Thursday, 24 February 2022

Victory for Costco shareholders - and EIG - on climate!

 Heidi Monk

Sometimes shareholder engagement is incredibly rewarding, as when our engagement is welcomed and/or met by action. Sometimes shareholder engagement can be frustrating, as when untold hours of research and drafting and editing letters are met with little or no response. Our recent engagement with Costco was both.

Tuesday, 15 February 2022

Ups and downs of community investment

 Judith Bird

One of the unique things about EIG has been its commitment from the very start to have 40% of its portfolio devoted to supporting small businesses and individuals who do not have access to credit from mainstream financial institutions, aka “community investments”. The concept has been somewhat expanded over the years to include small-scale projects beneficial to society and/or to the environment, often funded by community bonds. 

While finding appropriate investments in this category is not without its challenges, EIG continues to maintain this approach as a goal more than twenty years after it was included in our 4-point mission statement.