Welcome to Brighter Investing
A Public Benefit Registered Investment Advisor specializing in
SUSTAINABLE & IMPACT INVESTING
We work with
Individuals & families
You’re investing for retirement, for specific goals, for your family’s future. We provide a full suite of advisory and investment management services focusing on your long-term financial goals AND the sustainable/impact causes you care about.
We also offer an investment-only model if you’d like to try sustainable investing with a portion of your assets or don’t need a full-service advisor.
closeOrganizations
We work with nonprofits, advisory firms and other organizations to provide sustainable & impact investing expertise and investment management that aligns with their missions and goals. If your organization invests in the public markets, we can help.
closePopular sustainable investing themes
It’s your world and your future. Invest wisely.
Environmental Sustainability
Fossil-Free Portfolios
Renewable Energy
Food & Water
Gender Diversity
Education
WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE INVESTING / IMPACT INVESTING?
A global industry that’s growing rapidly
It may seem like a hot new topic, but sustainable & impact investing has been around for decades, even centuries … though with varying strategies and a myriad of confusing names. Here are some of the terms you may have heard. (And they mean different things.)
Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Metrics
ESG Investing / ESG Integration
Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)
Sustainable, Responsible & Impact Investing (SRI)
Corporate Engagement / Shareholder Action
Values-Based Investing
Mission-Aligned Investing
Negative/ Exclusionary Screening
Positive/ Best In Class Screening
Community Investing
Faith-Based Investing
Green Investing
Sustainable & Impact Investing:
Our Definition
Integrating robust financial analysis, ESG criteria AND impact analysis into our decision process and investment recommendations
ESG = Environmental, Social & Governance
ENVIRONMENTAL
How do the company’s products and practices affect the environment?
SOCIAL
How does a company manage its relationships with employees, suppliers, and the communities in which it operates?
GOVERNANCE
How well is the company managed through its board and leadership, executive compensation, financial controls & shareholder rights?
Our firm and industry use ESG metrics as a proxy for sustainability — not just environmental sustainability, but long-term business sustainability. ESG metrics rate and rank companies on their environmental impact, social performance and corporate governance. They enable deeper analysis of a company’s everyday business practices. And the meta-studies of studies are clear: strong sustainability standards can reduce the cost of capital, limit exposure to significant environmental and regulatory risks, help companies attract and retain skilled workers, build brand loyalty, mitigate liability risks, improve credit ratings, and deliver greater operational performance.
Then there’s the biggest question of all: HOW ABOUT RETURNS? Again, studies show that firms and especially diversified portfolios with high ESG ratings are at least statistically equal to unexamined portfolios. Portfolios with high ESG scores can also significantly outperform portfolios with weak ESG scores.
Unfortunately, these investments are plagued with outdated myths: they underperform, cost more, and are only available to wealthy investors. Let’s talk and we’ll debunk these myths and more.
Americans want to invest this way, but they don't necessarily know how
Today, most American investors want their investments to make a positive impact
The majority of investors are interested
But advisors have a knowledge and interest gap
Investors are truly beginning to understand the value of ESG considerations as an effective means of managing risk and improving investment performance.
Amy O'Brien, Global Head of Responsible Investing, Nuveen/TIAAThis is about amplifying the public’s voice. This is about amplifying what Americans think companies should be doing … Go look at the companies that are doing it. They’re outperforming everyone else.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones
Transformational change is upon us, in terms of both the dangers of planetary risks confronting us, and in terms of the innovations emerging to confront those. Embracing that confluence is where economic growth can and must occur. I think it is safe to say that if a company isn’t reducing the risk profile of the economy, it won’t have tailwinds for growth in the future.
Garvin Jabusch, CIO of Green Alpha, in 'You Can't Serve Two Masters' by Sonya Dreizler
There is still confusion in the sector that impact investing is philanthropy, and others think that all this will generate is less than market returns. We absolutely believe that you can generate market-based returns while you make the impact, and those two are not mutually exclusive. In many respects, they’re becoming mutually enhancing.
Marisa Drew, CEO Impact Advisory & Finance, Credit SuisseWe are entering a very interesting period of history where the responsible business world is running ahead of the politicians and taking on a broader role to serve society.
Unilever CEO Paul PolmanI am convinced that the convergence of business, social impact, and the value of human capital makes absolute economic sense … it is not only a moral duty. It is becoming a business imperative.
Baronness Ariane de Rothchild
Future projections for major water, food, unemployment, terrorism, organized crime, and environmental and information pollution lead to complex human disasters. The stakes are too high to tolerate business as usual. The world is racing to implement solutions for global problems with ever-increasing complexity and scale.
The Millennium Project
The market is the most powerful institution on Earth, and business is the most powerful entity within it. Business transcends national boundaries, and it possesses resources that exceed those of many nation-states. Business is responsible for producing the buildings we live and work in, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the automobiles we drive, the energy that propels them, and the next form of mobility that will replace them. This does not mean that only business can generate solutions, but with its unmatched powers of ideation, production, and distribution, business is best positioned to bring the change we need at the scale we need it.
Andrew J. Hoffman, Holcium (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, University of MichiganOUR SERVICES
Sustainable Investing is Smart and Important
We believe every American deserves to invest this way, and we want to make it easy to get started.
That’s why we offer 3 levels of service:
ABOUT US
What we do as people and as a company make a difference, and we strive to make a big one.
That’s why Brighter Investing is a legal Public Benefit organization focused on the triple bottom line:
PEOPLE, PLANET & PROFIT
We’re committed to high environmental, social and governance standards — the same kind of metrics we incorporate into our investment analyses for clients.
We want you to feel proud of what you accomplish, of the difference you make, of the future your investments and actions help create.
Yet our vision goes even further as we explain in our Statement of Public Benefit. We’re also focused on:
- FINANCIAL LITERACY: Helping people of all ages invest more successfully for their futures
- CAUSE-RELATED EDUCATION & EXPERIENCES: Engaging Americans so they can become stronger supporters and advocates for the causes they care about
