Clean Yield
Clean Yield is an SEC-registered investment advisory firm working exclusively with social investors. Since our founding in 1984, our goal has been to invest to promote a sustainable society while achieving competitive financial returns. Our hallmark is working closely with our clients to ensure that we are responsive to their unique financial requirements and personal values.
We are a member of the US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, Green America, and the Slow Money Alliance. We are an affiliate member of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility.
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What is Socially Responsible Investing?
Social investors recognize that every financial transaction has social implications as well as monetary ones. While traditional investing is aimed exclusively at maximizing financial value, social investing takes account of both financial and social bottom lines. Socially responsible investing can be a catalyst for positive social change or merely a way to help the investor sleep better at night. See our services »
News & Blog
The Elephant in the (Boiler) Room: Investment Community Finally Faces the Challenge of Unburnable Carbon
May 20, 2013Aside from carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere having risen to a new peak of 400 parts per million in May, the fossil fuel divestment movement has to be feeling pretty good about certain other metrics:
- Since 350.org founder Bill McKibben’s “Do The Math” tour on college campuses last fall, five colleges have announced that they will divest their endowment portfolios of fossil fuels (Sterling, Unity, Hampshire, Green Mountain, and College of the Atlantic).
- The number of college campuses with active divestment groups now exceeds 300.
- The campaign has moved off-campus as well, with activists targeting cities and states (over 100 at last count).*
From our perspective as an investment firm that has long avoided fossil fuel companies, it’s been most interesting to watch the flurry of activity that the divestment movement has generated in our industry. Publications, webinars, and seminars are proliferating to focus on the specific challenges facing those considering divestment, whether by choice or from student or constituent pressure. (Clean Yield Asset Management is cohosting such an event with Sterling College in June that is targeted to leaders of educational institutions.) In another corner, socially responsible investment firms that hold fossil fuel companies (sometimes with great ambivalence) are defending their long practice of engaging with management and filing shareholder proposals. (See the text box to learn about Clean Yield’s approach.) Undeniably, the notion of the “carbon bubble” and arguments in favor of fossil fuel divestment are starting to gain traction in the investment world.
Company Profiles
Market Aligned: Exactech (EXAC)
May 20, 2013Just a few decades ago we could only count on having only one body to last us our lifetime. Today, companies like Exactech are allowing us to replace and improve some of our most worn and painful parts, including joints and spines. There are many larger and more diversified players in the orthopedic implant market, including Stryker and Zimmer Holdings, which are more than 100 times Exactech’s size by annual revenues. However, this small-cap company has been around almost 30 years and proven itself, both in the marketplace and on the stock market since 1996. Exactech was founded by a husband and wife who were looking to bring higher quality and innovation to the orthopedic product business. By focusing on a handful of joints and devices the company is able to ensure superiority throughout its product line. Practitioners seem to notice the difference – despite having narrower offerings, Exactech boasts good customer retention. While devices for knee replacements continue to be Exactech’s pivotal offering, devices for shoulder replacements are gaining rank and now generate more sales than spinal implants and artificial hips.
Servicing the Servicers: Blackbaud (BLKB)
May 20, 2013Have you ever wondered how you ended up on a certain nonprofit organization’s list or how your alumni group seems to find you no matter how many times you’ve changed your address? Enter Blackbaud, a medium-cap technology company that provides a host of services and software options to nonprofit and educational organizations. The company’s programs can do everything from managing daily finances and organizing fundraising activities to targeting potential donors from giant databases and pinpointing wealth opportunities, whether for international aid organizations or local schools. Blackbaud also provides fairly generic services such as CRM (client relationship management) software, various stock forms, and ticket management for nonprofit events. The company’s products are widely used throughout the nonprofit world and its clients include more than 27,000 organizations in 60 countries — everyone from the national Salvation Army to St. Johnsbury, Vermont’s Catamount Arts. Blackbaud acquired a smaller company, Convio, in mid-2012 that focused on building nonprofits’ online fundraising efforts.
