Sustainable companies, those that do a better job of managing people, planet and trust, deliver better returns on investment at lower risk than extractive businesses. And Paul Herman, founder and CEO of HIP Investor, has almost 20 years of data to prove it.
HIP Investor uses a proprietary zero-to-100-point system to measure which companies are more sustainable or impactful and which are more extractive. It grew from a question that the founder asked: “Is there a business model for solving human, social and environmental problems?”
His conclusion? “If you strategically design a purposeful mission, you can usually wrap a business model around it for revenue and profit.” Learn more in this episode of The Purposeful Strategist.
R. Paul Herman, FSA, is an impact investor, investment advisor, and a rater of investments on impact, ESG, the UN SDGs, GHGs, and Climate to pursue positive impact and profit potential. Founded 18 years ago, HIP (Human Impact + Profit) Investor today produces and licenses 400,000 impact investment ratings of 14,000 global equities, 123,000 muni bonds, and 270,000 bond issuances, for investors, fund managers, families, foundations, and 401(k) plans. HIP's clients manage $18 trillion in assets, a portion using HIP's Ratings. Paul is the author of The HIP Investor book (Wiley, 2010) and co-editor and co-author of the Global Handbook of Impact Investing (Wiley, 2021), both available in print and e-book.
He is a graduate of the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, advised Boards and executives while with McKinsey and Company, found and funded social entrepreneurs at Ashoka.org, and shaped and measured impact investments at eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's Network. Paul is an advisor to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and earned the Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting FSA credential, a lifetime advisor to Net Impact and to Sustainable Brands, and a research fellow of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity.
Paul Herman