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Creating Impact

Being a Sustainable consumer – Halloween edition

Halloween is upon us, and with that the rush to get candy to hand out to eager little hands. So how do you find the right candy to hand out?

You can incorporate your personal values in your consumption decisions - including for Halloween.

Personally, I would love to give out apples, but I don’t think I would score a lot of points in my neighborhood. So the primary consideration is then to buy candy you like yourself – just in case there are leftovers that “have to be dealt with” afterwards.

Our go-to’s are m&m’s and Mounds (although the m&m’s make you question the FDA after seeing the European version of much more muted colors). For fun, I took a deeper dive into looking at the companies that make those delicious treats, Mars Inc. and Hershey’s, respectively, to see if I can use my impact screening methodology to find a preference.

There are many different ways to look at the relative attractiveness of two companies. This one gets a little more interesting, as Mars is privately owned, while Hershey’s is listed on the stock exchange. I use various tools in my assessment when looking at building portfolios with the right profiles, and for this exercise, ethosesg.com is a good place to start. They offer a lot of insights and collects data from many different sources – and a lot of it is free to use.

The next step is to find the metrics that would be important to look at, and there are many to choose from. For this post, I chose to look at resource use and how they treat their work force. I chose the factors to look at before diving into it, to try to avoid being persuaded by the data.

First the big picture, the carbon footprint. To be able to make a reasonable comparison, carbon intensity (emissions per $1M revenue) is a good indicator. The companies are vastly different sizes, so the total emissions could skew the results. Here, we find that Hershey emits only 27% of that of Mars – quite a significant difference. Winner, Hershey.

Next, sustainable use of water. Many consumption based industrials use significantly more water than you would expect, and clean water is a resource that is scarce in many regions, both domestically and globally – so it should be used sustainably. This one is directly related to UN Sustainable Development Goal #6 – Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all – and involves several different data points (27 at last count, both company provided and from third party watch dogs and governmental sources), so we will be looking at the high level score. Here, Hershey scores 97 vs Mars at 32. This score could be impacted by the lack of data from Mars (as they are privately held), but I don’t think enough to explain the difference. Winner, Hershey.

Onto their labor practices. A good place to start is equal pay, which goes a lot further than purely looking at same pay for same work. It also involves looking at the ability for women and minorities to receive promotions, giving them access to higher paying positions at a similar rate as that of men (white men in particular). On that parameter, both companies score above average, although with Hershey ahead 96 to Mars’ 78. Winner, Hershey.

Overall, based on my limited criteria, Hershey would be a company whose products I feel better about buying. Does that mean Mars is a terrible company? No, it doesn’t, but it does show a room for improvement. There is no such thing as a perfect company – but as consumers, and sometimes shareholders, we can nudge or push them towards being more of a positive contributor to our shared world.

Honestly, I was a little surprised by some of the findings, at least the magnitude of difference between these two companies. As a result, I will push more of my purchases towards Mounds (and Reese’s Pieces) to support a company that better reflect my values.

If I had looked at different data points, the needle could have pointed another direction (although Hershey does look like a pretty good performer in most categories). The value in a comparison like this, is that by taking a look through the lens reflecting your personal values, you can look for the best fit for you.

Want to learn more about your values, and how they could affect your buying and investing decisions? Take a short assessment here, and get your Impact Persona.

This post is intended for educational purposes only, and should not be construed as personalized tax, investment, legal or other professional advice. Before taking any actions, you should always seek the assistance of a qualified professional. The information contained in this post is derived from sources deemed to be reliable but cannot be guaranteed. Past performance is not indicative of future results.  All views/opinions expressed are solely those of the presenter and do not reflect the views/opinions held by Advisory Services Network, LLC.  

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Article about investing during turbulent times

Frank was recently interviewed for an article in Authority Magazine, which discussed money and investment decisions during turbulent times.

You can find the article here: Authority Magazine article

These are the views of the author, not  Advisory Services Network, LLC, and should not be construed as investment advice. This site may contain links to articles or other information that may be contained on a third-party website. Advisory Services Network, LLC is not responsible for and does not control, adopt, or endorse any content contained on any third party website.

Newsletters

Newsletter Q4 2019 – the Triple Bottom Line

In this last issue of 2019, we touch on the following topics;

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The Triple Bottom Line is a step towards living in harmony with the world around us

 

  • Year end reminders
  • The Triple Bottom Line – People, Planet and Profit
  • Portfolio Commentary, current positioning, market outlook and reasoning

Click the link to read the newsletter: Triple Bottom Line – Forty4 Financial 2019-4

Happy Holidays!

Newsletters

Newsletter Q3 2019 – Charitable Giving, Donor Advised Funds

In this issue of the newsletter, we touch on the following topics;

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  • How to get the most impact from your donations, thru tax aware gifting.
  • Creating a family legacy via a Donor Advised Fund, and ways to create an impact even before the final gifting.
  • Portfolio Commentary, current positioning, market outlook and reasoning.

Click the link to read the newsletter: Charitable Giving – Forty4 Financial 2019-3