Targeted Responsible Investing

Abstract

Up from Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative (Croft, 2009) and a companion report made the case that there are strategic and responsible investment paths that have the capacity to rebuild our economy and infrastructure, reinvigorate our cities, and create green jobs of the future. These two works documented the fact that the assets in retirement accounts and mutual funds, insurance companies, university, hospital and foundation endowments, college savings funds, and others trusts—in effect, our money—can begin to help turn our economies around. Responsible investment of workers’ savings and assets can be invested in the private economy to generate specific social, environmental, and governance (ESG) benefits, along with the necessary financial returns. The chapter concludes by looking to the future and to the “third wave” of responsible investment, which combines responsible real estate, private equity and project finance (and other ETI strategies) to connect practical and prudent investments in enterprises and housing with co-investments in human capital, renewable energy and efficient transportation. Capital stewards can re-create and renew parts of urban cities, redevelop poor rural areas, and invest in sustainable developments, and demand, with their investments, aggressive actions toward climate solutions. Many of these ideas could embody the next generation of targeted investing.