Recently in New York City at the CSR Investing Summit, John Streur, President and CEO of Calvert Investments (www.calvert.com) was interviewed by Elsie Maio, founder of Humanity Inc. & the SoulBranding Institute. John shared some news about a new strategic partnership and some upcoming product offerings.
Elsie: John, you’ve been at Calvert now for 9 months. Any tangible results?
John: We introduced 3 index funds last month, and will introduce them for global capital markets. Well-priced index funds performing similar to the market comprised of companies that are solving important problems.
The Calvert Large Cap Core Responsible Investing Index is up and running. And while the average mutual fund costs 1%, ours is 19 basis points at institutional share class. Vanguard’s biggest, cheapest is in the 10 basis point range. And, we’ve put in place a new research system, 10 sustainability analysts with expertise on sub-industries to spot emerging risks in the industry, risks to company performance, and risks to society.
Elsie: What else do you and your team aspire to?
John: We want to do the work and go to the places where lots of others won’t. I feel real urgency for our society to solve our environmental problem and to solve our inequality problem. I don’t think there’s any time to fool around.
We will engage with policymakers and corporations on data privacy, indigenous issues, and potential discriminatory use of Big Data. No one else [but Calvert] filed a resolution with an insurance company regarding their profiling applications because there may be unintended consequences.
Elsie: What needs to happen for a critical mass to adopt such innovations in ESG?
John: The toolset to use, ESG, non-financial information is not fully developed. And yet the whole education and research track is developing in front of our eyes:
- The CFA Institute is being asked to build this into their educational suite;
- Certified Alternative Investment Analyst program also is working to develop an ESG track;
- Academic institutions are creating sustainability degrees, beginning to build those concepts into their business schools; and
- SASB is working hard to create standards, which will facilitate development of these learning tracks.
Elsie: Could there be a shadow lurking around the investment community’s embrace of ESG?
John: We don’t want all these tools to redefine ESG in a strictly profit-seeking sense. You can use this information in a variety of ways — not only to move intergenerational sustainability, equality in every sense, inclusive capital. We can also use it to just generate short-term returns.
Elsie: John, I sense that you and your family were quite contentedly settled in super-high-quality-of-life-rated Portland, OR. Why did you uproot and move East to lead Calvert?
John: To participate in change in the global capital markets. Calvert is a values-based investor and as long as I am there we will be. Now we have an opportunity to tie in financial returns with values. It’s critical and if we can do that it will make a significant difference.
Elsie: The Calvert brand has had its dips. At SoulBranding, we watch the business performance of iconic values-leaders like Calvert closely. What are you doing about brand relevance?
John: A number of things:
• Impact investing is an area where we want to increase our activity.
• We will be a lead investor on a new type of security between now and mid-September.
• Engagement that’s really productive with corporations and policy makers
• [Finally,] creating a more inclusive capitalist system. Larry Summers is saying ‘inclusive prosperity’ — I would say, ‘inclusive’.
We want to distinguish that Calvert is the firm that brings this all together in a way that matters, and people can really join that and do something.
Elsie: What’s next?
John: Now it’s a question of the word getting out.
BIOGRAPHIES
John Streur became President and CEO of Calvert Investments in October 2014. His 24 years experience in investment management leadership includes Portfolio 21, Managers Investment Group LLC and its predecessor, a firm he co-founded and where he served as President, CEO and Chair of the Investment Committee.
Elsie Maio is a sherpa to business leaders at the edge of alpha + impact, an alumna of McKinsey&Company and Institutional Investor and founder of Humanity, Inc/SoulBranding Institute.
This interview was edited by Elise Maio. Contact her at-elsiemaio@soulbranding.com
