Portfolios Aligned With Your Unique Values & Mission

Glenmede formally launched our dedicated Sustainable & Impact Investing group in 2014 to build customized portfolios that achieve both competitive risk-adjusted financial returns and measurable environmental and social outcomes.

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Three Core Strategic Objectives

Through our dedicated team of sustainability analysts and portfolio managers, we partner with you to achieve three integrated outcomes:

1. Mitigate Risk

Systematically incorporating material environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors that traditional financial statements frequently overlook, identifying vulnerabilities before they impair capital.

2. Capture Growth

Allocating capital to innovative corporate leaders pioneering the clean energy transition, resource circularity, female health technologies (FemTech), and financial inclusion.

3. Produce Measurable Impact

Delivering transparent, quantitative tracking on underlying holdings, translating abstract investment dollars into real-world metric outcomes such as carbon reduction and gender equity ratios.

Our Four Core Impact Pillars

We structure client strategies around four distinct thematic domains to match individual passions or institutional mission charters.

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Broad Sustainability

Multi-factor ESG integration across global equities and fixed income, identifying companies with superior environmental efficiency, stakeholder ethics, and accounting transparency.

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Climate Change

Managing physical and regulatory transition risks while directing capital to clean energy generation, grid electrification, battery storage, and climate-resilient civil infrastructure.

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Inclusion

Gender lens investing, racial equity, disability inclusion, and veteran empowerment across corporate board governance, senior executive leadership, and supplier pipelines.

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Empowerment

Social equity investments improving access to healthcare therapeutics, affordable housing finance, educational technology, and community development loan funds.

Four Implementation Approaches

Every client has different priorities regarding expected return, values alignment, and catalytic mission impact. We offer four distinct implementation models:

Approach 1

Integrated

Market-Rate Returns

Systematic incorporation of material and relevant sustainability data alongside traditional fundamental and quantitative equity/credit analysis to enhance risk-adjusted return.

Approach 2

Mandated / Values Screening

Market-Rate Returns

Negative exclusionary screening (avoiding firearms, tobacco, fossil fuels) paired with positive best-in-class screening to align portfolios with personal or organizational ethical mandates.

Approach 3

Thematic

Market-Rate Returns

Investing with a concentrated environmental or social lens, targeting secular growth themes such as Women's Healthcare, clean energy infrastructure, or faith-based guidelines.

Approach 4

Concessionary High-Impact

Sub-Market / Catalytic Returns

Deploying capital with a pronounced, localized impact priority, utilizing Program-Related Investments (PRIs) and community loan funds where social impact supersedes market-rate returns.

External Sustainable Investing Advisory Council

To ensure our research maintains the highest academic rigor and objectivity, Glenmede's practice is guided by an external Sustainable Investing Advisory Council consisting of cross-sector sustainability academics, impact practitioners, and corporate governance experts.

This independent perspective provides crucial oversight over our proprietary impact measurement methodologies, ESG scoring frameworks, and manager due diligence screens.

WealthBriefing Wealth for Good Award Trophy
WealthBriefing Wealth for Good Award Three-Time Consecutive Winner (2024, 2025, 2026) for Investment Advice & Service Provision (Americas)
Glenmede Sustainable Investing Strategy Review report cover

Published White Papers & Thematic Analyses

Explore deep dives written by Glenmede's Sustainable & Impact Investing strategists.

Gender Lens Research

Meeting the Moment: Investing in Women's Health

Only 4% of global biopharma R&D is allocated to female-specific health conditions despite women being 2x more likely to develop Alzheimer's or depression. We outline investable opportunities across FemTech, medical diagnostics, and therapeutics.

Energy Transition

Navigating the U.S. Energy Transition

Surging electricity demand driven by AI data centers, manufacturing reshoring, and domestic electrification requires massive capital reallocation into renewable generation, grid storage, and nuclear power.

Artificial Intelligence

Investing in AI: Balancing Innovation with Responsibility

Assessing how investors can allocate to generative AI leaders while verifying adherence to data privacy protection, algorithmic bias audits, and energy-efficient computing architectures.

Sustainable Investing FAQs

Addressing common questions regarding performance, screening, and impact accounting.

ESG integration focuses on identifying environmental, social, and corporate governance risks that traditional financial statements ignore, helping to protect financial returns. In contrast, impact investing explicitly deploys capital into enterprises or funds designed to create measurable real-world environmental or social benefits alongside a return.
No. Under our Integrated, Mandated, and Thematic strategies, portfolios are constructed to seek competitive market-rate returns. A comprehensive body of academic literature demonstrates that companies managing material sustainability factors often exhibit superior operational efficiency and lower tail-risk. Only Concessionary High-Impact investments intentionally accept sub-market returns.
Glenmede provides proprietary impact reporting quantifying metrics such as weighted carbon intensity, clean technology revenue exposure, board gender diversity, and alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

Align Your Portfolio With Your Purpose

Schedule an introductory conversation with Glenmede's Sustainable & Impact Investing team to evaluate your portfolio's carbon footprint and impact potential.

Connect With a Sustainable Advisor