One more thing - as you well know, the Corporate Knights report from November of 2019, showing the vast amounts of money lost by CA and CO pension plans by holding onto fossil fuels over 10 years is still one of the most potent pieces of research fossil fuel pension activists have at their disposal. I serve as Treasurer for Fossil Free CA and they've been doing really good work for years, aligning with youth (YvA) and relentlessly pressuring the 2 CA pension plan Trustees to do the right thing, https://350.org/press-release/report-colorado-california-lost-19-billion/
Bill, I'm an investment professional who published a book almost a decade ago, citing evidence that removing fossil fuel stocks from a portfolio - specifically companies with fossil fuel reserves - would not reduce investment performance. Being in the industry I had to submit my book to my broker/dealer's compliance department since it was considered a sales tool - and it absolutely was. Part of that process included having to put certain disclaimers in the front and back of the book, and for that reason I didn't go all out to promote it, although it was very useful in my community outreach efforts. For readers it's cool that industry compliance experts had to review and approve every tidbit of data, every assertion I made in the book - if there was grossly inaccurate info within, their butts as my regulator would be on the line - fines, etc. I updated it in in 2018 - it's available on Amazon and Kindle, etc. "Low-Carbon Investing: Defending the Climate/Emphasizing Performance." But the broader points I want to make have to do with where I found my data. There were two primary sources I relied upon in 2011-2013 - The Aperio Group had published a quite rigorous 20 yr lookback study comparing a diversified S&P 500 Index type of index fund with and without fossil fuel companies and found the performance and volatility variances to be trivial. Also the Morningstar.com fund analysis organization should be given a big shout out - around 2010 they had one of their top analysts Jon Hale research the ex-fossil fuel performance question as well as broader sustainable investing concepts and I relied on several of his research papers in my book. Over the next decade Morningstar continued to build up their Sustainable Investing team and develop their own tools and digest other research firm's metrics (Sustainalytics), and they now offer a truly robust amount of explanatory info on Sustainable investing. Even more worthy of praise and acknowledgement are the mutual fund families that committed to low-carbon sustainable investing decades ago. Their praises are not sung nearly enough, Those would include Calvert Funds, Amy Domini and her fund family, Green Century funds and of particular note with regard to fossil free investing - Parnassus Funds, located in San Francisco. Any discussion of the birth of fossil free investing must mention Jerome Dotson, founder of Parnassus. He provided proof of concept. He actively managed a large cap domestic blend fund - basically fishing in the same waters as the S&P 500 index - without fossil fuel stocks and after all expenses soundly trounced the S&P 500 Index over a full decade and beyond. By sheer happenstance I was seated next to him at a Parnassus holiday party in 2019 and I couldn't have been more enthralled if he had been Mick Jagger or Bruce Springsteen. A very good idea would be to interview him at some point. He is a rock star pioneer in proving to the investment community that you could beat the performance of the primary benchmark used by every investment house in the United States of America (even with higher internal expenses for active management) while/by eliminating fossil fuels.
I'll keep trying... Bill, I'm a retired scientist now devoting most of my work days to climate research. I wonder if you would like to know about a current soil carbon sequestration project?
Hi Bill, this is a new video that we've just finished to help in our mutual quest. Please let me know if you see it. Not sure if you go back to these old posts.
One more thing - as you well know, the Corporate Knights report from November of 2019, showing the vast amounts of money lost by CA and CO pension plans by holding onto fossil fuels over 10 years is still one of the most potent pieces of research fossil fuel pension activists have at their disposal. I serve as Treasurer for Fossil Free CA and they've been doing really good work for years, aligning with youth (YvA) and relentlessly pressuring the 2 CA pension plan Trustees to do the right thing, https://350.org/press-release/report-colorado-california-lost-19-billion/
Thanks so much for your good analysis and hard work!
Bill, I'm an investment professional who published a book almost a decade ago, citing evidence that removing fossil fuel stocks from a portfolio - specifically companies with fossil fuel reserves - would not reduce investment performance. Being in the industry I had to submit my book to my broker/dealer's compliance department since it was considered a sales tool - and it absolutely was. Part of that process included having to put certain disclaimers in the front and back of the book, and for that reason I didn't go all out to promote it, although it was very useful in my community outreach efforts. For readers it's cool that industry compliance experts had to review and approve every tidbit of data, every assertion I made in the book - if there was grossly inaccurate info within, their butts as my regulator would be on the line - fines, etc. I updated it in in 2018 - it's available on Amazon and Kindle, etc. "Low-Carbon Investing: Defending the Climate/Emphasizing Performance." But the broader points I want to make have to do with where I found my data. There were two primary sources I relied upon in 2011-2013 - The Aperio Group had published a quite rigorous 20 yr lookback study comparing a diversified S&P 500 Index type of index fund with and without fossil fuel companies and found the performance and volatility variances to be trivial. Also the Morningstar.com fund analysis organization should be given a big shout out - around 2010 they had one of their top analysts Jon Hale research the ex-fossil fuel performance question as well as broader sustainable investing concepts and I relied on several of his research papers in my book. Over the next decade Morningstar continued to build up their Sustainable Investing team and develop their own tools and digest other research firm's metrics (Sustainalytics), and they now offer a truly robust amount of explanatory info on Sustainable investing. Even more worthy of praise and acknowledgement are the mutual fund families that committed to low-carbon sustainable investing decades ago. Their praises are not sung nearly enough, Those would include Calvert Funds, Amy Domini and her fund family, Green Century funds and of particular note with regard to fossil free investing - Parnassus Funds, located in San Francisco. Any discussion of the birth of fossil free investing must mention Jerome Dotson, founder of Parnassus. He provided proof of concept. He actively managed a large cap domestic blend fund - basically fishing in the same waters as the S&P 500 index - without fossil fuel stocks and after all expenses soundly trounced the S&P 500 Index over a full decade and beyond. By sheer happenstance I was seated next to him at a Parnassus holiday party in 2019 and I couldn't have been more enthralled if he had been Mick Jagger or Bruce Springsteen. A very good idea would be to interview him at some point. He is a rock star pioneer in proving to the investment community that you could beat the performance of the primary benchmark used by every investment house in the United States of America (even with higher internal expenses for active management) while/by eliminating fossil fuels.
I'll keep trying... Bill, I'm a retired scientist now devoting most of my work days to climate research. I wonder if you would like to know about a current soil carbon sequestration project?
Sure, send a link
Hi Bill, this is a new video that we've just finished to help in our mutual quest. Please let me know if you see it. Not sure if you go back to these old posts.
https://vimeo.com/661433704
Dear Bill, I've tried to share your posts but recipients say that they have to pay to read. Not a very great way for you to get new subscribers....
perhaps thy this one, it might work. i confess i've not quite mastered the controls...