Imfino News

NEW HAVEN, CT, January 24, 2018-- Real Impact Tracker today launches its Certified Real Impact Community of fund managers, including Stance Capital, the Stewart Investors Sustainable Funds Group, Terra Alpha Investments, Walden Asset Management, and Zevin Asset Management. Investors now have insight into managers committed to creating positive social and environmental benefit with their investments.

Having already analyzed over $50 Trillion of mutual funds and ETFs, Real Impact Tracker's academically driven methodology addresses the critical question:

How can I have the most impact with my investment dollars alongside financial returns?

Corporations and investors are increasingly important levers for social and environmental change, in an era where policy is threatened. Whether investors care about climate change, human rights, or equal opportunity, more and more investors are seeking to understand how they can help.

A recent press release from Bank of America, whose client base represents around $2.5 trillion in assets, makes clear that a majority of investors want to work with advisors who offer investment strategies that seek competitive returns and positive impact. Eighty-six percent of millennials want to make a better connection between financial and societal goals, according to a recent Morgan Stanley study.

Tim Smith, Director of Shareholder Engagement for Walden said, "Walden has a long history of influencing companies and public policy on a wide range of environmental and social issues, from climate change to equal employment opportunity. We are pleased to join a community of investment managers committed to achieving impact and recognize the importance of sharing their impact records publicly."

Real Impact Tracker Advisory Board member and sustainable investment expert Amr Addas says: "to influence corporate behavior, a much broader range of investors need to join the movement for impact investing and understand how their investments impact the issues they care about."

 The Certified Real Impact Community shines an important light on managers achieving to a high bar of impact; we estimate only 7% of funds scored in the Real Impact Fund Rating would pass our certification threshold. Fund managers are certified not based on what companies they own, but instead on what they do to create impact across a number of strategic categories.

These include:

1) Fully integrating ESG considerations into their investment process while performing well financially,

2) In depth and strategic shareholder engagement, and

3) Advancement of environmental and social initiatives in the public sphere.

With the formation of the Certified Real Impact Community and the upcoming release of Asian, Canadian, and European fund ratings in 2018, investors globally will be able to see how much impact their investment managers create, and how they can increase their impact accordingly.

When investors understand which managers are dedicated to investing for positive impact, they can help steer capital in a better direction, providing the checks and balances needed to create sustainable financial outcomes.

www.realimpacttracker.com