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CHAPTER 8Public Equities: Select Values-Aligned Investments

Women have been leading and are continuing to lead the way in values-aligned investing. There's no better way I can think of to start a discussion of values-aligned public equity investments than by paying homage to some of the trailblazing women who were instrumental in building this field. Together they catalyzed financial markets to think—and act—differently. They launched firms and proved that you can use public equity to grow wealth and build a better world.

One such woman is Joan Bavaria, who has been described as a visionary, a pioneer, an inspiration, and a hero. In 1982, she founded Trillium Asset Management, one of the first socially responsible financial firms. Today Trillium manages close to $3 billion, making it one of the largest investment firms in the US, focused exclusively on values-aligned investing. Starting and building one firm was not enough for Joan. She also founded, cofounded, and inspired a number of other groundbreaking organizations in the social investing space. It's no surprise that Joan is often referred to as the “founding mother of socially responsible investing.”¹

Amy Domini was a contemporary of Joan's and another trailblazer in this arena. In 1990, she launched the Domini 400 Social Index, one of the first socially responsible indexes.² It was designed to help investors apply what are now known as ESG criteria to their investment decisions. Amy also founded Domini Impact Investments, ...