices will be leaders of the future.
March 2010
Is This America's Lost Decade?
Presenter: Robert Zevin
Date: Monday, March 29, 2009
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: The Non-Profit Center (provided by our co-host EIRIS
89 South Street; Second Floor Conference Room
(Google Maps)
BASIC and EIRIS cordially invite you to hear Robert Zevin speak on the topic 'Is This America's Lost Decade? If it is, what can we learn from Japan and Europe about living with slow growth and high unemployment? This BASIC event will be co-hosted by EIRIS on March 29th at 6pm at the Non-Profit Center in downtown Boston.
Commonly referred to as ‘the father of socially responsible investing,’ Robert has been applying ethical standards to investment portfolios since 1967. He has always emphasized being responsible to clients by protecting against losses. Throughout his life Robert has been an activist in the civil rights, anti-apartheid, economic justice, community economic development and anti-war movements. He founded and served on the boards of numerous social change organizations, often as treasurer or chairman. He has a record of arrests and encounters with various police authorities from his commitment to principled civil disobedience. Robert is also a Harvard Ph.D. in economics, who has taught at Berkeley, Columbia and Harvard and written several books and numerous articles about economic history and social policy.
Recording of the talk:http://www.rbza.org/news/RobertBASICtalkMarch292010.wma
Presentation:http://www.rbza.org/news/documents/BASICpresentationLostDecadeMarch2010.pdf
February 2010
Jantzi-Sustainalytics Hosts BASIC Event
Date: Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location Market Boston
21 Broad Street, Boston, MA 02109, Second Floor
Please join us for an evening of BASIC networking hosted by Jantzi-Sustainalytics to celebrate the opening of their new US office in Boston. The event will feature an opportunity to meet Michael Jantzi, CEO of Sustainalytics.
Michael Jantzi was the founder of Jantzi Research, and has been active in the social investment field since 1990. Michael is one of Canada’s leading spokespersons on social investment and corporate social responsibility issues. Michael is a director of Canada’s Social Investment Organization and a member of the Investment and Finance Committee of the TIDES Canada Foundation. He mentors social entrepreneurs through his involvement in the Ashoka Support Network.
Sustainalytics is a leading global provider of environmental, social and governance research and analysis, sustainability consulting and responsible investment services. Jantzi-Sustainalytics is the North American regional arm of Sustainalytics, which was formed from the merger between Sustainalytics and Jantzi Research in August 2009.
January 2010
Trillium Hosts BASIC Event
Date: Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Market Boston
21 Broad Street, Boston, MA 02109, Second Floor
November 2009
BASIC Camaraderie
Date: Thursday, November 19, 2009
Time: 6:00-8:30pm
Location: Market Boston, 21 Broad Street, Boston, MA 02109
September 2009
Emerging Trends in Sustainable Investing
Date: Thursday, September 17, 2009
Time: 6:00-8:30pm
Location: Offices of Walden Asset Management (1 Beacon St. , 33d floor, Boston , 02108)
July 2009
BASIC Nuclear
Date: Tuesday, July 7th
Time: 6:00-8:30pm
Location: Offices of Boston Common Asset Management (84 State Street, 10th Floor, Boston)
RSVP: Please contact Alex Lamb or Jed Sturman to RSVP: jsturman@lists.bostonsri.org
Please join the Boston Area Sustainable Investment Consortium on Tuesday, July 7th for a panel discussion hosted by Boston Common Asset Management: Different Perspectives on Nuclear Energy.
Nuclear energy presents sustainable investors with conflicting social and environmental mandates.
This panel will explore both sides of the debate: the environmental potential of nuclear energy as clean, domestically sourced energy that can mitigate global warming, and the social dangers associated with nuclear energy - from storage and transport to proliferation, terrorism, and community safety.
Speakers include:
Steven Heim is the head of social research and Shareholder Advocacy for Boston Common. Steven is primarily responsible for social research on domestic and international companies. In collaboration with Geeta Aiyer, he has contributed to the book The SRI Advantage: Why Socially Responsible Investing Has Outperformed Financially, (New Society Publishers, 2002). Steven received two Bachelor of Science degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served on the Board of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group for 15 years. Steven is the Co-Chair for ICCR’s Global Warming Working Group and is on the Steering Committee of the Social Investment Forum’s Social Investment Research Analyst Network.
May 2009
Launch Event for BASIC
Date: Tuesday, May 12th
Time: 6:00-8:00pm
Location: Offices of KLD Research & Analytics (121 High Street, 4th Floor, Boston)
In honor of our launch, BASIC will host the first of many events for Boston area SRI professionals on Tuesday, May 12th. Please join us for an evening of networking and conversation.
BASIC Participation:
The Boston Area Sustainable Investment Consortium is open to any investment professional or institution in Boston or New England. Since we do not charge membership fees, we suggest a modest $10 donation when attending events to cover refreshments and operating costs.