Our mission for social and economic justice isn’t limited to grant making and advocacy. It also informs how we use our assets to promote positive social, environmental, and democratic change. We’re part of a growing movement of institutional investors who are aligning their money with their missions.
Responsible investment is an approach that aims to incorporate environmental, social and governance factors into investment decisions, with a long view to contributing to a more sustainable, inclusive and productive economy.
This means we scrutinize the companies we invest in, advocate as shareholders to influence certain behaviours that align with our mission and values, and collaborate to reshape the logic of capital markets. We also make mission-related investments such as Windmill Microlending.
For almost two decades, we’ve collaborated with the Shareholder Association for Research and Advocacy (SHARE). This relationship has generated creative collaborations such as the Canadian Capital Stewardship Network and the Reconciliation and Responsible Investing Initiative with the National Aboriginal Trust Officers Association (NATOA). To learn more, read about our philosophy, our journey and how we’ve benefited.
Hear SHARE’s CEO Kevin Thomas, talk about mobilizing investors and companies around decent work back when he was SHARE’s Director of Shareholder Advocacy.
We’re also part of a coalition of 137 global institutional investors – with over $15 trillion in assets under management – that’s putting its muscle behind a demand that companies disclose more information on how they manage their global workforces. We’re the founding signatories of the Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI), a project devised and coordinated by ShareAction, funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID), and led by SHARE in Canada.
Read more about our approach to responsible investing in this article published in The Philanthropist. Journalist Tim Harper interviews Atkinson’s Colette Murphy about Atkinson’s experiences.
