Mellon Capital CEO: BNY Mellon Collaboration Yields Carbon Efficiency Strategy
SOCAP 15 is a leading impact investing conference in San Francisco that brings together investors, entrepreneurs and practitioners passionate about impact investing and social enterprise.
In a recent presentation on “Social Finance and Investing in Carbon Efficiency,” Mellon Capital CEO Gabriela Franco Parcella explored how the firm approaches partner and product innovation to meet competing client needs regarding fiduciary duty and environmental objectives.
Parcella notes that, “Institutional investors have a fiduciary duty to ensure they meet the financial benefit of their beneficiaries. This entails remaining laser focused on generating risk adjusted returns.”
Mellon Capital looked to help one of its clients find a way to maximize their investment dollars to work in furtherance of their mission, while still meeting their investment committee’s fiduciary duties.
Together with The McKnight Foundation and their consultants Mercer and Imprint Capital, Mellon Capital developed a custom investment product designed to enable them to invest in a capacity that focused on carbon emission.
The resulting outcome included the creation of the Carbon Efficiency Strategy, an inclusive strategy that leverages screening, rewards, penalties and engagement in one holistic approach. The main thrust of the strategy is its ability to cost-effectively provide broad equity exposure, while assessing, recognizing and supporting strong climate performance.
Parcella revealed, “The decision to select carbon revolved around the need to address climate change issues. Interestingly, it is not the fossil fuels themselves that are the problem, but the companies that are releasing carbon through the burning of fossil fuels.”
She added that, “We ultimately developed a strategy that is scalable, adaptable and limits the investment risk taken as we tilt toward carbon reduction.”
The resulting Carbon Efficiency Strategy is notable for addressing BNY Mellon’s Social Finance framework for sustainable changes. It met all five conditions needed to scale social finance such as accessibility, measurement, transparency, systemic change and collaboration.
Parcella joined an esteemed group of speakers at the conference from the Calvert Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Kaiser Permanente to name a few.
You can learn more details about BNY Mellon’s commitment to social finance through the site: www.bnymellon.com/socialfinance.
