Environment

Investing in Sustainability

Calvert Foundation was founded on the principal of sustainability – both financial and environmental. Since poverty affects the way people interact with their environment, we are increasingly incorporating loans that support environmental responsibility into our portfolio.

We currently have over $5 million at work with organizations either primarily focused on making environmental sustainability integral to their projects:

• Poverty & the Environment Abroad. An increasing number of the microfinance institutions and Fair Trade cooperatives in our portfolio have incorporated environmental stewardship into their activities. Investing in these organizations helps alleviate poverty while promoting responsible environmental practices, such as sustainable development and agriculture. This is still a new concept for microfinance institutions but critical that it be introduced now, while the industry is still maturing. Huatusco, a Mexican worker-owned coffee cooperative we lend to, reduces water usage and contamination in their wet mills by over 90 percent by implementing water-efficient practices.
• Poverty & the Environment Here at Home. In the U.S., we support groups such Shorebank Pacific, which finances responsible fisheries in the upper Northwest. This group has also established a new Green Building Loan Program that provides green builders up to 85 percent loan-to-value, a significant increase in the amount commercial developers can borrow against the value of their property in the current economy. This new sector of our portfolio will also support groups like Cape Cod Fisheries Trust, a program in New England that is helping fishers to be able to do hook fishing and be able to compete against large, industrial scale fishing that is done by trolling.

Given the success of these investments, and the increasing desire of our investors to support groups that simultaneously combat poverty and help the environment, we are placing another $5 to $10 million for “green” initiatives in 2010. We will fund this activity by offering a special Community Investment Note that will allow investors to target all of their investment toward the “green” groups in our portfolio. These groups include those mentioned above and newly funded groups providing clean water to poor communities, creating renewable energy solutions for underserved communities, and building “green” affordable housing.

Real-Life Returns

d.Light Design, a new member of Calvert Foundation’s portfolio, was started to help the 1.6 billion people around the world who live without electricity. Poor families in developing countries spend 10 to 30 percent of their income on kerosene, which can be expensive, dangerous, and bad for health and the environment. Through their efficient and affordable solar lanterns, d.Light intends to eradicate kerosene. In the last year, they have helped an estimated half million people bring safe and reliable light into their lives.

© Photo courtesy of d.Light Design

> Why invest in environmental solutions to poverty?
> Profiles of all Calvert Foundation borrowers