2020 Impact Report
Read or download our firm's annual report.
Explore Our Impact
At Veris, we believe your capital can work toward your financial goals and your vision for a better future. Our 2020 Impact Report shares the collective impact our clients had through their investments across one calendar year and highlights some of the challenges that were created and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
What you’ll find in this report
Our 2020 Impact Report also offers our firm’s perspective on where we think impact investing is headed in the future, including how we are working to distinguish real impact from surface-level outcomes, which is sometimes called “impact washing.” It also covers how we integrate environmental, social, and governance factors into investment decisions across public and private markets. We share how our thematic approach spanning climate solutions, gender lens investing, community wealth building, and sustainable agriculture aims to direct capital to help address intersectional, systemic challenges.
The report also tells stories of companies and funds that are working to create positive impact, from private climate-technology ventures to public companies advancing gender equity, alongside the shareholder advocacy work we pursue on their behalf. We detail how active ownership practices, including voting proxies, engaging management, and filing resolutions, offers investors a pathway to voicing their views and helping drive positive change at the corporate level.
Because we hold ourselves to the same standard we bring to our investment process, the report turns the lens inward too. You’ll find our own firm’s diversity, equity, and inclusion work, the business decisions we made internally that year, and our 2020 carbon footprint. We also look at Veris’ role in directing capital toward Community Development Financial Institutions and other underserved channels. We work aimed at reaching communities that traditional finance often overlooks.
Whether you’re a family aligning your investments with your values, a foundation stewarding a mission-driven portfolio, or simply curious how a values-aligned wealth advisor thinks about a year like 2020, this report offers a transparent view of our process, our thinking, and the road still ahead. It closes with our CIO Michael Lent’s perspective on where he believes the field is heading next.
Impact investing has been our firm’s focus since 2007, and we aim for this report to reflect the rigor and transparency we strive to bring to every client relationship. We invite you to read it, share your reactions, and start a conversation with us about your own values-aligned investment goals.
