Sustain: Onward and Upward into 2019
Tags: Investing, Sustainability, Activism, Climate Change

Sustain: Onward and Upward into 2019

Where do we go from here?

In 2019, we are confident that sustainability concepts, concerns, and performance will continue to shape and move markets. Most saliently, fresh investments into sustainable projects, greater environmental stewardship, and strengthening corporate focus on purpose alongside profit will remain critical themes. Core to our mission, we plan on continuing to empower your journey towards responsible ownership through transparency and democracy. Know what you own, vote on the world you wish to see!

What happened in 2018

In 2018, emissions rose, urgent reports on climate change dominated headlines, the EPA started dismantling environmental policy, and coral reef experts voiced fear of extinction. While the movement to ban plastic straws gained global attention, plastic production increased in 2018 and demand is expected to grow from 100 million metric tons (MMT) in 2018 to 120 MMT in 2022. On the positive, renewable energy sources became cheaper, corporate clean energy purchases grew, and EV growth continued, encompassing buses, vans, and even garbage trucks. Nielsen, a market research firm, found that half of US shoppers claim they’d change their consumption habits to benefit the environment.

Early in the year, company CEOs started to acknowledge their moral compass, vocalizing concerns over DACA, pulling guns from US retail outlets, proactively supporting social activist leaders (albeit with questionable motives), and pledging to share tax reform benefits with employees.

However, some CEOs were merely trying to keep their businesses afloat. Shares of General Electric, formerly an iconic name in the corporate world, fell -60% as they continued to face the consequences from a massive bet on fossil fuels as well as nefarious bookkeeping within their capital management arm. On the other hand, Amazon shares were up 26% (who doesn’t love Prime?), yet performance came on the back of revelations of shoddy working conditions (Unsustain?), perhaps trying to revamp its image, the company raised its minimum wage (while simultaneously rolling back other benefits such as stock-compensation).

The market as a whole, down -7% at the time of writing, suffered from the logical anticipation of a slower economy resulting from a surge in nationalistic policy trends (e.g. classic economic theory suggests increasing tariffs hurts the global economy).

Nevertheless, the Sustain Beta Test Fund hung in there, outperforming the market by ~9% (down -4% at the time of writing versus the market’s performance of -15% over the same time period). The strong performance was driven by renewable energy giant NextEra (+4% since October) – in September, the company bought ~$1.2B of new renewable energy assets. Tesla contributed as well (+9% since October), although the Sustain community sold the stock in November’s rebalance due to concerns over worker treatment.

Sustain Thanks You!

Sustain is extremely grateful for your engagement, feedback, and participation in the Beta Test! We are hoping to transform the sustainable investing experience by providing transparency, enabling agency and democracy through voting – and eventually encouraging knowledge and perspective sharing on critical issues. This past year, aside from launching our Beta Test, we also graduated from YC Startup School, which has helped train us for journey ahead.

Here’s to 2019. Happy Voting!

Andre, Chris, Sylwia and Nick

Sustain