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Funds Group: Columbia Threadneedle Funds
Management Company: Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC
Funds Affected: (1) Columbia US Social Bond, (2) Columbia Sustainable Global Equity Income ETF, Columbia Sustainable International Equity Income ETF
Principal Sustainable Investment Management Strategy: (1) ESG Integration, (2) Negative screening (Exclusions)
Summary:
(1) The fund will primarily focus on sectors that the investment manager believes are aimed toward positive environmental and social development such as education, healthcare, community services, housing, water, sewer, connectivity (such as broadband Internet or mass transit infrastructure) and similar socially impactful sectors. The fund firm notes that its unique and robust social scoring system measures the social impact of each municipal bond. Sustainalytics, a leading independent provider of ESG research and analysis to investors worldwide, verifies the fund’s social outcomes and publishes an annual social impact report.

(2) MSCI screens companies for “sustainability” through the application of its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating methodology that is designed to exclude companies with unfavorable corporate ESG practices.

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Research

Research and analysis to keep sustainable investors up to-date on a broad range of topics that include trends and developments in sustainable investing and sustainable finance, regulatory updates, performance results and considerations, investing through index funds and actively managed portfolios, asset allocation updates, expenses, ESG ratings and data, company and product news, green, social and sustainable bonds, green bond funds as well as reporting and disclosure practices, to name just a few.

A continuously updated Funds Directory is also available to investors.  This is intended to become a comprehensive listing of sustainable mutual funds, ETFs and other investment products along with a description of their sustainable investing approaches as set out in fund prospectuses and related regulatory filings.

Getting started

Many questions have surfaced in recent years regarding sustainable and ESG investing.  Here, investors and financial intermediaries will find materials that describe the various approaches to sustainable investing and their implementation.  While sustainable investing approaches vary and they have thus far defied universally accepted definitions, many practitioners agree that they fall into the following broad categories:  Values-based investing, investing via exclusions, impact investing, thematic investments and ESG integration.  In conjunction with each of these approaches, investors may also adopt various issuer engagement procedures and proxy voting practices.  That said, sustainable investing approaches will continue to evolve.

In addition to periodic updates regarding sustainable investing and how this form of investing is evolving, investors and financial intermediaries interested in implementing a sustainable investing approach will also find source materials that cover basic investing themes as well as asset allocation tactics.

Inesting ideas

Thoughts and ideas targeting sustainable investing strategies executed through various registered and non-registered sustainable investment funds and products such as mutual funds, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs), closed-end funds, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Unit Investment Trusts (UITs). Coverage extends to investment management firms as well as fund groups. 

Independent source for sustainable investment management company research, analysis, opinions and sustainable fund disclosure assessments