Sustainable Investing Highlights: COVID-19, Climate Risk and More

Wespath’s Sustainable Investment Services team, alongside the entire Investments staff, is focused on key sustainability issues that aim to deliver strong, long-term financial returns. Here are some highlights from early 2020.

COVID-19 Response

Wespath joined a group of global institutional investors in signing an Investor Statement on Coronavirus Response. It calls on members of the business community to support communities through common-sense actions that benefit viable borrowers, and to encourage employees to support local small businesses. We also asked our investment managers to sign the Investor Statement and to tell us about their investment activities that support economic recovery through the COVID-19 pandemic.

We continue to engage companies on the near-term decisions made to aid the recovery in response to COVID-19 while building a long-term path toward sustainability.

Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance

In April, Wespath became the 22nd member, the second U.S.-based asset owner and the second faithbased asset owner to join the United Nations (UN)-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, a group of investors committed to pursuing strategies that facilitate the transition of investment portfolios to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Sustainable Global Economy

Wespath’s Sustainable Investment Services team is shaping its strategy—including its approach to corporate engagement, strategic partnerships and investment exclusions—in support of a sustainable global economy. To us, this means an economy that promotes social cohesion, long-term prosperity for all and environmental health.

To learn more about these efforts, please visit wespath.org/r/si.