December 12, 2012 The Guardian | Felicity Carus
Asset Management Firm Challenges Big Business with Alternative Portfolio

The impact of responsibly invested assets is weak if the majority of investments cause environmental or social harm. One asset manager tells Felicity Carus why their portfolio is different.

Read the full article HERE.

November 19, 2012 Forbes | Anne Field
Now Available: An Impact Investment-Rated Bond Portfolio

Sure, you can pretty easily find equity portfolios with ratings assessing their social and environmental impact. But bonds? Another matter entirely.

Now, that’s changing.

This month, HIP Investor and SNW Asset Management are teaming up to introduce an impact-rated bond portfolio, starting with muni bonds.

Read the full article HERE.

November 13, 2012 Sustainable Brands | Jennifer Elks
HIP Investor and SNW Asset Management Launch Impact-Rated, Fixed-Income Portfolios

 

This first-of-its-kind impact-rated bond portfolio, managed by SNW Asset Management and scored by HIP Investor, empowers investors to now see a quantified score of human, social and environmental impact realized by their investments. This new portfolio approach may also spur issuers of multimillion-dollar bonds toward more accountability and innovation as they seek to advance the well-being of their communities.

Read the full article here.

August 23, 2012 | UNDP
Green Economy in Action- featuring HIP

HIP’s analysis of Growing Global Trends Driving 21st Century Investing is featured in the most recent UNDP report catalog titled Green Economy in Action. We are honored to be part of this compilation of research and analysis.

“The Green Economy is one in which the vital linkages among the economy, society, and environment are taken into account. This selection of articles and excerpts emerged in response to the need to fill the knowledge gap on practical, concrete, and on the ground green economy country experience. It is in this spirit that the articles and excerpts included in this publication have been selected: to provide information and knowledge for policy and decision makers and practitioners on the positive implications of greening some priority sectors, including job creation, resource efficiency, and generally contribution to sustainable development through an extensive review of scientific publications and magazines.” – UNDP Site

Four Global Trends Driving 21st Century Investing:

1. 9 Billion Customers with many unmet human needs
2. Finite natural resources are increasingly scarce
3. Everyone knows everything all of the time
4. Demand for ‘Good’ is growing

Read the full report HERE.

July 3, 2012 AdvisorOne | Joyce Hanson

Real U.S. Job Creators Coming From Unexpected Place

As the United States faces the challenge of creating more employment nationwide, new jobs are coming from an unexpected place — the “positive-impact” sector, says a recent report from HIP Investor Inc., a San Francisco-based wealth management firm that helps advisors create portfolios focused on sustainability.

April 30, 2012 Huffington Post | R. Paul Herman and Tom Bowmer
‘Too Big to Fail’ Banks Less Profitable and More Risky Than Sustainability-Focused Banks

In 2009, Arianna Huffington and Rob Johnson of the Huffington Post called on individuals to move their money out of these “too big to fail” institutions and put it into smaller, local banks that had avoided the excessive risk taking and greedy behavior leading up to the crisis. This soon morphed into a full-fledged “Move Your Money” campaign which aims to empower individuals to reform a broken financial system by putting their money and support behind local and community-based banks. Over the past three years, the campaign says that 4 million-plus accounts have moved from large institutions to their more sustainability-oriented counterparts. Continue Reading →