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  • April 2021 (Revised July 2021)
  • Case
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Public Equities Impact Investing at BlackRock

By: Shawn A. Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi, Michael Norris and John Masko
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:30
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Abstract

In early 2021, BlackRock—the world’s largest asset manager with $9 trillion in assets under management (AUM)—sought to become a leader in promoting environmental and social sustainability. Over the previous ten years, CEO Larry Fink had written an annual open letter to CEOs, pushing them to view sustainability and climate change planning key components of any long-term strategy. He had built an investment stewardship committee to attend portfolio company shareholder meetings and implement these goals. He had also recruited a team of prominent impact investors to BlackRock to lead a new impact investing fund. Now, as the new fund came of age, both the fund’s managers and BlackRock’s senior leadership faced difficult choices. At the fund level, they needed to define how to implement their two main selection criteria—intentionality and additionality—in choosing the fund’s next stocks. At the company level, BlackRock’s leaders wrestled with the question of just how much impact BlackRock could have on the companies it invested in, when well above half of BlackRock’s AUM were invested passively.

Keywords

Impact Investing; Renewable Energy; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Equity; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Management; Investment Funds; Investment Return; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Financial Services Industry; United States

Citation

Cole, Shawn A., Vikram S. Gandhi, Michael Norris, and John Masko. "Public Equities Impact Investing at BlackRock." Harvard Business School Case 221-066, April 2021. (Revised July 2021.)
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About The Authors

Shawn A. Cole

Finance
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Vikram Gandhi

Entrepreneurial Management
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Related Work

    • April 2021 (Revised July 2021)
    • Faculty Research

    Public Equities Impact Investing at BlackRock

    By: Shawn A. Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi, Michael Norris and John Masko
Related Work
  • Public Equities Impact Investing at BlackRock By: Shawn A. Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi, Michael Norris and John Masko
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