Sustainable Alpha: Matt Patsky on investor activism

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Matt Patsky is the CEO of Boston-based Trillium Asset Management LLC.

Sustainable Alpha features shared conversations with the best minds, portfolio managers and industry leaders working to maximize returns while prioritizing the environment, social and governance factors — what’s become short-handed in the industry as ESG. Sustainable Alpha highlights portfolio approaches and investment trends against the backdrop of broader themes such as resource constraints, policy changes and demographic shifts — all while shedding light on how ESG can impact your investments.

Sustainable Alpha conversations are led by John Wrenn, Senior VP, Investments for UBS. The Wrenn Ferguson Group has a combined experience of 200 years managing over 1.6 billion in assets, offering customized wealth management strategies for individuals, endowments and foundations. View the rest of his conversations with leaders in the sustainable investment community.

Here he's talking with Matt Pasky, CEO of Boston-based Trillium Asset Management LLC. Trillium, an early leader in the socially responsible investing sector, hired past Sustainable Alpha guest, Paul Hilton, in June.

John Wrenn: How has socially responsible investing evolved over time?

Matt Patsky: Socially Responsible Investing has evolved from an approach originally developed by religious investors who excluded companies from their portfolios based on certain values-based concerns, such as business involvement in tobacco, alcohol and gambling. Over time, there has been a shift from these negative “screens” to evaluating which companies are better to invest in based on their overall environmental, social and governance policies and performance. Increasingly investors realize that companies with the best ESG profiles will likely be the best long-term investments. Investors are also interested in making a positive impact on society in the way that they invest, by using their position as owners in a company to push companies to improve — through what is called shareholder advocacy.