Sustainable Investing at Rockefeller Global Family Office

"At Rockefeller, Sustainable Investing is a core part of our history. In the 1970s, the family launched its first mission-related fund. In early 1991, we launched a Global ESG Equity strategy. Drawing on over 40 years of intellectual capital, we offer our clients one of the most comprehensive sustainable investing platforms seeking to create value and catalyze change."

Gregory J. Fleming, President & Chief Executive Officer

The Rockefeller heritage in sustainable and impact investing dates back to the 1970s, when the family office began public and private investment programs that incorporated environmental and social values into the investment process. Rockefeller family members have long held the view that investment decisions have imperative moral, social and financial dimensions.

Decades of Thought Leadership

1977

1991

1996

1999

2001

2002

2011

2012

2013

2014

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Four Sustainable Investing Pillars

Catalyze Positive Change

Provide Investment and Wealth Advice

Socially Responsible Investing

A values-based decision to exclude portfolio holdings with objectionable business activities. The act of excluding portfolio holdings seeks to deny select companies or industries access to capital. Pioneered by religious organizations centuries ago.

Mission-Driven Impact

Investment approach that seeks to prioritize generating a positive environmental or social impact. Implemented by investors with patient capital and an ability to accept disproportionate risk and concessionary returns in order to achieve a desired environmental or social impact. Often used alongside grant-making portfolios to help advance a foundation’s mission.

Thematic

An investment approach designed to capitalize on opportunities that seek to provide solutions to many of today’s challenges. These are investment strategies designed to generate excess returns while catalyzing change alongside specific themes such as climate change, ocean health, diversity and affordable housing.

ESG Integration

Seeking to enhance returns or reduce risk by incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria alongside traditional analysis as a part of the investment decision making process. Increasingly demarcated between ESG Leaders and ESG Improvers, which are firms showing the greatest improvement in their ESG footprint.

Positive Sustainable Investments

We provide our clients the ability to generate positive impact through investments that seek to catalyze positive change, drawing from the Rockefeller Family’s proud tradition of pursuing sustainable investments for more than 100 years. We mobilize capital into strategies that focus on positive social and environmental impacts, promoting diversity, equity and inclusion by means of financing underserved and undercapitalized communities, transformative development opportunities, and climate solutions among others, to deliver competitive financial returns and catalyze positive change.

Shareholder Engagement

Our process seeks to identify investment managers that can effectively utilize shareholder engagement to promote ESG best practices, and protect and enhance shareholder value. As a result of supporting engagement, we promote and further a company’s commitment to corporate social responsibility in serving both people and planet.

Thought Leadership

We take on opportunities to bring industries and practices to a higher level of thinking. We collaborate with other leading responsible-investor organizations to advance and scale sustainable investments and practices to create value for our clients and catalyze positive social and environmental change.

Educate

Our sustainable advisory practice fosters active client engagement, providing sustainable investment education and delivering insights and research to our clients so they can remain at the forefront of this industry.

Advise

We advise across our clients' personal and charitable investment portfolios and seek to achieve both financial and sustainable objectives. We create customized financial plans, recommend sustainable investments aligned to goals, and guide clients through their sustainable investing journey.

Implement

We bring to bear the depth of experience and extensive capabilities of our team to identify a focus list of compelling investment opportunities that align with our clients' sustainable and financial objectives. We construct sustainable investment portfolios seeking to capture a diversified collection of potential return drivers on both the asset class and product levels, while generating a positive social or environmental impact.

Measure

We seek to measure positive impact alongside financial performance to ensure our clients are closely aligned with their investment and sustainable objectives. Examples include shareholder engagement outcomes, portfolio carbon reporting, and alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Our Ideas

ESG Improvers: An Alpha Enhancing Factor