Perspectives

Research out of the Calvert Institute supported the development of a suite of Custom Composite KPIs, which aggregate data across five ESG data vendors and use proprietary materiality factors to tilt scores toward data most relevant to predicting equity upside among comparable companies.

Washington — Calvert has advocated for greater corporate workforce diversity for decades, and increasingly investors and corporate leaders are recognizing the value of diversity as a driver of financial performance over the long term. Recent events, including the COVID-19 pandemic and visible examples of police violence against Black people, have heightened public concern about racial equity, especially among young workers.

Washington — In May 2020, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) made headlines when it announced US renewable energy consumption had surpassed coal consumption for the first time in 130 years. As the shortterm pricing advantages of fossil fuels declines relative to renewable technologies, and the focus on the long-term negative climate externalities produced by fossil fuels and nuclear energy grows, fossil fuels face a decline in demand, replaced by growing demand for cleaner alternatives like solar, wind, hydropower and biofuels.

Washington — Globally, the inability to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 has resulted in an ongoing joint public health and economic crisis. As a result of ”stay-at-home” orders, end-user demand for emissions-intensive industrial, transportation and electricity applications has rapidly declined thus far in 2020, with signs of a sluggish recovery materializing only in some regions during Q3. Accordingly, absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have fallen.

Washington – British nobleman and contrarian investor Baron Rothschild once declared, “When there’s blood on the streets, buy real estate.” As we battle COVID-19 today, the updated mantra is more like: “When there’s turmoil on the Street, invest in your stakeholders.”

Washington - While the COVID-19 pandemic and the systematic failure to address racism have exposed disparities in economic opportunity and treatment under the law, they have also exposed vulnerabilities in our economy and forever altered investor’s perspectives on these issues as well. Many have called for stronger action to address systemic risks like inequality and racism but few have the history and expertise Calvert has engaging with companies and contributing to investor standards addressing these issues.

In this brief we discuss the key ESG factors on which Calvert evaluates companies with opioid exposure and our responsible investment approach to opioid-exposed companies.

Investors are commonly advised not to try to time the market. While specific peaks and valleys can be difficult to predict with precision, we do know that bull and bear markets will happen. Investors that take the long view have the potential to achieve sustained gains overall.

Calvert tested the financial materiality of five gender diversity factors: (1) number of female board members, (2) percentage of female board members, (3) number of women in board leadership roles, (4) number of women named executive officers (NEOs) and (5) TruValue’s circumstantial score related to diversity and inclusion news/issues over a three-year period.

In this paper, we outline the Calvert approach to Responsible fixed-income Investing through performance, research, active engagement and impact. It's an approach that we believe can help sophisticated investors achieve their portfolio return objectives while working toward the laudable goals of the 2006 mission statement.