Genus Sustainability Policy
Our Mission
Genus’ mission is to create investment strategies for a sustainable future. Genus is here to show the world that you can put your money to work for good without sacrificing return potential. We provide leading sustainable investment solutions to Canadian families and institutions, and help reallocate money from companies harming the planet to those that are improving it.
Our Commitment
We demonstrate our commitment in the following ways:
Offering a wide range of sustainable investment offerings, and being transparent with our clients about the impact of their investments on the planet
Operating our business with as little impact as possible on the environment
Empowering our employees to reduce their environmental footprint, and make a difference in the community to causes that matter most to them
Enabling clients to align their investments with their values
Educating Canadians on how their investments can be used to promote sustainability and ultimately protect our planet
At Genus, we commit to continually improve our efforts to reduce negative impacts on people and the environment, while increasing our positive impact by re-allocating investments to organizations that benefit the world.
Our Impact
Below is an overview of the steps we’ve taken to meet our commitments.
Sustainable Investment Philosophy
- We are signatories of the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and have committed to the six principles to Responsible Investment. We commit to helping our clients make better investment decisions through an improved understanding of sustainability.
- We are a member of the Responsible Investment Association, an Associate member of the Shareholder Association for Research and Education, and a signatory to the Montreal Carbon Pledge and the Carbon Disclosure Project.
- We are home to Canada’s first fossil free mutual fund family, and offer one of the broadest range of fossil free funds and Impact Investing options in Canada. Our Fossil Free® Fund Family contains zero fossil fuel reserves and our Fossil Free® equity funds strive to keep carbon emissions intensity 70 percent lower than the weighted market average.
- Our Fossil Free Funds screen out fossil fuel industries (companies that extract, process, or transport fossil fuels), high carbon intensity, controversial products (tobacco or gambling), low overall ESG scores, and companies with widespread or very harmful controversies.
- We integrate sustainability metrics into our models, and continually look for new ways to add returns through sustainable investing.
Operations
- We are a proud B Corp, committed to meeting rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. Genus scored 88.8 out of 200 on its impact assessment, compared to a median of 50 out of 200 with similar companies. We prioritize doing business with fellow B Corps and using business as a force for good.
- We moved our head office to an LEED® Gold certified building to improve energy efficiency.
- We are actively supporting the growth of the renewable energy sector by partnering with Bullfrog Power to bring more renewable energy onto the grid.
- We promote the adoption of electric vehicles by providing our employees with up to $500 a month towards buying or leasing costs.
- We take recycling seriously. We use as little paper as possible, and recycle food and material waste.
- We purchase the greenest office supplies on the market.
Employees
- We are an employee-owned business, with 50 per cent of employees being shareholders, and our company overall being 50 per cent women-owned.
- We encourage employees to make a ‘Sustainable Commuting Commitment’ to travel by bike, foot or public transport or to work from home periodically. Our head office has a high walk score, and we cover costs for bus passes and community bike usage. We have bike racks and shower facilities on site.
- Our employees are given paid five volunteer days a year to make a difference in the local community. We also match the charitable donations of employees up to $500 each year.
- Our employees are given their birthdays as a vacation day, on top of their holiday allowance. We also allow our team to take up to an additional two weeks of unpaid vacation each year to recharge.
- There are fitness facilities on site and we provide employees with healthy snacks.
- We keep employees informed on our environmental commitments and provide resources on how to live and work more sustainably.
Clients
- We educate our clients on aligning their investments with their values.
- We enable investors to become Impact Investors. We launched Canada’s first impact investment counsel service, by partnering with SVX, to activate more assets for impact investing. Our goal is to mobilize $100,000,000 in assets in impact investing in the next three years.
- We use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to help clients determine and articulate their investment objectives. We also include the SDG framework in our clients’ Investment Policy Statements, and are developing a new SDG reporting framework.
- We host regular seminars and provide resources to clients on how they can invest sustainably.
General Public
- We conduct research on sustainable investment approaches and performance. These reports show that Canadians can invest in a sustainable future without sacrificing return potential.
- We have a dedicated communications program to educate the public on sustainable investing options and to promote sustainable living.