Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16good start, but we could do more. Using the assessment results, we identified the places where we could effect meaningful change. Some were low cost and low visibility like changing our traditional cleaning supplies in favor of greener choices. Others have been more visible and represented leaps rather than small steps forward. In January 2016, we began the installation of a 24.5kW solar array that right now powers 75% of the total power needed in our Headquarters building. We are very fortunate to have an enthusiastic Board that was willing to provide the financial flexibility to commit to this project. Our environmen- tal returns are immediate and the financial payback period on this improvement is estimated to be only seven years. We all took a few moments this spring to celebrate ‘flipping the switch’ to activate this new sustainability effort. A smaller, but equally important milestone was receiving our first power bill of $0, and seeing a $180 credit to use during periods of less vibrant sun that we experience during our often gray New England winters. As a result of small and large changes, our Root360 score in 2016 was 79/100, putting us at about the 75th percentile for our peers. Sustainability, for us, has been a bit contagious. Having a sense of our‘power budget’ (what we can predictably produce on our own roof), we knew we wanted to do more. We want to live within our means financially every year, so why not expand those values to incorporate that theme into our own power usage? An energy audit revealed that lighting was an area of great energy usage and opportunity for us. As I write, three pallets of new energy efficient LED light- ing—201 fixtures in total—are being delivered and installed. 75% of the cost was covered by a joint efficiency program of the state and the utility company. With the new lights, we will not only reduce our ‘off the grid’ annual consumption of energy to zero, we will actually be able to produce clean renew- able energy to put back into the system, displacing power that would likely otherwise have come from burning fossil fuels. Our new lighting automatically shuts off when occupants leave the room. It auto-dims when window light allows, and bright- ens during cloudy periods to keep a constant, user-set lighting condition in the room. Not only does this save energy, but also creates a much more comfortable working environment for our staff. All of the packing materials and old fixtures and bulbs are being disposed of through a registered recycler responsible for disassembling components and separating into cardboard, glass, and metal for future use, and removing hazardous mate- rials for proper disposal. We have certainly been the beneficiaries of generous sup- port from our donors and Trustees to fund these improve- ments. We have made investments in our facilities to make our operations more sustainable. But facilities are not the only places where our choices can make a difference. Our Board and its Investment Committee began in 2016 to shift our approach to managing Manomet’s endowment. As a mission-driven organization, we want all of our choices and actions to be consistent with our values and our commitment to sustainability. Manomet has worked with institutional investors like Grantham Mayo VanOtterloo on building a sustainability framework for managing their global agricul- ture investments, and our Sustainable Economies program is currently working with Hancock Agricultural Investments Group on developing sustainability met- rics for their investments in North America. The investment sector could prove to be one of the most important and most powerful levers of change. We are working with those institutional investors to help them understand their risks and help them identify areas where they can not only outper- form financially, but possibly out- perform traditional investment approaches as a result of their sustainability efforts. That experience in the marketplace accelerated our thinking about our own endowment. No longer satisfied with a tradi- tional ‘return only’ approach to managing our endowment, we began a move toward a values-based strategy that takes into consideration the overall societal impact of our endowment holdings. We now have 25% of our endowment invested in funds that focus on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) profiles of companies in addition to applying rigorous financial analysis. We feel strongly about being part of the larger effort to allocate capital to businesses that treat the environment, their communities, and their employees fairly. Investing in business- es that have demonstrated good governance practices is more likely to be a good long-term financial investment. We expect to increase our commitment to values-based investing to 50% of the endowment by the end of the calendar year and be fully invested in ESG and socially-responsible holdings by the end of 2017. Making investments that match our values is more complicated than you might think. We want to get it right. We know taking action toward sustainability is hard. Just as we advise others to do, we evaluate our business practices and endeavor to make the best choices we can within the limita- tions of our resources. We celebrate the steps we’ve taken and acknowledge there is still much work ahead.We hope our story inspires you, wherever you are on the pathway to sustainability. To find out more about Manomet’s Root360 tool, please visit www.root360.org. “Thisstyleofinvestinghasbeenaround for decades, but it is quickly becoming more of a norm. The notion that values alignment and returns maximization are mutually exclusive is inaccurate and outdated. For an organization like Manomet, the decision to move to an investment strategy that includes environmental considerations in the process is not just logical, but sensible.” —W. Andrew Mims, Manomet Trustee and Investment Committee member Manomet Partnerships for Sustainability • Fall / Winter 2016-17 | 13