Portfolio 21

In Carsten Henningsen's opinion, money is power -- and you DO have a choice about where to deploy your dollars, whether it's in the supermarket or the stock market.

Henningsen is a director at Portfolio 21 -- a Portland-based financial services company that offers socially/environmentally responsible investment choices. One of Portfolio 21's primary goals is to invest money in a way that promotes responsible corporate behavior and leads to healthier, more sustainable economies. Their fund has been outperforming the S&P 500 even in the economic downturn. And the best part is that the minimum investment is low by traditional investment standards, with investment options starting at just $1,000.

Portfolio 21 has developed stringent selection criteria (based on The Natural Step), which allow it to add companies with an understanding of ecological risks and opportunities to its mutual fund lineup.  Selection criteria include ecologically superior product design, use of renewable energy, raw materials sourcing,  product take-back programs, and  product distribution and transportation.  Portfolio 21 also looks for companies that are applying environmental strategies from the CEO down, and analyzes a company's capital investments in order to ensure those dollars are being used in a way that’s environmentally progressive. Each criterion adds up to a comprehensive evaluation that determines whether the company will qualify for inclusion. When a company fails, Portfolio 21 uses that as an opportunity to provide feedback and begin a dialogue.

Portfolio 21 also has a sister company -- Upstream 21 – which acquires small, locally-owned and privately-held businesses that offer products and services designed to sustain their communities.  Upstream 21 operates these companies as wholly-owned subsidiaries, providing management expertise, access to capital, and guidance on strategy and  sustainable business practices. And Upstream 21 makes its articles of incorporation -- which were written with an explicit promise of accountability and social responsibility to its shareholders -- available to any company that wants to use them as a model.

“When people invest in socially/environmentally responsible mutual funds, they need to  understand the impacts of  multinational corporations” says Henningsen. “That's because multinational corporations aren’t sustainable and they never will be. When a corporation's actions are mandated by passive shareholders who want to achieve unlimited growth within an ecologically constrained planet, sustainability is an impossible goal. Growth is not bad – but we need to decide what it is we want to grow.  We’re already exceeding the ecological capacity of the planet, so the concept of unlimited growth and continued stock market returns as we’ve seen over the last 60 years is not physically possible, unless we can borrow from another planet."

If Henningsen’s belief is correct – that it's impossible to grow healthy, sustainable communities based on the traditional multinational corporate model – then how CAN we grow them?

Portfolio 21 started Upstream 21 primarily to address this question, and to provide investment options that lead to stronger local living economies.  Upstream 21 aims to put more capital into the wallets of local companies contributing to sustainable economies.  It also provides investors with the option of investing in their own communities, which is a desire Henningsen says is frequently voiced at events he attends around the region. “Now we need to make those investment options available to more people in more places so that anyone can have an opportunity to invest in their own bio-region.”