Neil and Rainier.
Photo by Pat Joseph
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by Pat Joseph
Exhibits
My buddy Neil Stallings has been manning the Sierra Club Mutual Funds exhibit all day, fielding questions and giving out ball caps. From my informal survey, it seems to be one of the busier booths on the floor, and there's a basket full of filled-out forms on the table in front of him where folks have asked for more information about rolling over their IRAs or signing up for SEPs.
As the Summit wound down, I asked Neil to give me the spiel. Here's the gist of what he had to say:
People need to incorporate their values into their finances, and Sierra Club Mutual Funds is a way they can do that. We're an investment product, first and foremost, but one with an environmental overlay. We screen companies based on twenty environmental criteria. As such, we have zero tolerance for certain industries; namely, unsustainable, extractive industries and other polluting sectors of the economy. That includes everything from timber companies to fish farms, agriculture chemical manufacturers to mining companies. Our philosophy is basically risk-averse. We shy away from companies with known or hidden environmental liabilities in order to shield our shareholders from that kind of investment risk.
In effect, we've screened out the worst corporate offenders and put together an investment portfolio that will consistently outperform the market. We pick corporate leaders from sectors including telecom, financial services, consumer products and health care. What's more, thanks in part to the influence of the Sierra Club name brand, with its three-quarter of a million members, we're able to engage corporate decision makers in a constructive way. So if we talk to a big box retailer, for example, we'll first listen to the Sierra Club urban sprawl program about their concerns and take those issues to the management. In other words, we're leveraging the assets of Sierra Club members to encourage best practices.
To find out more, go to www.sierraclub.com.
-- 09/11/2005 Sun
3pm
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