New York Life Investments

At New York Life Investments, we believe that an ESG approach that considers multiple stakeholder perspectives can help guard against risks that can’t be fully evaluated using traditional financial measures alone. When ESG considerations most relevant to the asset class, sector and strategy being managed inform our process, it can help mitigate risks. It may also help our clients generate sustainable, long-term returns — all while working to create a better future for our communities and the planet.

“ESG is a priority at New York Life Investments and has been growing in scope and importance. We are committed to work together across our boutique family — each of us at a different stage of our ESG journey — to drive progress and learn from one another.”

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Eunie Popp
Managing Director
Head of U.S. Sustainable Investing, NYLIM

For companies around the world, the pandemic has proven to be a powerful call to action on ESG issues. It brought new challenges to the forefront and pushed companies to not just focus on their shareholders but widen their aperture to include all stakeholders. At New York Life Investments, we’re encouraged to see this broadened viewpoint. It further supports our conviction that ESG is more than an acronym — it is an outlook. Investing in companies that are good corporate citizens ultimately can help build a stronger society.

Our current times present both challenges and opportunities. Take the climate: A report by Deloitte indicates that inaction on climate change could cost the world’s economy $178 trillion in net present value terms by 2070. Yet the same report also revealed that the world’s economy could gain $43 trillion in net present value terms over the next 50 years if it accelerates toward a path of low-emissions growth.³

4,940,000 square meters

of mangrove restoration

Reforestation in Senegal

Candriam, New York Life Investments’ global, multi-specialist asset manager, sets aside 10% of net fees from several of its sustainable and thematic strategies to finance philanthropic programs through the Candriam Institute for Sustainable Development (the Institute). In 2021, donations amounted to €2.9 million. Through the Institute, Candriam partnered with WeForest, a nonprofit organization which works towards the reforestation of degraded land in primarily tropical regions. WeForest deploys best practices that relate to landscape restoration, poverty alleviation, and social justice. Starting in 2021, Candriam made a three-year commitment to the restoration of 4,940,000 square meters of mangroves along the Casamance River in southern Senegal.⁴

Investment management is a people-first business. The decisions we make affect our clients and employees and have the power to transform the communities in which we conduct business and invest around the globe.

Supporting Local Farmers

IndexIQ launched its first ETF in the Dual Impact suite, IQ Healthy Hearts ETF (HART),⁵ which seeks to invest in companies that support heart health to combat heart disease, one of the leading causes of death in the world. The fund’s strategy was developed in alignment with the American Heart Association and makes contributions to the group’s Social Impact Fund, which invests in local entrepreneurs and organizations breaking down social and economic barriers to health equity. One of those organizations is the Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA), which sub-leases farmland to local Hmong farmers to support intergenerational wealth creation and provides continuing education in sustainable agricultural practices.

“The HAFA Farm is such an audacious project because it provides Hmong farmers access to land tenures.”

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Janssen Hang
Co-Founder & Executive Director of HAFA