DOING WELL BY DOING GOOD
ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. ESG Investing is an approach that considers financial returns in addition to how companies perform in key areas.
Environmental
This looks at a company's impact on the planet. Areas such as corporate climate policies, use of resources, animal treatment, pollution, deforestation, green energy initiatives, and waste management. It encourages sustainable resource use, lower emissions, better efficiency, and minimizing environmental footprint.
Social
This examines a company's relationship with stakeholders such as employees, customers, communities, and suppliers. Considering issues like community engagement, gender and diversity, and customer satisfaction. As well as health, safety, and work/life balance for its workforce. Seeks to ensure fair employment, manage people ethically, and respect human rights.
Governance
This evaluates a company's leadership. Things like executive pay, internal controls, and shareholder rights. It covers board structure, employee pay, business ethics, and transparency. Companies with good governance attributes ensure ethical and transparent management, accurate accounting methods, and integrity and diversity in selecting its leadership. Maintains accountability to shareholders.
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Like you, we believe in supporting companies that share our values and our offerings reflect that goal. We use our experience and research capabilities to focus on investments through an ESG lens.
The purpose is to align investments with personal and institutional values while managing risk and identifying long-term opportunity. This approach includes screening (excluding bad actors), integration (factoring ESG into analysis), and impact investing (actively seeking positive change). This allows the potential for lower risk and better long-term performance while supporting and furthering ethical and sustainable business practices.
Values Alignment: Values analysis involves assessing how well your investments align with the issues that matter to you. The business practices and social/environmental impacts (e.g. forced labor involvement, toxic pollution, etc.) of the companies in a portfolio are determined through the collection of publicly available data from government, academic, regulatory, and nonprofit sources. Company performance on these data points is then mapped to the relevant values to determine an alignment level. Alignment levels are normalized such that 50% alignment is the median for all investments.
Some of the categories we measure against: Overall, Fair Player, Health Defender, Peace Protector, Women Empowerer, Planet Protector, & Human Rights Defender
There are several reasons why we choose to offer you the potential benefits of an ESG approach to investing.
- ESG investing can help mitigate risky business practices.
- Social and governance integration is increasingly seen as not just the right thing to do, but a smart financial move.
- A focus on ESG investments seeks to generate positive returns, but also take a long-term perspective on an investment while considering society and the environment.
We believe strong environmental, social, and governance policies will support a company’s long-term performance.
Portfolio performance is always of primary importance. We’ll help you pursue positive social and environmental impact alongside competitive financial returns.
shareholder activism - a core pillar of our esg strategy
Shareholder activism is when investors use their rights as owners of a company to influence its behavior or policies. These shareholders—often institutional investors, hedge funds, or individuals with significant stakes—seek changes that can improve the company’s performance, governance, social responsibility, or financial practices.
Activist shareholders might:
- Push for changes in leadership or board composition
- Demand cost-cutting or strategic shifts (e.g. selling a division)
- Advocate for environmental, social, or governance (ESG) improvements
- Campaign for better returns through share buybacks or dividends
They use tools like filing shareholder resolutions, engaging in proxy fights, or rallying other investors to apply pressure. While some view shareholder activism as a way to hold companies accountable, others see it as disruptive or focused too heavily on short-term gains.
Shareholder activism is how we turn investing into influence
At Terra Blue Wealth Management, we believe that shareholder activism is one of the most powerful tools in sustainable investing. As a certified B Corp, our mission is to help community activists align their wealth with their values—and shareholder engagement is central to that mission.
We use platforms like YourStake to analyze the shareholder activism embedded in our portfolios. This allows us to identify areas where we can amplify our impact and celebrate wins where our investments are driving meaningful change. Whether it's pushing for stronger corporate emissions policies or advocating for forest preservation, we want our investments to speak loudly and clearly.
ESG investing isn’t just about avoiding harm—it’s about creating change. While some holdings may not be perfectly aligned with every value, they can still serve as strategic opportunities for engagement. As shareholders, we have a seat at the table. That voice matters.
We carefully evaluate the activism efforts of fund managers and companies we invest in. We prioritize those who are actively engaging with corporations on critical issues like climate action, social equity, and governance reform. Our goal is not just to reduce exposure to harmful practices, but to invest in solutions—and in the people and organizations driving them.
We are committed to helping our clients build portfolios that reflect their values and move the needle toward a more just and sustainable world.