Responsible investing and our communities

Why is responsible investing important?

Investments not only impact our financial security. They can also have a tangible impact on the quality of life for you, your family, and your community.

Each investment decision has implications that go beyond the short-term financial performance of a single stock or security. Individual investments impact other investments over the long-term, collectively determining how well the economy functions. Ensuring businesses operate responsibly is crucial to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the economy at large, which in turn is crucial to the performance of investments, as well as communities’ health and safety.

How does responsible investing affect families and communities?

Businesses play a crucial role in shaping local communities and our economy as a whole. Promoting responsible business means supporting consumers’ access to safe, quality products, supporting quality jobs across the country that set communities up for economic success, and ensuring cleaner air and water in the communities in which businesses operate. By supporting and calling for responsible business practices, investors can help contribute to a shift in the economy by helping promote and grow businesses that prioritize community wellbeing and seeking responsible practices and a meaningful shift from companies that are lagging behind. 

Collectively, individual business practices determine how well the economy functions and is equipped to adapt to a period of historic change. Over the long term, individual investments and business practices inform the economy’s ability to adapt to a changing climate, serve communities’ needs, and provide job opportunities and quality living standards.

By promoting responsible business, government policies can also incentivize new economic opportunities that provide quality living wages in communities navigating economic transitions while also setting the economy up to adapt to a period of historic change. States like Tennessee, Kansas, Georgia, and Arizona have seen a boom in renewable energy jobs due to federal incentives that are expected to create nearly one million new jobs across the United States each year through 2032.

How does responsible investing affect communities of color?

Communities of color are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change, pollution, and lower quality access to goods and services impacting health and wellbeing – from chemicals in drinking water and poorer air quality to lower access to healthy, affordable food and fair housing.

Many families have felt the impacts of rising insurance costs and the devastating loss of homes due to wildfires, hurricanes, and floods.

Promoting responsible investing helps stakeholders demand better from companies. That can mean reducing particulate emissions from refineries and factories; demanding manufacturers use less harmful chemicals and find safer alternatives; enhancing access to crucial goods and services; and ensuring businesses serve communities well and fairly. Responsible investing can help promote both increased investments into communities of color and stricter scrutiny of labor and manufacturing practices.