We are a company that is passionate about the triple bottom line – people, planet and profits.
Our Mission & Vision
We make sustainable choices when we can. We are excited that renewable energy and organic food are more affordable and available than ever before. When it’s easy, affordable, and available, more people choose sustainability and the world is better off.
Our mission is to make sustainable investing easier. In a perfect world, investors would have good sustainable fund choices for all of the asset classes in their portfolio. The choices investors make can shape our world. The more sustainable choices investors make, the more sustainable our world will become.
Our vision is a world in which more money is invested in sustainability so that companies are encouraged to adopt a triple bottom line, where they look after People and Planet, as well as Profit
The Story Behind Our Name
Our company’s name comes from the ‘Aiguille Verte”, a beautiful mountain in the Alps near Chamonix, France. Translated from French, it means the ‘Green Peak’. Chamonix is known as the birthplace of alpinism and has been a premier destination for mountain lovers for hundreds of years. As such, it provides an historical record of the dramatic effects of our changing climate on the glaciers and on air quality. We love hiking, climbing, and skiing these mountains, and we are passionate about protecting them for future generations. We named the company, Vert, to reflect our commitment to elevating sustainability, and to remind us of what we are protecting.
The Meaning Behind the Vert Logo
Human progress since the Industrial Revolution has been extraordinary. If you graph metrics like literacy rates, lifespans, education levels, health, etc., generally you see lines steadily pushing upward. Much of this progress was made possible by economic growth, which was fueled largely by burning fossil fuels.
In fact, when GDP rises, greenhouse gas emissions rise and when GDP falls, GHG emissions fall. This ‘coupled’ relationship leads many to believe we have to choose economic growth or a healthy planet. But this is a false choice.
If we move the world to a sustainable way of operating by adopting renewable energy and switching to circular business models, we can break the causal relationship between growth and emissions. We can ‘decouple’ human progress from pollution.
The negative space in our logo – the diverging white lines – represent the ‘decoupling’ we want to see.
We want to build a future where human progress via economic growth continues upward and emissions turn downward.
The Future Is Better
1. What is the situation?
We believe that humans are damaging the planet but that this situation is reversible. We believe we have the knowledge and the technology required to live sustainably. We believe that we should move more quickly to employ these technologies. We believe our challenge is simply overcoming inertia, and the vested interests that protect the status quo. We avoid change when it’s unfamiliar but we embrace it when we understand. We believe that when people learn how, they will want to make sustainable choices. We believe those choices are healthier, more fun, cheaper long term, and simply better.
2. What we should do.
We believe capitalism is a powerful force, and will create the solutions we need. We believe the current ‘maximizing shareholder value’ mantra is not serving us well. We believe a ‘maximizing stakeholder value’ philosophy is a better approach. We believe shareholders care about more than just profit, but people and planet too. We believe when shareholders invest for profit, people, and planet, companies will respond.
3. What the future holds.
We don’t believe we can predict the future. However… We believe most cars will be powered by electricity and most roofs will have solar panels. We believe we’ll be much more energy efficient, and more food will be organic. We believe the energy we use, the air we breath, and the food we eat, will all be cleaner. We believe this because these choices will be healthier, more fun, cheaper long term, and simply better.
