21st Century Investing: Redirecting Financial Strategies to Drive Systems Change

Socially responsible investing won't create fundamental change. This book introduces system-level investing, which enables investors to go beyond vetting individual investments and instead craft an entire portfolio designed to bring about change in a whole system. Our financial markets can no longer grapple adequately with the pressing challenges of our times—such as climate change, income inequality, diversity, and the health of our oceans. Sustainable investment helps investors to manage environmental, social, and governance considerations in their portfolios, but this piecemeal approach stops short of addressing the larger systemic challenges that underlie them, thereby running the risk of missing the forest for the trees. Concerned about climate change, sustainable investors might invest in a portfolio of solar power companies. System-level investors would invest in a portfolio of solar and wind power, batteries, energy efficient and sustainable forest products, regenerative agriculture, and similar resources from companies that provide a holistic vision of what an alternative world could be. William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg have pioneered this approach through their work at the Investment Integration Project. In this book they provide a guide for investors—both concerned individuals and financial professionals as well as investment advisors—explaining why this investment approach is critical today and how it can be put into practice.