Designations
B Corp & Benefit Corporation Designations
Enduring Truths: Considering the interests of all of our stakeholders
2021 marks a decade of integrating ESG metrics into our investment process, and similarly marks 10 years since we committed to “walk the walk.” We believed it was appropriate to apply the same level of scrutiny on ourselves as a company that we considered for our investments.
It was around that time that we learned about the B Corp movement where companies are assessed on their impact in the areas of Governance, Workers, Community, Customers and Environment. In 2013, we completed requirements to become a Certified B Corp.
In addition, Breckinridge rewrote our articles of incorporation to become a Massachusetts Benefit Corporation. This designation requires us to incorporate purpose, accountability and transparency into our
organization and is a legal framework that supports our broader consideration of impact on our clients, society and the environment to create long-term sustainable value.
We continue to use the B Impact Assessment, developed by the nonprofit B Lab, to measure our impacts. The assessment also guides our commitments to enhance our impacts over time. We have used our assessment to help formulate a number of our sustainability initiatives
and strategies. In 2020, we undertook our recertification process, which happens every three years, and are awaiting results.
We’re proud to be part of this community of over 3,800 companies across the globe that use their business to transform the economy with their triple bottom line strategies considering profit, people and planet.
Our Stakeholders and How We Engage
As Benefit Director of Breckinridge, I am pleased to report that the company continues to build out its deep commitment to sustainability at all levels—corporate, investment process, and stakeholder engagement. The work underlying sustainability leadership we believe contributes to the firm’s capacity to deliver superior service to its investors, to the deepening of the sustainable investing field more broadly, and to the
thriving of Breckinridge’s employees and their families.
As the field of sustainable investing shifts from a niche investment strategy to a mainstream practice that seeks to deliver financial and environmental and social return to its investors, our leadership as an early adopter and practitioner of sustainable investing has accelerated. Over the course of 2020, Breckinridge elaborated on its internal sustainability governance by creating two dedicated subcommittees within the Sustainability Committee to focus on Human Capital Management and Climate. This allowed the firm to deepen its work on diversity, equity and inclusion within Breckinridge itself, and to sharpen an ongoing commitment to assessing climate risk across all areas of the firm and its investments. Breckinridge looks to 2021 for the adoption of a robust and comprehensive strategy to achieve a high standard of diversity, equity and inclusion within the firm and to consider it within the investment process. A firm-wide Climate Policy is poised for adoption in 2021 as well, having been deliberately crafted this past year. The next step will be to devise a Climate Action Plan to provide legs to that policy, which will require a thoughtful metrics framework for the carbon footprint of the firm, as well as of its portfolio institutions.
Finally, it must be noted that in the extraordinary times that COVID presented in 2020, Breckinridge’s careful attention to institutional sustainability served the firm well. Uninterrupted service to clients at Breckinridge’s customary level of excellence has continued throughout the pandemic and the extreme market volatility of 2020, thanks to solid risk management, disaster recovery, and business continuity planning that enabled the firm to pivot literally overnight to remote work.
In summary, I am pleased to report that, in the opinion of the Board, the company has acted well in accordance with its general benefit purpose in all material respects during 2020, and that the directors and officers have complied with the duties of their respective positions in considering the impact of Board and management decisions on the array of Breckinridge’s stakeholders.*
Anne Stetson
Benefit Director
*Reference is made specifically to Massachusetts General Laws Chap. 156E, subsection 10(a) and 12(a).